There is a lot of speculation surrounding the identity of the New Republic‘s mysterious, pseudonymous “Scott Thomas”, aka the Baghdad Diarist. A semiotics-based analysis by John Barnes has poured fuel on the fire with the conclusion that “Thomas” fits the profile of a creative writing program graduate. Blackfive’s Laughing Wolf weighs in on that theory with some thoughts of his own. Over at Mudville Gazette, Greyhawk comes to a different conclusion. The “exhumation of a graveyard,” he says, “leads me to believe Thomas is indeed a soldier.” And writing at NRO, Mackubin Owens seems to agree,
Dean Barnett remains agnostic on “Thomas”‘s claim to be a soldier serving in Baghdad,
But, for Barnett, answering that question seems to be secondary to understanding why the piece was run in the first place:
Both Ace of Spades and Hot Air, taking Greyhawk’s lead, fear that the New Republic will, as Allahpundit says, try and “shift this debate from whether Thomas’s stories are true to whether Thomas is a solder at all.” Over at Confederate Yankee, Bob Owens provides an excellent wrap-up of where the “Scott Thomas” story now stands, and he also addresses the numerous questions surrounding “Thomas”‘s two earlier columns for the New Republic, most notably the author’s account of changing a flat tire in a river of sewage, and his description of 9mm ammunition “with a square back.” We have had firearms experts confirm that the firing pin of a Glock does leave a square mark on the back of shell casings–it’s possible that this was just a lost-in-translation moment for “Thomas”. Still, “Thomas”‘s claim that “the only people who use Glocks are the Iraqi police,” is, according to Bob Owens, “so astoundingly incorrect as to be laughable.” Elsewhere, Powerline’s Scott Johnson is bothered by the inconsistencies in the statements coming from the New Republic:
