Christopher Hitchens: A War To Be Proud Of

[Taxloss]

This is particularly nauseating.

http://www.weeklystandard.com/Utilities/printer_preview.asp?idArticle=5995&R=C68B2A43B

Excerpt:

LET ME BEGIN WITH A simple sentence that, even as I write it, appears less than Swiftian in the modesty of its proposal: "Prison conditions at Abu Ghraib have improved markedly and dramatically since the arrival of Coalition troops in Baghdad."

I could undertake to defend that statement against any member of Human Rights Watch or Amnesty International, and I know in advance that none of them could challenge it, let alone negate it. Before March 2003, Abu Ghraib was an abattoir, a torture chamber, and a concentration camp. Now, and not without reason, it is an international byword for Yankee imperialism and sadism. Yet the improvement is still, unarguably, the difference between night and day. How is it possible that the advocates of a post-Saddam Iraq have been placed on the defensive in this manner? And where should one begin?

Excerpt (from a list of benefits wrought by the Iraq War, my emphasis added):

(9) The violent and ignominious death of thousands of bin Ladenist infiltrators into Iraq and Afghanistan, and the real prospect of greatly enlarging this number.

(10) The training and hardening of many thousands of American servicemen and women in a battle against the forces of nihilism and absolutism, which training and hardening will surely be of great use in future combat.

End excerpts.

----

"Training and hardening"? That's simply outright creepy. This man is unhinged, he's utterly lost all sense of reality and humanity. It's simply sick.

[bluestateguy]

1. Christopher Hitchens has no standing to talk about the military

and as a foreigner he should not be in any position of opinion leadership.

So I will ask him nicely this time to shut his trap.

[Taxloss]

4. While I can't stand Hitchens and agree that statements of his sort about

the military are baseless and vile, why shouldn't foreigners be permitted to opine in this way?

[bluestateguy]

6. I'm what you might call a nativist left-winger

I have a serious problem with the likes of AEI/PNAC types from foreign countries being in such a position of either policymaking or opinion leadership. Such persons would be along the lines of David Frum (Canada), Danielle Pletka (Australia) and Christopher Hitchens (UK). Nor do I think that US foreign policy should be influenced by the Israeli Likud Party, even though I am pro-Israel to the extent that I believe in the existence of the state of Israel. I also have a problem with the Cuban American National Foundation exerting so much influence over US policy toward Cuba, and within the Republican Party, especially in Florida. The Cuban embargo is a relic from the Cold War that needs to end, though I still regard Castro as a tyrant. I also favor eviction of the United Nations from New York and moving it to Switzerland. The only reason it's there is to allow American agents easier access to spy on foreign diplomats. And these damn diplomats never pay their parking tickets.

[Taxloss]

7. Your position is valid, but I must say I disagree.

I'm British - in this country we have Sidney Blumenthal writing for The Guardian, and I love his columns, and Mark Steyn writing in other papers, and I see no problem with him doing so even though he's an odious little turd. (Barbara Amiel, another Canadian, used to write for the Telegraph, but no longer since Conrad Black fell to bits :D)

And this is not to mention the UK audience for Michael Moore and the eagerness with which we await the Daily Show.

So I understand your point about powerful foreign lobbies exerting undue influence over foreign policy, and concur with you there, but I feel that does not apply to opinion writers. For one thing there'd be no shortage of domestic mouthpieces to spew that kind of crap. And I appreciate getting opinion from other countries.

[SweetLeftFoot]

23. Blumenthal

is one of the main reasons to read The Graniuad. Polly Toynbee and gary Younge great too.

[Bob3]

2. So the real benefit of the war is turing American Soldiers

into inhuman killing machines that will be of use in the next war? Jesus H. Christ he sounds like fucking Heinrich Himmler urging the waffen ss to be hard - And what next war? Fight with what? The army is stretched to the limit as it is.

And if anyone could be truly called the forces of nihilism and absolutism it is our dear neo-con leaders.

[Taxloss]

3. Chilling, isn't it?

I wonder if he would support Western suicide bombers attacking Iran. He doesn't seem to have a very high opinion of human life.

[Barrett808]

15. Unbelievable -- what has Hitchens become?

Clinton unhinged him, and 9/11 sent him completely around the bend.

[sniffa]

5. we gotta numb the troops

so they won't have too much troubLe rounding us up for the 'democracy camps'.

[Inland]

8. "Training and hardening" is what the insurgents get.

I don't know what skills are being drilled for our troops, unless going house to house or dodging IEDs is a useful skill in the war on terror.

Fact is, we are just weeding out the dumbest and training the smart and the lucky.

[Skittles]

9. he has never heard of PTSD?

he's got to be hitting the sauce again

[Parrcrow]

10. It looks like Hitchens favours torturing logic too.

I'm astonished that this asshole hasn't drank himself to death, yet!

[CTyankee]

11. The man is a total alcoholic and probably experiences the d.t.s

Let's hope he gets help and turns his life around.

[Spoonerian]

12. Coming home soon to a 'sobriety' checkpoint near you.

"(10) The training and hardening of many thousands of American servicemen and women in a battle against the forces of nihilism and absolutism, which training and hardening will surely be of great use in future combat."

I wonder if Hitchen has the slightest clue that a permanent military is prohibited by our state and federal bills of rights?

In a letter to Francis Hopkinson (March 13, 1789), Thomas Jefferson wrote that:

a (federal) bill of rights (must) secure freedom in religion, freedom of the press, (and) freedom from a permanent military...

Virginia Declaration of Rights (1776):

standing armies...should be avoided as dangerous to liberty.

Both the federal and state bills of rights are distrustful of armed government soldiers and only allow for militias of the people for security and defence. (Article I Section 10 of the federal constitution allows for temporary federal armies only in grave emergencies; and this was penciled in as what we now know was an ill-advised compromise). But, I suppose these quaint ideas are a little too old-fashioned for "conservatives" like Hitchens.

I say, DON'T bring the troops home! At least not until they can show some evidence of having been de-programmed and they promise NOT to return to their illegal states-side jobs as prison guards, local cops, state highway(men) patrol, etc.

[Taxloss]

13. Thoreau thought much the same way.

He was against a standing army and a standing government.

[shrike]

14. Chris Hitchens, aka John Stewart's bitch

Ah, that smack down on the Daily Show did my heart good. Hitchens is a loathsome, loathsome character.

My hubby had never heard of him. As we watched the show that night, he looked at me and said, "Who the f*ck is this guy?"

[gizmo1979]

32. he is the most pompous

ass I have ever seen or heard.He definitely thinks he has all the answers to lifes questions,yet instead of heading a world changing magazine he heads vanity fair.I'm sure there is irony in there somewhere I just don't know where.

[Barrett808]

16. "quasi-criminal network within its elite" -- he speaks of the UN...

...not the Bush mob.

[paineinthearse]

17. Nominated

:puke: "Prison conditions at Abu Ghraib have improved markedly and dramatically since the arrival of Coalition troops in Baghdad."

I can't wait for the Galloway/Hitchens debate in NYC. See http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=post&forum=132&topic_id=2043172&mesg_id=2043272

[K-W]

18. Pure propaganda and on some level he knows it.

Funny that he should scapegoat the phantom of nihilism whilst resorting to such blatent sophistry.

[Barrett808]

19. "We're somewhat less evil than Saddam"

Does he really want to make that point?

[SlavesandBulldozers]

29. that was my question when i read it

yay! we are better than Saddam! hooray for us! we have such high standards!

[Barrett808]

20. So how do we get him to debate HRW and AI?

He's going to debate Galloway. I'd expect AI and HRW would jump at the opportunity to debate Hitchens.

[Jack Rabbit]

21. Ridiculous

Let me begin with A simple sentence that, even as I write it, appears less than Swiftian in the modesty of its proposal: "Prison conditions at Abu Ghraib have improved markedly and dramatically since the arrival of Coalition troops in Baghdad."

I could undertake to defend that statement against any member of Human Rights Watch or Amnesty International, and I know in advance that none of them could challenge it, let alone negate it. Before March 2003, Abu Ghraib was an abattoir, a torture chamber, and a concentration camp. Now, and not without reason, it is an international byword for Yankee imperialism and sadism. Yet the improvement is still, unarguably, the difference between night and day. How is it possible that the advocates of a post-Saddam Iraq have been placed on the defensive in this manner? And where should one begin?

So, Hitchens is saying that our ambition is to show we're better than Saddam? That's one high bar he's set.

Did he write this in a high bar?

[muriel_volestrangler]

22. The first use of justification number ten

Lt. Gen. Steven Blum of the National Guard said 7,000 National Guardsmen arriving in Louisiana on Friday would be dedicated to restoring order in New Orleans. He said half of them had just returned from assignments overseas and are "highly proficient in the use of lethal force." He pledged to "put down" the violence "in a quick and efficient manner."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/hurricane_katrina

You see, Iraq isn't just a training ground for al Qaeda, it's also a training ground for American 'riot control'. New Orleans, now twinned with Falluja.

[Martin Eden]

24. Hitchens is Right

"It turned out that we had not by any means escaped the reach of atavistic, aggressive, expansionist, and totalitarian ideology."
The government he defends is a prime practioner.

[katty]

25. Hitch-the Monarch ass kissing, white warmonger drunk

[reprehensor]

26. Galloway is going to cream him. - 9/14

Galloway v. Hitchens

F*ing CREAM him.

[DrunkenMaster]

27. Oh, yeah

It's not going to be funny really -- Hitch is a drunken mess these days, barely able to walk most of the time. Galloway has already embarrassed him once in public (did you read about that? it was awesome) and that Scotsman is one badass leftie....I can't wait.

[truthout]

28. Lefty is an understatement... he's an outright Communist

In an interview with the Guardian <6>, Galloway outlined his political views in relation to the Soviet Union:

"I am on the anti-imperialist left." The Stalinist left? "I wouldn't define it that way because of the pejoratives loaded around it; that would be making a rod for your own back. If you are asking did I support the Soviet Union, yes I did. Yes, I did support the Soviet Union, and I think the disappearance of the Soviet Union is the biggest catastrophe of my life. If there was a Soviet Union today, we would not be having this conversation about plunging into a new war in the Middle East, and the US would not be rampaging around the globe." <6>

[Briar]

30. Bravo for George

He's right (in a correct sense). It's about time the left stopped cringing and snivelling everytime someone flashes the word "communist" at them. Communism is not satanism, and has far more to offer ordinary people like the poor of NO than the free enterprise capitalism that degrades and then abandons them.

[norml]

31. "You're a drink-sodden former Trotskyist popinjay"

Web Results 1 - 10 of about 4,260 for hitchens popinjay. (0.10 seconds)
Tip: Save time by hitting the return key instead of clicking on "search"

Guardian Unlimited | The Guardian | Galloway and the mother of all ...
"You're a drink-soaked former Trotskyist popinjay," Mr Galloway in formed him.
... You badly need another drink," he added later, ignoring Mr Hitchens's ...
www.guardian.co.uk/uk_news/story/0,3604,1486417,00.html - 41k - Sep 3, 2005 - Cached - Similar pages

Guardian Unlimited | Special reports | Popinjay jibe triggers US ...
'drink-sodden former Trotskyist popinjay' jibe. That will take some beating, but
I am confident ... Supporters of Hitchens are hoping their man can prevail. ...
www.guardian.co.uk/usa/story/0,12271,1558610,00.html - 38k - Sep 3, 2005 - Cached - Similar pages

Unmitigated Galloway
by Christopher Hitchens 05/30/2005, Volume 010, Issue 35 ... tone and said that
this was just what he'd expect from a "drink-sodden ex-Trotskyist popinjay. ...
www.weeklystandard.com/Content/ Public/Articles/000/000/005/641kyjkk.asp - 24k - Sep 3, 2005 - Cached - Similar pages

Christopher Hitchens - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Galloway called Hitchens a "drink-sodden former Trotskyist popinjay". "Some of
which," Hitchens subsequently wrote in a newspaper column, "was unfair. ...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Hitchens - 44k - Cached - Similar pages

The Liberal Avenger: Galloway on Christopher Hitchens
'You're a drink-soaked former Trotskyist popinjay,' Mr Galloway informed him.
... Eventually Mr Hitchens gave up. 'You're a real thug, aren't you? ...
liberalavenger.com/2005/05/ galloway-on-christopher-hitchens.html - 29k - Cached - Similar pages

In Defense of Cindy Sheehan- by Justin Raimondo
What Hitchens and his fellow neocons hate is that Sheehan, no intellectual but
... That this drink-soaked Trotskyite popinjay, as George Galloway incisively ...
www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=6975 - 47k - Cached - Similar pages

In Defense of Cindy Sheehan- by Justin Raimondo
Leave it to Horowitz's buddy Christopher Hitchens, however, to synthesize all
... That this drink-soaked Trotskyite popinjay, as George Galloway incisively ...
www.antiwar.com/justin/?articleid=6975/t_blank - 47k - Cached - Similar pages

Democratic Underground - Jon Stewart vs. Hitchens... what happened ...
Web Results 1 - 10 of about 880 for popinjay hitchens. (0.18 seconds) ...
The drink-soaked popinjay Hitchens is, like Kim Philby, surrendering his ... ...
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Galloway v Hitchens, 14th September
... popinjay" that is how GG described Hitchens when he met him right before ...
The word 'Popinjay' was described by Ernest Hemingway in the following ...
www.iraqwar.mirror-world.ru/article/61611 - 35k - Cached - Similar pages

Orbis Quintus » Blog Archive » The Popinjay Responds
The Popinjay Responds. Hitchens’ new article in the Weekly Standard (? ...
Galloway’s now-famous slur on Hitchens (”drink-sodden ex-Trotskyist popinjay”) ...
orbis-quintus.net/blog/?p=1422 - 21k - Cached - Similar pages


snip


http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=hitchens+popinjay&btnG=Google+Search

[Montauk6]

33. Now, see HERE, Norml, are you IMPLYING that this man is a lush????

I'm so shocked, I find that truly hard to believe! :sarcasm: