A War to Be Proud Of - [Christopher Hitchens at his best]

The Weekly Standard ^ | September 5, 2005 issue | Christopher Hitchens

[meema]

No one puts it better than Hitch! Good catch, snarks.

[Fred Nerks]

Brilliant Hitchens, thanks for posting snarks. Don't miss this guys and girls.

[cake_crumb]

"Without the lessons & intelligence gleaned from Afghanistan and Iraq"

That's another thing: there are tens of thousands of Ba'ath Party documents stored in Kuwait, with only half a dozen people to go through and interpret them. You'd think there would be a higher priority on those. A LOT higher.

[1rudeboy]

bttt
great with coffee

[Alia]

Childishness is one thing--those of us who grew up on this wonderful Edwardian author were always happy to see the grown-ups and governesses discomfited. But puerility in adults is quite another thing, and considerably less charming. "You said there were WMDs in Iraq and that Saddam had friends in al Qaeda. . . . Blah, blah, pants on fire." I have had many opportunities to tire of this mantra. It takes ten seconds to intone the said mantra. It would take me, on my most eloquent C-SPAN day, at the very least five minutes to say that Abdul Rahman Yasin, who mixed the chemicals for the World Trade Center attack in 1993, subsequently sought and found refuge in Baghdad; that Dr. Mahdi Obeidi, Saddam's senior physicist, was able to lead American soldiers to nuclear centrifuge parts and a blueprint for a complete centrifuge (the crown jewel of nuclear physics) buried on the orders of Qusay Hussein; that Saddam's agents were in Damascus as late as February 2003, negotiating to purchase missiles off the shelf from North Korea; or that Rolf Ekeus, the great Swedish socialist who founded the inspection process in Iraq after 1991, has told me for the record that he was offered a $2 million bribe in a face-to-face meeting with Tariq Aziz. And these eye-catching examples would by no means exhaust my repertoire, or empty my quiver. Yes, it must be admitted that Bush and Blair made a hash of a good case, largely because they preferred to scare people rather than enlighten them or reason with them. Still, the only real strategy of deception has come from those who believe, or pretend, that Saddam Hussein was no problem.

Bang! BTTT.

[BunnySlippers]

The only speech by any statesman that can bear reprinting from that low, dishonest decade came from Tony Blair when he spoke in Chicago in 1999.

In fact, Blair made the most moving impassioned speech after the bombing of the World Trade Center for which I will always remember.

[atomicpossum]

Is this the same Hitchens that only a few years ago seemed to be writing unfocussed screeds while under the influence? Has he straightened himself up, or is he just on the money when it comes to the WOT? Either way, sharp article. No artcles from the anti-war crowd can match this and others for intellectual weight.

[federal]

bookmark

[Lando Lincoln]

bump for great stuff

Lando

[litehaus]

"This administration sometimes seems to take the 'never complain, never explain' adage a bit too far."

And also, even tho evidence sometimes abounds, fail to PROSECUTE!

[FederalistPhred]

By the way, COUNTERCOLUMN: All Your Bias Are Belong To Us has posted a great rebuttal to the "no terrorists before invasion" line. You'll have to scroll about halfway down the page.

www.iraqnow.blogspot.com

[Jim_Curtis]

Slobodan Milosevic was attempting to erase the identity and the existence of Bosnia.

If by "attempting to erase the identity" he means "engage the marauding beheaders who were invading from Bin Laden's terrorist training camps"...he does have a point.

I can think of a few identified characteristics of the US that I'd like to see erased, for the better. Several European countries are erasing identified characteristics now with deportations...an "ethnic cleansing" of sorts.

[Patriot from Philly]

You are right. When you compare the Union Army's first battles compared to how they fought at Gettysburg, Overland, there is no comparison.

Likewise, how the US soldier fought in their first engagments in Africa and how they fought in Normandy, Bulge.

The US military now has experience fighting a special ops war, a conventional war and an insurgency. If the US military can get its information war in gear this would help.

[sirchtruth]

A good question. This administration sometimes seems to take the 'never complain, never explain' adage a bit too far.

So they take it too far, and yet win MORE elections? Doesn't Bush always make you think he knows something the rest of us don't? Those on the left, in their infatile stupidity, call Bush a liar because WMD didn't show up in "Stockpiles." (The Left's whole argument) The Left thinks the rest of the country cares about this when every other nation said the same thing about WMD Bush said! All Bush does is keep his mouth shut and lets the LEFT hang themselves with their idiocy because he understands that this country understands what and who we're fighting. Wholey Moley the dems and the left are part of the culture enemy to this country by striking at every institution we hold dear!

Bush doesn't have to explain Jack to the left! They can all go pound sand.

[Uncle Vlad]

The good news here is that the New York Times and the rest of the dinosaur media loses more credibility with more people on an almost daily basis. The more shrill the dinosaur media becomes, the faster people depart from them and get their news and information somewhere else. The water, after all, runs fastest when it gets the closest to the drain.

[n230099]

"Was the Clinton administration...wise in its opposition to the U.N. resolution that called for a preemptive strengthening of the U.N. forces in Rwanda?" Makes you think about what an Ambassador like Bolton would have said in those days.

[Rocko]

Bump.

[snarks_when_bored]

Yes, I've revised my view of our late Kosovo adventure, viewing it now as a mis-adventure. We bailed out a bunch of muslims, some of whom are even now giving refuge and succour to our al qaeda enemies.

Hitchens is not a man with whom I agree about everything (for example, he's still somewhat inconsistently holding on to his late 1960's view that we shouldn't have resisted the advance of Communism in Southeast Asia, but we should resist the advance of radical islam now), but, on balance, I find him persuasive on matters relating to the WOT.

[wingman1]

"I'm REALLY proud my Country stands next to you in Iraq."

We are proud of our alliance also.

The road ahead will be full of obstacles, but we will win. We have no other choice.

[G.Mason]

Good article.

No doubt Nicholas [reads Democrat Party] should be made to eat the bread and milk, along with the slimy critter they placed in it.

One can only pray the frog is of the poisonous specie and that "Nicholas" will perish.

Build their gallows high