As to the “Left” I’ll say briefly why [September 11, 2001] was the finish for me. Here is American society, attacked under open skies in broad daylight by the most reactionary and vicious force in the contemporary world, a force which treats Afghans and Algerians and Egyptians far worse than it has yet been able to treat us. The vaunted CIA and FBI are asleep, at best. The working-class heroes move, without orders and at risk to their lives, to fill the moral and political vacuum. The moral idiots, meanwhile, like Falwell and Robertson and Rabbi Lapin, announce that this clerical aggression is a punishment for our secularism. And the governments of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, hitherto considered allies on our “national security” calculus, prove to be the most friendly to the Taliban and Al Qaeda.Here was a time for the Left to demand a top-to-bottom house-cleaning of the state and of our covert alliances, a full inquiry into the origins of the defeat, and a resolute declaration in favor of a fight to the end for secular and humanist values: a fight which would make friends of the democratic and secular forces in the Muslim world. And instead, the near-majority of “Left” intellectuals started sounding like Falwell, and bleating that the main problem was Bush’s legitimacy. So I don’t even muster a hollow laugh when this pathetic faction says that I, and not they, are in bed with the forces of reaction.
— Christopher Hitchens, interviewed in FrontPage Magazine.
(Link via NZ Pundit).
Ouch. I’d say that proves the adage that injustice doesn’t hurt, what really stings is justice.
Hitch might not be a full-fledged member of the libertarian movement (yet), but reading passages like this make me glad he’s not on the other side anymore. He can dissect you with a scalpal or chop you in half with a sabre at will.
Hitch has indeed a talent with words, and has seen some light after 9/11, still he is a confused and idiotarian Marxist most of the time, and he says so.
(For example of his confusion: his mentioning of humanism and Marxism as related concepts).
No need to exagerate celebrating him.
There are many wise people who never were Marxists, let’s celebrate them instead.
Reminds me of the joke: two guys meet. A says to B: “you are mad”. B replies: “You may be mad, I’m not, here is my note of release from an asylium, it certifies I’m completely cured and not mad. Do you have a similar document to prove your sanity ?”
There are plenty of areas where what I believe is a long way from what Hitchens believes, but in this war he sees the enemy for what it is better than anyone, and he did so well before September 11. And he has the honesty to decry the appalling intellectual and moral bankruptcy of much of the left for what it is. Given that the Bush-hating and anti-war left cannot even put together a coherent argument, let alone a convincing one, that should perhaps be not such a big deal. But Hitchins does have my respect for the position he has taken on the war.
Jacob – That’s no joke, that was an actual political campaign (Huey Long, I believe).