Re: The Admirable Hitchens

On Mar 20, 8:11�am, "Jr@Ease" <do.not.send.s...@xxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Once Upon a Midnight Dreary, While Mike Burke Pondered, Weak and
Weary, Over Many a Quaint and Curious Forgotten Post,  then wrote:
 --------------------------------------------------------------

http://www.slate.com/id/2162157/

Apropos of what we've been discussing.

Mique

A veritable voice in the darkness?

Along with you, of course, Mique. :-)

I'm not so sure about this:

"The Bush administration never claimed that Iraq had any hand in
the events of Sept. 11, 2001."

Cheney, IIRC, used to, at least, imply it, if not baldly link Iraq
with 9/11.  But we could quibble all day if that rises to the level of
a "claim".

I like Hitchens.  Most of the time. I liked this:

http://richarddawkins.net/article,731,Free-Speech,Christopher-Hitchens

But despite how rational and convincing he sounds, if it was as clear
and convincing as he says, then why couldn't we convince the rest of
the world of it, beside Britain, Spain and which other country?
Poland?

John P


You want a list?

First, there's the immediate elephant in the living room. The
UN had imposed sanctions in Iraq for kicking out the inspectors back
during the Clinton administration, and France and Germany (especially,
but there were others) were widely ignoring those sanctions. There
was a ton of money involved, along with the threat of having illegal
dealings exposed.

Second, there's the demographic double whammy. Not only are
most Western European nations aging at a breathtaking rate, but the
only parts of their populations that are growing are Muslim
immigrants. For most human beings, the older people get, the more
likely they are to shy away from risk. The point becomes not securing
a brighter future but not losing what you have in the present, and any
change at all is threatening.

But, on top of that, they've got problems we don't have. During
the two weeks of riots in France I was struck by news reports about
how the burning of cars was "far above the usual" level of around 300
a night--what? They've got great, big, young, largely male and already
angry as hell subclasses who have already demonstrated their
willingness to resort to violence at the slightest provocation.

And third, there's the fundamental disconnect between those of
our countries that developed through the English Enlightenment and
those that developed through the French. Most Western European
countries are still fundamentally aristocratic. They distrust
democracy--after all, the people elected Hitler. You can't trust
them. France, Germany and Italy all have heavily bureaucratic
governments predicated on the assumption that governing is better left
to experts than to people (and the EU as an entity is largely
constructed in the same way).

I'm struck by how much of the criticism of Bush that comes out
of the EU isn't about his policies but about himself--oh, yuck, he's a
hick, he's got no culture, etc, etc, etc. If you live in a world
where your position depends on the assumption that you're better than,
you know, ordinary people (you're an EXPERT, you've got culture and
education), the existence of a highly successful culture where all
that is pretty much distained is scary as hell.

I still think the war was a strategic mistake--I still think we
should have tried to force the UN to do its job, and then, when it
wouldn't, considered pulling out--but the last two semesters my
classes have been full of refugee Iraqi Kurds.

They've got an interesting perspective, and albums full of
photographs of relatives murdered by Saddam Hussein.

Jane Haddam
http://www.janehaddam.com

.

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