Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Christopher Hitchens - Brilliant on Iraq
Christopher Hitchens is someone I started following during my brief time I became a liberal. An avowed atheist who detest all things religious, he is none the less a committed man of human rights, a defender of the oppressed and a dog-gone good writer.
For the 4th Anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq war he has written a brilliant piece in Slate answering why he still supports the Iraq war, not despite everything we know now, but because of everything we knew then and still know now. I wish I was half the writer he was, because he says all the things I have been telling people when asked why I still favour the Iraq war.
You know, the easiest thing for America to do after we removed Sadaam and after we discovered no WMDs (although good evidence of the procedures to re-start them after the sanctions were lifted) was to leave. We’d done our part. To Bush’s credit and our nation’s credit, we are trying to give the folks in Iraq what few in the world have today (see Zimbabwe and Venezuela for examples of former quasi-democracies that have become the tools of strongmen) - a real government of the people. Iraq has definitely been harder than what any of us expected. But we are doing good work there, and if the average American understood how well things are going in parts over there, and how valient many average Iraq’s are alongside our great troops (see Michael Yon’s writing at his site), the polls would favour the war greatly. But President Bush simply has not been good at telling people what is the real scoop. Sure wish he was FDR or Reagen on this point. Anyways, please read Mr. Christopher Hitchen’s article at:
