The Inside Assyria Discussion Forum #5

=> the mystery of Hitchens....

the mystery of Hitchens....

Posted by pancho (Moderator) - Thursday, May 7 2015, 3:01:19 (UTC)
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...the man puzzles me. I so admire his intellect and subtlety and verbal skill and knowledge and on and on and on...but, I don't know how to reconcile his views towards Islam and the "righteousness" of US policy, with his vast superiority as a human thinker. Then there's Galloway who is an equal puzzle on the other side, for all his wisdom and insight into foreign policy the man is a devout Catholic! Does everyone have an idiot within?

To realize that Hitchens weakened himself when he became a fan of George Bush and neo-con policy you have only to compare his debating skills since his conversion...for it was very near to a late-life religious conversion wherein the new convert becomes super-sincere and dedicated, but, sadly, looks a little foolish for all his new-won "faith"...in Hitchens's case a faith in American government and policy to do the right thing...also based on very poor evidence, as he faults religious believers for believing on such bad evidence, or none at all.

My favorite example of this comes from a short clip from Bill Maher's show where both Hitchens and Galloway are present....to make the point that Islam has ALWAYS been set on destroying the US, and to deal with the nagging question of "how come now", when Islam has been around for over 1000 years, Hitchens gives as "evidence" that fact that the first military action the fledgling US had after winning independence was against Algerian, Muslim, pirates....who, around the 1780s were seizing vessels in their waters off the coast of Africa and enslaving the sailors, Americans among them.

This is his "evidence" that Islam has ALWAYS wanted to hurt the US. What I couldn't understand is why Galloway didn't pounce on him for this ridiculous "evidence".

If he had, or if it was me, I would have asked Hitchens what those American ships were doing off the west coast of Africa? Then I would have asked him if he had heard of the American slave trade and the millions of Africans stolen into horrible slavery...and for how many hundreds of years? Then I would have reminded him that we were talking about PIRATES after all, and what did he expect from pirates. They did what they did because they were PIRATES...not because they were Muslims...so, what was Christian America's excuse for sailing to those waters to steal and enslave millions of men, women and children? Did we do it because we are Christian....or because we wanted slaves?

You can easily tell Hitchens made a big mistake when he turned neo-con...the evidence is right there in his debates, in his sweat, in his furtive eyes, in his shock that he is no longer adored by anyone civilized or the least well-read but by George Bush....in front of all his admirers he made a lasting fool of his final years...I almost want to cry.

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