(np) Hitch-22

[Joe Allonby]

Enjoyed it for the most part, though he seems a bit full of himself.
Hard to get past his cheerleading for the invasion of Iraq. Saddam was
a bad guy. There are bad guys and homicidal maniacs in power all over
the world. We can't take 'em all out. Saddam was A-OK with the US
until he overstepped his bounds. There are African dictators just as
bad. The Saudis human rights record is atrocious. The North Koreans
are horrible to their own people and menace their neighbors. The
People's Republic jails Nobel laureates and machine-guns their own
people in the streets. The United States has never invaded a nation
with nuclear weapons. No wonder Iran wants one.



On Fri, Jan 21, 2011 at 5:33 PM, Michael Bailey
<michael.lee.bailey at gmail.com> wrote:
> really quite enjoyable and some very good argumentation.
>
> a) he opens with himself as a little kid on a ship at Malta
> b) well, before that he talks about seeing a reference to himself as
> dearly departed in print...
> c) his crowd preferred sex to drugs, and he sez "I still think that
> was the right choice" (or words to that effect)
> d) lifelong friendship with Martin Amis
> e) and some poet named James Fenton who sounds like a sterling
> character worth investigating
> f) apparently undergoing cancer treatments at present
> g) not impressed with Hans Blix's investigative legwork; some other
> Swede he thought would've done better was vetoed by Russia and France
> h) witnessed first-hand what Saddam did to the Kurds and the gratitude
> of the Marsh Arabs when US reflooded the area
>
> nothing to shake my pacifism; much to bolster my respect for other
> points of view
> nothing to shake my religion; much to add to my regard for principled atheism
>
> many, many references to literary works I'd like to follow up...
>