I am just reading Christopher
Hitchens's collection of essays and articles called 'ARGUABLY'. Although it's now rather dated, it does contain a wealth
of good material.
Hitch was an excellent writer, polemicist and wit and was a great debater. I didn't share his support for the wars in Afghanistan or Iraq or his atheism. Hitch also thought that the Taliban wouldn't get back in power in Afghanistan. They're now back in power. In Vanity Fair in 2004 he wrote:
"I will venture a prediction: The Taliban/al-Qaeda riffraff, as we know them, will never come back to power. Vicious though their tactics are, they don't show any sign of having a plan, or a coordinated leadership, or a brain. They are now much hated and so heavily outgunned. We can still get a failed state or rogue state in Afghanistan if we really work at it."
Did any invading foreign force ever get anywhere in Afghanistan? Ask the Russians. The war in Iraq might have removed Saddam Hussein from power but it also created a vacuum of power and paved the way for Islamic State. The U.S. and their coalition allies were warned that this could happen. They got "dragged into the sands of Iraq" - this is something that the Orientalist T.E. Lawrence would have recognised.
Politically it is the Iranians who have benefitted from the war in Iraq. Neither war can be described as a success story. In 2005, Hitch also thought the Euro was overrated and wouldn't last. I think he admired George Orwell greatly and possibly modelled himself on him, but I think Orwell was the better writer and thinker of the two.
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1 comment:
I have seen a couple of debates on Youtube involving C in which he does come across as being lateral in his thinking. His views on Afghanistan were inconsistent with history. The facts show us that the British were dispatched from the country in the nineteen century. I see more of Peter as he is regularly interviewed for his opinions on contemporary matters. He is invariably non-compliant with the mainstream narrative, but not without being able to provide a powerful contention for his alternative views.
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