See Ron Reagan Squirm
One often wonders why Ron Reagan is on television. When he started popping up on MSNBC during the election, I was puzzled. Where did he come from? What are his qualifications? He basically repeats whatever the liberal view of an issue is. He has no personal insight. Why give him a show? Well a few reasons: his name, the fact that he disagrees with his late father on everything, he has no problem being obnoxious.
Well he stepped into it the other day. A little advice... never bring Christopher Hitchens onto your show unless you know what you are talking about. He will run circles around you and make you look like a child. I talk about Hitchens a lot, which one may find odd since I disagree with him on many issues. Even when I think he's wrong, he's still fun to watch. So watch.
Reading the comments in the blog I linked to makes me want to highlight something. There are a lot of people who don't understand the point that Hitchens is making about Iraq and terrorism. It isn't that Iraq and Al Qaeda were some tag team that were best buds. It is that the Middle East and elements of Islam have been in a state of civil war for some time now. There are huge groups of people like the millions of Iraqis who voted, the millions in Lebanon, the Palestinians who rejected Arafat's old guard in their elections, the students in Iran, who want something new. They are sick of the dictatorships and the theorcracies. There are dictators like Saddam in Iraq and Assad in Syria who do not want that. There are groups like Al Qaeda that also fight that, but they do so in desire for a return of the caliphate.
A lot of people keep saying that these are two different things and no statist like Saddam would side with religious fundamentalist terrorists. Differences in philosophy do not prevent cooperation, especially limited cooperation. Imperialist Japan sided with fascist Italy, and capitalist America sided with communist Soviet Union during a time of war. Hitchens points out that Iraq had no problem with harboring terrorists. Abu Nidal lived there in style, as did the bombmaker from the first WTC attack as well as others. If we are truly waging a war against terrorism, don't these people count too? I guess that is a matter of opinion, an opinion that is often skewed by an overriding hatred for the president.
Well he stepped into it the other day. A little advice... never bring Christopher Hitchens onto your show unless you know what you are talking about. He will run circles around you and make you look like a child. I talk about Hitchens a lot, which one may find odd since I disagree with him on many issues. Even when I think he's wrong, he's still fun to watch. So watch.
Reading the comments in the blog I linked to makes me want to highlight something. There are a lot of people who don't understand the point that Hitchens is making about Iraq and terrorism. It isn't that Iraq and Al Qaeda were some tag team that were best buds. It is that the Middle East and elements of Islam have been in a state of civil war for some time now. There are huge groups of people like the millions of Iraqis who voted, the millions in Lebanon, the Palestinians who rejected Arafat's old guard in their elections, the students in Iran, who want something new. They are sick of the dictatorships and the theorcracies. There are dictators like Saddam in Iraq and Assad in Syria who do not want that. There are groups like Al Qaeda that also fight that, but they do so in desire for a return of the caliphate.
A lot of people keep saying that these are two different things and no statist like Saddam would side with religious fundamentalist terrorists. Differences in philosophy do not prevent cooperation, especially limited cooperation. Imperialist Japan sided with fascist Italy, and capitalist America sided with communist Soviet Union during a time of war. Hitchens points out that Iraq had no problem with harboring terrorists. Abu Nidal lived there in style, as did the bombmaker from the first WTC attack as well as others. If we are truly waging a war against terrorism, don't these people count too? I guess that is a matter of opinion, an opinion that is often skewed by an overriding hatred for the president.
