Posted on 07/08/2005 5:15:53 PM PDT by Checkers
On MSNBC's Connected: Coast to Coast, Christopher Hitchens from Vanity Fair was involved in a complete verbal undressing of Ron Reagan. Reagan, like all the other feel first, hate Bush second, think last lefties, is so intent on re-writing history to make the case that the war in Iraq was illegitimate, got boxed around the ears by Hitchens. Here's the exchange:
RR: Christopher, I'm not sure that I buy the idea that these attacks are a sign that we're actually winning the war on terror. I mean, how many more victories like this do we really want to endure?
CH: Well, it depends on how you think it started, sir. I mean, these movements had taken over Afghanistan, had very nearly taken over Algeria, in a extremely bloody war which actually was eventually won by Algerian society. They had sent death squads to try and kill my friend Salman Rushdie, for the offense of writing a novel in England. They had sent death squads to Austria and Germany, the Iranians had, for example, to try and kill Kurdish Muslim leaders there. If you make the mistake that I thought I heard you making just before we came on the air, of attributing rationality or a motive to this, and to say that it's about anything but itself, you make a great mistake, and you end up where you ended up, saying that the cause of terrorism is fighting against it, the root cause, I mean. Now, you even said, extraordinarily to me, that there was no terrorist problem in Iraq before 2003. Do you know nothing about the subject at all? Do you wonder how Mr. Zarqawi got there under the rule of Saddam Hussein? Have you ever heard of Abu Nidal?
RR: Well, I'm following the lead of the 9/11 Commission, which...
CH: Have you ever heard of Abu Nidal, the most wanted man in the world, who was sheltered in Baghdad? The man who pushed Leon Klinghoffer off the boat, was sheltered by Saddam Hussein. The man who blew up the World Trade Center in 1993 was sheltered by Saddam Hussein, and you have the nerve to say that terrorism is caused by resisting it? And by deposing governments that endorse it?
RR: No, actually, I didn't say that, Christopher.
CH: At this stage, after what happened in London yesterday?
RR: What I did say, though, was that Iraq was not a center of terrorism before we went in there, but it might be now.
CH: How can you know so little about...
RR: You can make the claim that you just made about any other country in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia.
CH: Absolutely nonsense.
RR: So do you think we ought to invade Saudi Arabia, where most of the hijackers from 9/11 came from, following your logic, Christopher?
CH: Uh, no. Excuse me. The hijackers may have been Saudi and Yemeni, but they were not envoys of the Saudi Arabian government, even when you said the worst...
RR: Zarqawi is not an envoy of Saddam Hussein, either.
CH: Excuse me. When I went to interview Abu Nidal, then the most wanted terrorist in the world, in Baghdad, he was operating out of an Iraqi government office. He was an arm of the Iraqi State, while being the most wanted man in the world. The same is true of the shelter and safe house offered by the Iraqi government, to the murderers of Leon Klinghoffer, and to Mr. Yassin, who mixed the chemicals for the World Trade Center bombing in 1993. How can you know so little about this, and be occupying a chair at the time that you do?
RR: I guess because I listen to the 9/11 Commission, and read their report, and they said that Saddam Hussein was not exporting terror. I suppose that's how, Christopher.
CH: Well, then they were wrong, weren't they?
RR: No, maybe they just needed to listen to you, Christopher.
CH; Well, I'm not sure that they actually did say that. What they did say was they didn't know of any actual operational connection...
RR: That's right. No substantive operational connection.
CH: ...which was the Iraqi Baath Party and...excuse me...and Al Qaeda. A direct operational connection. Now, that's because they don't know. They don't say there isn't one. They say they couldn't find one. But I just gave you the number, I would have thought, rather suggestive examples.
Ron Reagan couldn't see fire if the flames turned his shorts black. Hitchens may be wrong on a lot of issues, but he understand the nature of the people we're fighting, and what is necessary to defeat them. Ron Reagan is a sad political hack, trying to trade on his father's name, and doesn't have a clue in the world about the war we are facing. All he knows is what the DNC tip sheet tells him.
Posted at 3:09PM PST
I heard Hugh play the clip. It was just so special for Ronnie.
OOUUCH!
My mouth fell open. ((((snicker))))
I stand corrected. Thank you. But, uh...guys? Relax. We're all on the same side here.
Perfect demonstration of the old saw; "Like Father, Like Fun".
All I can say is that they had better televise the trial of Saddam Hussain. The ignorance of the leftists is going to get us all killed.
How did the lovely Monica Crowly react to all this?
Just? Skipper never was brilliant.
Ping
Christopher strikes again!
Christopher Hitchens: When I went to interview Abu Nidal, then the most wanted terrorist in the world, in Baghdad, he was operating out of an Iraqi government office. He was an arm of the Iraqi State, while being the most wanted man in the world. The same is true of the shelter and safe house offered by the Iraqi government, to the murderers of Leon Klinghoffer, and to Mr. Yassin, who mixed the chemicals for the World Trade Center bombing in 1993. How can you know so little about this, and be occupying a chair at the time that you do?
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OH -- BTW, in October of 1998, during the Clinton administration, the U.S. Senate passed The Iraq Liberation Act, making it the official policy of the U.S. government to seek regime change in Iraq. The vote was unanimous, including every Democrat in the Senate, even Ted Kennedy.
To me, just the one single fact that Saddam tried to assassinate one of our ex-presidents is reason enough to declare war, effect regime change and depose Saddam.
Find excerpts from The Secret History of the Iraq War by Yossef Bodansky HERE.
More stuff here.
Ronnie should stick to dog shows. And he isn't that good at those.
When you do .. please ping me?
Thanks
thanks for more info on the exchange. I've emailed the producer of the show and asked if MSNBC will make a video available.
Maciulis@MSNBC.com
and I emailed here too. Connected@MSNBC.com
Hitchens really took Reagan to the woodshed in this one. Wish I'd seen it.
More people need to speak up like this.
"The three of them"????? (Notice Monica Crawley and other guest John Fund never entered the debate) Just like a liberal to lose a fight, whine, then lie about your opponent.
LOL. No, I hadn't caught that part but am glad you did. Haha
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