Christopher Hitchens reviews Mark Steyn's book.

City Journal ^ | Winter 2007 | Christopher Hitchens

[AnotherUnixGeek]

Hitchens' review is generally favorable, and he ends his review with some good ideas of his own.

[lesser_satan]

bump

[Patrick1]

I think his eight ideas at the end are certainly worth considering. I would take them and add them to an unconditional surrender view of warfare against the Islamists and we would at last have a policy.

[Para-Ord.45]

Population bombs:

" In the thirty years before the meltdown, Bosnian Serbs had declined from 43 percent to 31 percent of the population, while Bosnian Muslims had increased from 26 percent to 44 percent. In a democratic age, you can’t buck demography—except through civil war. The Serbs figured that out—as other Continentals will in the years ahead: if you can’t outbreed the enemy, cull ’em."

[kinghorse]

If steps were taken to reciprocate negatively for anti-freedom acts in other countries we would be engaging in the moral equivalent of putting a tariff on ideas. It's the Smoot Hawley fast track to a depression of cultural exchange. It would end in a hairy world war.

[sphinx]

we should insist on reciprocity at all times

This is the opening wedge. It's a neutral principle, easily defended.

[Emmett McCarthy]

It's going to end in a hairy world war either way so it makes more sense to me not to simply surrender beforehand.

[Maven]

I had the great honor of meeting and briefly chatting with Mr. Hitchens at The Amazing Meeting 5 in Las Vegas this weekend.

At the last event - the panel Q&A - the editor of The Onion spewed out some ignorant statements about how the world hates America and we should be so diverse and accepting, I turned to my companion and said, "Watch Hitchens take this guy apart," which is exactly what happened.

It was a wondrous thing to see and hear.

BTW, when I mentioned Free Republic to Mr. Hitchens, he said that we were "good people."

Maven

[Patrick1]

Disagree because it is clear that Islamo Fascism is a bad idea, as communism before it you don't appease it you destroy it.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

If steps were taken to reciprocate negatively for anti-freedom acts in other countries we would be engaging in the moral equivalent of putting a tariff on ideas.

Well, he's talking about establishment of Wahabi institutions within the US by foreign governments, and I think that it's appropriate to insist on reciprocity in these cases - if the Saudi government wants to sponsor Islamic schools or religious institutions in the US, they have to permit religious and secular organizations approved by the US government to establish in Saudi. There'd be no embargo on ideas, just on foreign governments backing their dissemination.

[kinghorse]

Yeah but if you outlaw it, in effect you martyr it. It becomes like an illegal drug, attractive for it's mystery. I think it gains traction if you outlaw it.

[Patrick1]

Hitchens has a tough job trying to get the left into this fight. So busy they are in trying to turn Islamo Fascism into another "right".

[Patrick1]

I wouldn't outlaw it. Anymore than I would outlaw communism. I would prefer to destroy it as we have other murderous ideologies in the past.

[kinghorse]

Isn't this how Christianity got traction? :) It says "I am scared of you" when you outlaw something like this. Better to constantly pound away at the bigoted double standard being practiced by muslim dominated societies. Better to expose it for it's impracticality and for being out of touch with modernity.

[Patrick1]

You don't outlaw cockroaches you kill them.

[kinghorse]

we agree. Destroy? Contain.

[Hetty_Fauxvert]

BTW, when I mentioned Free Republic to Mr. Hitchens, he said that we were "good people."

How cool that you got to meet him! I love it when I finally get to meet someone whose work I've admired, and they turn out to be great in real life as well. Glad to hear Hitchens gave the Onion guy the dressing-down he deserved.

[G Larry]

BUMP!

[Patrick1]

Containment is not destroying. You can't contain something forever, it is too costly to contain it. If it is a threat to your life you kill it.

[WashingtonSource]

Thanks God someone on the left "gets it."