UPDATE In response to the outraged, my position is simple. The Iraq War killed hundreds of thousands and maimed millions. Dead or wounded included over a million children. Those who planned the Iraq war, including those who used media positions to propagandise for it, have lost entitlement to the signs of society’s respect.
The world will undoubtedly be a duller place without Christopher Hitchens. Oh, and a better one too.
British journalism is full of people of the same generationwho have lurched from the Trotskyist far left to a crazed neo-con agenda with no intervening period of sanity. I suspect the available riches for zionist propagandists are a major factor. Hitchens, Aaronovitch, Phillips, Cohen. You can probably think of others. A strange and extremely unpleasant manifestation of intellectual prostitution.
Passerby/FedUp: So the doubts are there, and thoughts have crossed your mind, but, you are rationalising the evil plots that turned 21st century into the century of genocide.
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More idiocy from whatever rock you crawl out from under. As it happens, I think the theory that the Israelis dun 9/11 is one of the most ludicrous of all ludicrous tinfoil plots.
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Dancing Israelis caught on the 9/11 in the sight of the burning and smoking WTC obviously were so upset, grief stricken as they highfived and danced to celebrate “Mission Accomplished”.
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Yeah, yeah, and that makes you suspect given that you were caught on camera masturbating over the atrocities.
Komodo, there was a lovely description of Douglas-Home by a contemporary of his, according to Wikpedia, “in the eighteenth century he would have become Prime Minister before he was 30: as it was he appeared honourably ineligible for the struggle of life”.
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Then again, according to Francis Wheen, Douglas-Home was the first person to notice that President Nixon had bugged the Oval Office. He thought it most unusual that Nixon and he had conversed for many hours without Nixon even bothering to make any notes. He concluded that Nixon must have been secretly recording what was being said while everyone else concluded that Douglas-Home had said nothing worth remembering.
“Yeah, yeah, and that makes you suspect given that you were caught on camera masturbating over the atrocities.”
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Insanity at its height, projections continue,through baseless assertions, crazy assumptions, concluded in vehement and violent denunciation. Delusional and unconscious drivel; “given that you were caught on camera masturbating”, this is passed as rational lines of debate, only in ziofuckwitistan.
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Stamping your feet and throwing around insults do not alter the fact that ziofuckwits have a long form on this kind of treacher; as in the case of USS Liberty. Dancing Israelis were later on the Israeli TV and admitting they were there to film the attacks, ie they had prior knowledge. But that is not going to change the line of crap you have been stringing together as comments, is it now?
“this is passed as rational lines of debate, only in ziofuckwitistan”
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Fedup is rather fond of the term “ziofuckwit” also. And if I’m not mistaken, he too mis-uses the word “whom” all over the place.
Dum dee dum …
I see the keyboard defence brigade for the keyboard defence brigade are fighting a rearguard action there. …. on goes the fucking charade.
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Dee dum dee
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the perspicacity and hermeneutics associated with “ziofuckwit” and variances thereof, are far too elegant to be overlooked.
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“Yeah, yeah, and that makes you suspect given that you were caught on camera masturbating over the atrocities.”
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The outburst provides further proof that convincingly and overwhelmingly holds; West is in no danger.
@Stephen, against my better judgement I have accorded you the respect to engage in a grown-up debate, but finally I sorry to say that I have to agree with the verdict of several others, the latest being Mark Golding, who has recently summed you up, & what you are about, succinctly & accurately; that you have seen fit to posit those knuckle-dragging, lies, slanders and misrepresentations about Galloway, here, instead of cess-pits sites like the one you have defended, Harry’s Place, where they are endlessly reheated & regurgitated, is a good indicator of where you should really be posting. Your ignorant comments about both Galloway & Orwell, can easily be exposed for the nonsense they are, but I resent wasting time having to educate somebody who is clearly not debating in good faith.
Incidentally I am aware that Angrysoba is also H.P “Saucer”, but unlike you, he can bluff his way here by cleverly holding back to a certain extent, enough to permit a fairly worthwhile & serious debate, so far (not counting “Yeah, yeah, and that makes you suspect given that you were caught on camera masturbating over the atrocities”) !!
@Angrysoba, well I’m somewhat relived that it was not the quote you had in mind, otherwise I would have to class you as having the same level of disconnection with rationality as Stephen, who cannot realise that Orwell is clearly writing specifically about “My County Right Or Wrong” types. With presenting this other quote, I’m hoping & assuming that you are not trying to paint or stereotype all the anti-war Left as white flag waving pacifists, but instead are, for whatever reason, concerned with the small minority who would classed themselves as pacifists. You have to be aware that Orwell wrote this in 1942, and has since become commonly summed –up & shorted to just the quote “Pacifism is objectively pro-Fascist”; however less well know if the fact that barely two years later, he repudiation this argument. Orwell has become to be regarded as an iconic authority figure on political discourse & theory, but he was not above making errors, a famous one being his belief at the time that England would necessarily have to become socialist in order to win the one, but at least his had the integrity to confront his own mistakes & prejudices. A quote that I think many here should think about when posting, is this;
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“To admit that an opponent might be both honest and intelligent is felt to be intolerable. It is more immediately satisfying to shout that he is a fool or a scoundrel, or both, than to find out what he is really like.”
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Finally Orwell would be spinning in his grave if he knew what he has become the pin-up boy of the “Decent Left” Humanitarian Bomber ! Goodness even Bush’s “Either you are win us or with the terrorists” is an echo of Orwell’s “‘he that is not with me is against me”, a line from the very same repudiated essay mentioned before; Orwell was a determined anti-imperialist at a time when this was not a common position on the left, and to think that our present day supporters of imperialist war, laud him as their hero is deeply ironic & indicative of their shallowness .
@Angrysoba, I’ve responded to your Orwell quote, and posted it twice now, but still not showing; if it doesn’t show soon I’ll try later.
Re the Dancing Israelis, what do you think they mean when they say “Our purpose was to document the event” ?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tRfhUezbKLw
Macky: Incidentally I am aware that Angrysoba is also H.P “Saucer”, but unlike you, he can bluff his way here by cleverly holding back to a certain extent, enough to permit a fairly worthwhile & serious debate, so far (not counting “Yeah, yeah, and that makes you suspect given that you were caught on camera masturbating over the atrocities”) !!
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I’m not having that. I don’t see why you should make a dig at my remark to Passerby/Fedup when they’re hostile and call me a “ziofuckwit” repeatedly. If they can say that, and I don’t care if they do, then I can snipe back and not expect someone like you to have a go at me for doing so.
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As for, “we were there to document the event” I have no idea. Is that actually what they said? Do you have the requisite language abilities? Have you any friends who do who might be able to help you out for this? It seems to me if you think you have a very serious lead on this then you would make very serious inquiries but unfortunately in all my time of chatting to “Truthers” they seem to satisfy themselves with the most outrageously slender evidence.
I’m not having that. I don’t see why you should make a dig..
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Why is that then nuid/Angrysoba?
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Is ganging up and fly by commenting only to be your weapons in the keyboard wars?
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As for the “Do you have the requisite language abilities?”, do you know what is meaning of “is”? Just waffle in the way of obfuscating the facts; “there are no dangers to West”! 9/11 was an inside Job and the world knows it, deal with it, and stop being so pushy.
“Yeah, yeah, and that makes you suspect given that you were caught on camera masturbating over the atrocities.”
Funny how they always resort to childishness when they lose their fragile zionist tempers. Like Butch Hitch with his ‘fat slags’, or any zionist robber frothing about the ‘Pals’.
Only a fool or a knave doubts the role of the Mossad in the 9/11 events. The dancing Israeli secret agents? Silverstein’s cancelled breakfast meeting in the twin towers? The president left in apparent danger because they knew there was none? The world’s shortest book, ‘Jewish Casualties of 9/11’?
@Angrysobs; Re “I’m not having that “, actually it was more a case of timing than anything else, as I was just about to submit my Post about you “holding back to a certain extent” , when your masturbating comment appeared, and I amended my Post by just adding the qualifier in brackets, more as an attempted humorous line, rather than as a real dig at you.
Anyhow re the Dancing Israelis, I think we can take it that the translations are correct, for many reasons, but especially that Anti-Truthers Sites that set out to dispel “conspiracy claims”, have not tried to discredit this on phoney translation grounds. Instead they come up with a) the cameras were not set-up prior, so they were filming the event happening in front of them just like thousands of others, or b) they were indeed Israeli Agents on a specific other mission, and did set-up camera to film that other mission, which is the “event” referred to, and just happened to be a prefect place to also film the Twins Towers being attacked ! Both of these explanations are seriously far fetched for many reasons, such as the camera were professional items which take time to set-up, and that either of these explanations account for the bizarre joyous celebrations of these people, as they watched the tragedy in front of their eyes unfolding.
BTW my Orwell response finally appeared (see above); which means I can correct a little typo; “…a famous one being his belief at the time that England would necessarily have to become socialist in order to win the War, but at least he had the integrity to confront his own mistakes & prejudices.”
@Angrysoba, my Orwell response has now appeared (see above), but not my last Post (yet) that I just submitted to you; anyhow I see that your fellow “Saucers” are having a few pokes at Craig now;
http://hurryupharry.org/2011/12/18/translation/#comments
‘A great loss to humanism’: BHA mourns Christopher Hitchens
The British Humanist Association (BHA) is today mourning the death of Christopher Hitchens, a great loss to humanism, who brought some of the clearest, most eloquent arguments for reason, political secularism, and humanist ethics to a worldwide audience.
A prolific writer and inspiring orator, Hitchens brought his own brand of unbelief to mass audiences, becoming part of the ‘new atheist’ publishing phenomenon with his 2007 work ‘God Is Not Great’, but had for many years been an activist for secularism and many of the other causes dear to humanists.
BHA Chief Executive Andrew Copson said:
‘The life and contribution of Christopher Hitchens will be celebrated not only by humanists but all those who prize freedom: freedom of speech, freedom of thought, freedom of belief were all things valued and defended by him. Hitch was fearless in his challenges to authority, orthodoxy and conformity and his death brings the loss of a great cheerleader for liberal as well as secular causes.
‘His attitude to death and his resolute maintenance of the non-existence of a god or afterlife became an extra inspiration for non-religious people in his final months, bringing to mind words of Bertrand Russell which he himself quoted with approval:
“Religion, since it has its source in terror, has dignified certain sorts of fear and made people think them not disgraceful. In this it has done mankind a great disservice – all fear is bad. I believe that when I die I shall rot, and nothing of my ego will survive. I am not young and I love life. But I should scorn to shiver with terror at the thought of annihilation… Many a man has borne himself proudly on the scaffold; surely the same pride should teach us to think truly about our place in the world.”
‘Christopher Hitchens helped millions to think more truly about our place in the world and he will be missed.’
http://www.humanism.org.uk/news/view/950?utm_source=e-bulletin+subscribers&utm_campaign=324e79ef41-BHA_e_bulletin_2011_12_19&utm_medium=email
And the National Secular Society reports:
Christopher Hitchens dies
Journalists have had months to prepare their obituaries and salutations, so much is already in print about Christopher Hitchens, who was for many years an honorary associate of the National Secular Society, and has died at the age of 62. There is little more we can add to the acres of newsprint except our admiration for his courage, tenacity and humour in the face of huge opposition for his ideas.
We take a leaf out of his book in our own efforts, when he said: “The noble title of ‘dissident’ must be earned rather than claimed; it connotes sacrifice and risk rather than mere disagreement.”
We didn’t agree with everything that Christopher said. Many of us took issue with his support for the war in Iraq. But that’s the joy of freethinking – there is no dogma, you can disagree and even oppose another person’s viewpoint without feeling the need to kill them.
The media worldwide is lauding Hitchens’ intellectual rigour, his polemical skills, his thrilling oratorical outbursts, so we won’t repeat it all here. My own vivid memory of Christopher is seeing him a couple of years ago in a debate involving such theological pygmies as Ann Widdecombe, in which he reduced all opposition to rubble while sipping generously on a tumbler of whisky.
We have lost a valued colleague and a formidable champion. He’ll be impossible to replace.
There are some great videos and, of course, in this week’s New Statesman there is an account of the final conversation he had with his great friend and compatriot Richard Dawkins.
http://www.secularism.org.uk
Craig, Hitchens did nothing to start or continue the Iraq war, I do not understand the intemperate vitriol on a commentator who explained his position exhaustively.
It is incredible to read such aggressive posts here.
Almost as incredible to see that anyone who disagrees that Hitchens was a warmonger is labelled as a Zionista.
Hitchens was imo the greatest and most courageous in his challenge to religious idiocy and sense of entitlement.
I am disappointed that you do not recognise the value in that position.
@Barbara, I know that you are trying to upset a few stomachs with your links, but after reading this BBC Bimbo’s “tribute”, I’m too busy laughing to be affected;
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-16222995
For one second only, I thought that the author here was the neocon-admiring, zionist-loving Canadian PM!
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Christopher Hitchens: A Nationalist, Imperialist Bully
by Stephen Harper / December 19th, 2011
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So the author and journalist, Christopher Hitchens, has died aged 62. All day the mainstream media have been broadcasting glowing tributes to Hitchens. One reporter on Britain’s Channel 4 News even claimed that Hitchens had consistently taken a “stand against abusers of power”. But at least one dissenting view made it through the airwaves. In an interview for BBC News, Hitchens’ erstwhile fellow traveller Tariq Ali talked of Hitchens’s shameful support for Western imperialism. The interviewer’s unease was palpable, and predictably enough, the interview was terminated rather abruptly when Ali moved on to the matter of Hitchens’ narcissism.
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For the last quarter of a century, Hitchens’ hard-drinking, tough-talking image has made him the poster-boy of the liberal intelligentsia in the UK and US. Hitchens could certainly be a lot of fun. He delighted in pointing out the hypocrisy and mendacity of certain powerful individuals – such as Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu (so-called ‘Mother’ Teresa), Henry Kissinger and Bill Clinton – and he did so with aplomb. Indeed, there is no denying that ‘the Hitch’ was a consummate prose stylist and a seductively sonorous public speaker. But, as Richard Seymour notes, Hitchens, for all his svelte polemic, was a rather conventional sort of thinker who had “difficulty in handling complex arguments”. And more importantly, like his champion, the British writer and comedian Stephen Fry (for who can forget Fry’s attempts to reassure the British public, following the MP’s expenses scandal in 2009, that all is well with liberal democracy), Hitchens abused his persuasive powers in support of the status quo.
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It is a common misconception that Hitchens drifted rightwards following 9/11. In fact, Hitchens was always on the side of capital, starting out as a Trotskyist and ending up, only slightly more conventionally, as a liberal. He was also a consistent pro-imperialist, supporting the British invasion of the Falklands in the 1980s, the brutal attacks on Yugoslavia in the 1990s and the equally savage invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq in the following decade. Indeed, Hitchens consistently supported US and British national interests, making a mockery of his claim to be an internationalist.
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Moreover, as Glenn Greenwald reminds us, Hitchens’s viciousness and bellicosity were remarkable. Writing about Iraq, Hitchens celebrated the ability of cluster bombs to penetrate any Koran, and he admitted to being exhilarated by the 9/11 attacks, on the grounds that they provided him with an opportunity to launch his literary war against ‘Islamofascism’ (like a querulous teenager, Hitchens saw ‘fascism’ everywhere – or, to be more precise, everywhere that Western interests were threatened). He even called the Dixie Chicks ‘sluts’ and ‘fucking fat slags’ for mildly criticising the US president. These are all reasons why, despite his literary achievements, Hitchens should be remembered as a repugnant propagandist for the rich and powerful.
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Dr Stephen Harper is a Senior Lecturer in Media Studies at the School of Creative Arts, Film and Media, University of Portsmouth. Read other articles by Stephen.
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http://dissidentvoice.org/2011/12/christopher-hitchens-a-nationalist-imperialist-bully/
But that’s the joy of freethinking … you can disagree and even oppose another person’s viewpoint without feeling the need to kill them.’
Unlike ol’ Butch, who wanted to drill them pesky islamists full of holes [see above]!
‘…fearless in his challenges to authority, orthodoxy and conformity.’
Ooh, get him. So fearless, his armchair wasn’t even armoured. From it, he bravely challenged ‘fat slags’ ‘islamofascists’ and working-class oiks like George Galloway, who had the nerve to
take supplies to Gaza. So unorthodox, he got the odious zioNazi Cherthoff to bless his U.S. citizenship rite. Oi gay!
‘A great loss to humanism’: BHA mourns Christopher Hitchens’
They have an office in Fallujah I imagine.
A hard bard.
Wrote King Leer.
Ah yes – third class Alex Douglas-Home, the man that called President Nasser ‘an idiot’ when he declared the Straits closed to Israeli shipping. Nasser was fully aware how Israel had ‘stolen’ Palestine in an attempt to create ‘Eretz Yisrael ‘ by driving the Palestinians out and killing the remainder. Douglas-Home was however involved in something much more sinister, a deception in the same vein as the cunning involvement of Saudi ‘terrorists’ to strike the twin towers as a catalyst for war or the recreant duplicitous plan to create civil war in Syria as a stratagem to attack Iran we witness today.
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British intelligence were fully aware of Nasser’s desire to subdue Yemen and push on into the rest of the Arabian Peninsula effectively uniting the Arabian Peninsula into a pan-Arab federation led by Egypt. British spies monitoring border clashes also passed word that Nasser would again close the Straits of Tiran after military ties to Russia strengthened his armies. Nasser was quite prepared to confront Israel again after the Suez crisis in the late fifties.
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I now know Britain had a secret plan to tie down a huge part of the Egyptian armed forces for four years in a bloody coup and create a grisly conflict to dissolve the morale of the Egypian army. Britain’s command knew that would lead to poor performance in any future war with Israel.
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The plan required using an operational base in Aden and an intelligence liason and recruiting office in London that would send encrypted commands to the base in Aden. Recruiting would be handled by a former SAS soldier, Jim Johnson, with the tacit support of the British Government, but under conditions of complete deniability.
Funding came from Prince Faisal of Saudi Arabia, subsequently to become King Faisal.
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British intelligence became involved after the initial recruitment of about forty ex SAS and friends of Johnson ensuring the ‘mercenaries’ would keep schum by brain-washing their psyche with interviews drenched in British national interest concerns. MI6 liased with Israeli intelligence to provide deniable logistics support by covert airdrops of weapons and ammunition, unknown to the Saudis, who would have withdrawn support for the operation if they had discovered Israel’s involvement.
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British support for the intervention was from her concerns for the British military base and Naval port of Aden on the Yemeni coast together with it’s oil refinery. Britain could not admit to this tacit support of the Yemeni tribal forces and use of mercenaries because it did not wish to fall out with the Americans who coveted Egypt because they wanted to draw Nasser away from his reliance on Russia who was interested in securing Middle East oil and minerals. Britain revealed the operation to the Shah of Iran who gave support because he was also afraid of Nasser’s burgeoning empire. [source]
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The Yemeni Imam fought a guerilla war against the Egyptian forces from the mountainous regions of the country. He and his commanders spent most of that period living in caves, bribing tribes while the British mercenaries fought against Egyptian incursions and used regular forays into the plains to destroy Egyptian transport, heavy artillary and tanks with land-mines. They regulary sent dispatches on Egyptian casualties to the Aden base.
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Hostilities finally ended after the Six-Day War in 1967, in which Israel destroyed the Egyptian army and air force – as well as the Jordanian and Syrian air forces – and annexed the Sinai Peninsula and the Golan Heights.
Try No.2:
@Angrysobs; Re “I’m not having that “, actually it was more a case of timing than anything else, as I had just about to submit my Post about you “holding back to a certain extent” , when your masturbating comment appeared, and I amended my Post by just adding that as a qualifier in brackets, more as an attempted humorous line, rather than as dig at you.
Anyhow re the Dancing Israelis, I think we can take it that the translations are correct, for many reasons, but especially that Anti-Truthers Sites that set out to dispel “conspiracy claims”, have not tried to discredit this on phoney translation grounds. Instead they come up with a) the cameras were not set-up prior, so they were filming the event happening in front of them just like thousands of others, or b) they were indeed Israeli Agents on a specific other mission, and did set-up cameras to film THAT other mission, which is the “event” referred to, and just happened to be a prefect place to also film the Twins Towers being attacked ! Both of these explanation are seriously far fetched for many reasons, not least being that the cameras were professional items which take time to set-up, and that either of these explanations account for the joyous celebrations of these people as they watched the tragedy in unfold in front of their eyes
Macky
What you don’t realise is that you have mutated into a “my country right or wrong type” its just that the country you have adopted is not the country of your birth on which you have now turned. Orwell was more than aware of the similarities between “fellow travellers” and our conservatives and drew the parallel more than once. If you think Orwell would have allowed his support for anti-imperialism to allow him to turn a blind eye to the abuse of totalitarian states you really understand nothing of Orwell’s thinking after Burmese Days – don’t you understand that this was exactly the argument being employed by many of the fellow travellers as to why we had to turn a blind eye to the excesses of Stalin. Unlike yourself Orwell (and Hitchens for that matter) was able to judge each particular situation on its merits rather than indulging in the warped moral relativism that you favour. As well as being unable to master a dictionary you appear to be having some trouble with Orwell as well.
As for Galloway – well lets just take this one quote from yourself “Galloway, was actually an active campaigner, and a lone voice in Parliament, against the Saddam Regime.
Well here’s a little challenge go and look at Hansard from Galloway’s entry to Parliament in June 1987 until the 1st Gulf War (when George started supporting the Iraqi cause or rather using to oppose the US) and see how many times this “lone voice” raised the issue of the Saddam Regime. The answer you will find is a big fat ZERO – but please carry on looking until you find something. Perhaps you might then begin to realise that your hero is not above creating a few myths about himself.
Boniface Goncourt
And here’s a little task for you my second class Oxford mind (if it was first class I feel pretty confident that you would have told us already) – let’s have a look at your Hitchen’s quote about cluster bombs. First of all ask yourself does it really sound like Hitchens – did he really lapse into the American vernacular so much when trying to impress his US audience with hios plummy accent. Secondly, do you really think he said this when he had condemned the use of cluster bombs by Milosevic in Kosovo ( did you or your friends – or if you take the more recent opprotunity to do so when Ghadaffi used them in Misrata?? And finally perhaps if they told you one thing in Oxford it was to check your sources so that you can read such comments in context – well good luck because at present all the sources appear to go from one anti Hitchens writer to another – so perhaps you can identify where Hitchens made the original quote. Or is it the 2nd made up Hitchens quote I have found on this thread?
While Oxford may have give you an education it clearly hasn’t told you much manners. Slimeballs of course know that libeeling the dead is not a crime, but of course do not have the courage to do so when a man is still alive.
And re childish remarks – lets just say I (and Angrysoba) receive considerably more here than we give out – and I indeed take the general view that such remarks should be taken as a compliment for winning the argument.
John Goss
“Saddam Hussain, however much people might despise him, had a pluralist Iraq.”
So Saddam was a pluralist and Tony Blair was as bad as Pol Pot, Stalin and Hitler. Mossad was responsible for 9/11, Hitch was a Zionist and I’m the one with a tenuous grip on reality. The lunatics have truly taken over this asylum – perhaps it is time for me to leave once I have seen whether Macky and Bonacourt are up to the tasks I have set them.
“Fedup is rather fond of the term “ziofuckwit” also” says Nuid,
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What gives, you are again picking on my comments? Has someone pissed on your parade again?
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Wehhhhhheeeeeey this one takes the fucking biscuit;
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“Yeah, yeah, and that makes you suspect given that you were caught on camera masturbating over the atrocities.”
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Epitome of a ziofuckwit cornered, given any situation, is this a ziofuckwit thing?
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9/11 or more to the point a clumsy attempt at Reichstag Fire the rerun has fake stamped all over it, yet the ziofuckwits grasping at straws are busy shoving the 9/11 commission drivel the official story. The same commission that was supposed to be chaired by none other than the famous flimflam merchant and war criminal Henry Kisssinger.
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Barbara pasted;
“Hitchens did nothing to start or continue the Iraq war”,
Very true that chicken shit warrior was far too clever to go and get “blooded”, the Baghdad Cakewalk was not all that easy as it was made to look, by the likes of the wanker suffering from full of shitness C. Hitchens.
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So far as his poxy degree goes, Josef Rudolf Mengele had a Doctorate, and Saif Gaddafi has a PhD. Sadly when it comes to pissing contests, a degree these days is a prerequisite for an ASDA shelf stacking job, therefore the “intelligent maverick” shit do not cut the mustard. That shitbags was a war criminal, and ought to have been put on trial and not eulogised.
Mary
Since you quote it as well – and so like finding sources you do can do the little test I set Boniface on the supposed Hitchens cluster bomb quote.
Fedup
You are Dave Spart, now retired to a nursing home with terminal incontinence, and I claim my £5. Or are you the love child of Ron Knee and Doris Bonkers?
Mary,
Thanks for the laugh, I am rolling on the floor, this shit is so funny.
If Barbara can advertise her undertaker business by eulogising the booze sodden war criminal C. Hitchens.
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So too I can advertise O’Houlihan and Sons The Cobblers are the best in county Tyrone and are petitioning ICC to prosecute in absentia the deceased imperialist and war criminal Christopher Hitchens. Anyone signing the petition will be gifted a cloth polisher.
Stephen: “Well here’s a little challenge go and look at Hansard from Galloway’s entry to Parliament in June 1987 until the 1st Gulf War”
Ollie Kamm of the Times once set me the same challenge, and I spent ages collecting a handful of very early Hansard anti Saddam Regime quotes from Galloway, and the shameless slime ball not only didn’t allow my Post through, but he also permanently blocked me ! What was more annoying was that like a fool I had not kept a copy of the records I had found.
Anyhow I’m not going to all that trouble for you, instead have a look at these which are ready at hand;
Etc. Hansard, 1991-03-15:
George Galloway wrote:There are those of us, such as myself, who have been Saddam Hussein’s bitter opponents for as long as he has been in power in Baghdad. There are people, such as myself, who have marched, petitioned, written, railed and ranted at the dictatorship in Baghdad, and it is bitterly difficult for us to see the attitude of those Conservative Members who did not want to hear what we were saying and who wanted to say little and do even less about the bestialities that were committed by the dictatorship in Baghdad. For them, the dictatorship was merely a bloody good customer. That is the truth of the matter.
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The vast majority of human beings who made up that mountain of dead people never supported Saddam Hussein, never voted for Saddam Hussein, never voted for the war, and never in any sense offered any support to the Baathist regime in Baghdad, yet they were shot “like fish in a bowl”. They were massacred “like rabbits in a sack”. Other disgusting metaphors were plastered across our newspapers over the past few weeks. No one can talk about environmental damage or damage to the atmosphere without coming to terms with the fact that the massacre on the Basra road will haunt the world…
Hansard, 1993-12-13:
George Galloway wrote:For the record, I am a founder member of the campaign against oppression and for democratic rights in Iraq. I was marching, petitioning and picketing for democracy and against dictatorship there long before this and other Governments were converted to opposition to the regime in Baghdad. I stand in second place to no one in my opposition to the bestialities of that regime.
He goes on to argue against the effect of sanctions. Other speeches of interest – Galloway criticises US/UK policy as strengthening Saddam and leading to festering fundamentalism
Hansard, 1993-01-21:
George Galloway wrote:Just as the blitz by the Luftwaffe and Irish terrorism succeeded only in galvanising patriotic feeling, so the latest spasm of violence against Iraq by the west has actually strengthened Saddam Hussein’s regime.
The attack was a blunder because it has contributed seriously to a wave that will continue for years of further instability, radicalisation and sweeping fundamentalism across the middle east and the broader Islamic arena. I do not know where some of the authorities obtain their information. On Arab streets, in the slums of Algiers, in Aden, in the slums of Cairo and in the mosques of Saudi Arabia, the attack has led to the beatification–if Muslims can be beatified–of that blood-soaked tyrant, Saddam Hussein. His stock has never been higher.
Believe me, that wave of radicalisation and fundamentalism has been under way in the Arab area for a considerable period. Anyone who is aware of the Palestinian question and who has watched the steady march of the fundamentalist movement, Hamas, gaining ground at the expense of the secular, moderate, nationalist leadership of the Palestine Liberation Organisation, knows exactly the despair and humiliation felt by the Arabs that is leading to the festering problem of fundamentalism.
Azra, your father had taste. Rushdie is unreadable. My suspicion is that the only people who have read the Satanic Verses are Rushdie, and his editor (poor sod!) I guess the Booker judges must have read “Midnight’s Children” but nothing would surprise me.
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Angrysoba, re: Paxman interview, I agree the interview to which you refer was later, but Hitchens must have said something after that, and when you are in love with your own words you do not stay silent on any subject. I would be genuinely interested to hear what his last thoughts were.
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Suhayl, my mother and father heard Paul Robeson sing in Blackburn Town Hall, I think it was, but somewhere in Blackburn. They came back full of it, and were particularly impressed that he could take the microphone away and still project.
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Stephen, I think less people will grieve the departure of you than that of Saddam Hussain, Muamur Gadaffi, Osama Bin Laden, Christopher Hitchen, Kim Jong Il, Ho Chi Minh and a whole host more of the dear departed. But I doubt you can stay away.