Antiwar.com Blog

The pro-war blowhard Christopher Hitchens is one of those former leftists-turned-neocons who changed his spots but not his soul, which is that of a power-worshipper. Back in the 1970s, when it looked like socialism might be the wave of the future, he was a Trotskyist (like so many of the neocons), who wrote an article for the New Statesman that valorized Saddam Hussein as “perhaps the first visionary Arab statesman since Nasser.” Hailing the “fierce revolutionary ideology” of a state that was “the first oil-producing government to opt for 100-per-cent nationalization,” Comrade Hitchens tells us he met a man who lives on a houseboat moored in the Tigris river who embodies the history of modern Iraq, having been imprisoned by the British, by the pro-Soviet predecessor to Saddam, and then by the Ba’athists. He writes:

“There had been torture and brutality of a far worse sort than his previous incarcerations. And yet he declared that he thought the present government the best Iraqi Administration he had seen. Why? ‘Because it has made us strong and respected.’ There seems no getting round this point. From the festeringly poor and politically dependent nation of a generation ago, Iraq has become a power in every sense — military, economic and ideological. “

You can see the Trotskyite gleam in his eyes as he exclaims:

“Iraq is dedicated to the idea of a single socialist Arab nation from Gibraltar to the Indian ocean; the original Ba’athist dream.”

Thirty years ago, Hitchens was hailing the secular socialist Saddam as the greatest Arab “visionary” of his time: today, he hails Saddam’s overthrow by the US as an act of “liberation,” and this even as the horrifically bloody aftermath continues to inflict terror on the prostrate peoples of Iraq. What changed?

Nothing, really: it’s just that, back in 1976, it looked like the Third World tyrants, “secular socialists” like Saddam, were winning. Today, it looks like the US is winning. As Orwell noted in his “Second Thoughts on James Burnham,” a certain kind of intellectual worships power, and will ally himself with the strongest brute out of “idealistic” idolatry, and a sense of invincible power.  

Yesterday Saddam was “perhaps the first visionary Arab statesman since Nasser,” today he is (or was) a vicious tyrant who had to be overthrown by American force of arms — and isn’t it odd that the same bad intellectual habits and frame of mind produced both evaluations?

Support our troops?:

Look whose praises Christopher Hitchens was singing 30 years ago.

(Via Jonathan Schwarz. Dennis Perrin has further observations.)

The Cunning Realist commits an act of authentic journalism and exposes a propagandist.

Conclusion:

Short background on Bergner: He became head spokesman for the U.S. military in Iraq in early June. His official title? Deputy Chief of Staff for Strategic Effects. He was Michael Gordon’s only source for this New York Times piece on alleged Iranian ties to the Karbala raid in which five American troops were killed. His previous position: Special Assistant to President Bush.

Memo to the “real” press: That’s how it’s supposed to be done.

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/07_07_05_floyd.mp3]

Chris Floyd (who’s Website is apparently being hacked), author, columnist, blogger and activist, discusses the phony war on terrorism, the politics of fear, racism and imperialism, America’s murderous regime change in Somalia and belligerent attitude toward Russia.

MP3 here.

Chris Floyd is an award-winning American journalist, and author of the book, Empire Burlesque: High Crimes and Low Comedy in the Bush Regime. For more than 11 years he wrote the featured political column, Global Eye, for The Moscow Times and the St. Petersburg Times in Russia. He also served as UK correspondent for Truthout.org, and was an editorial writer for three years for The Bergen Record. His work appears regularly CounterPunch, The Baltimore Chronicle and in translation in the Italian paper, Il Manifesto, and has also been published in such venues as The Nation, the Christian Science Monitor, Columbia Journalism Review, The Ecologist and many others. His articles are also featured regularly on such websites as Information Clearing House, Buzzflash, Bushwatch, LewRockwell.com, Antiwar.com, and many others. His work has been cited in The New York Times, USA Today, the Guardian, the Independent and other major newspapers.

Floyd co-founded the blog Empire Burlesque with webmaster Richard Kastelein, who created the site using open-source software. Floyd is also chief editor of Atlantic Free Press, which was founded and designed by Kastelein. Floyd has been a writer and editor for more than 25 years, working in the United States, Great Britain and Russia for various newspapers, magazines, the U.S. government and Oxford University.

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/07_07_06_mitchell.mp3]

Greg Mitchell, editor of Editor & Publisher, discusses New York Times/War Party propagandist Michael R. Gordon’s tenuous grasp of the truth, the failure of his editors to make the slightest effort to reign him in and the failure of American newspaper editors in general to oppose the war despite the fact that 77% of the American people are against it.

MP3 here.

Greg Mitchell is the author of six nonfiction books. His articles – including many on baseball – have appeared in New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, TV Guide, Mother Jones, Sport magazine, Quest, and other publications. Mitchell was a senior editor at Crawdaddy for many years. He lives in Nyack, New York.