Christopher Hitchens for a united Ireland?

[scrapman999]

hitchens ..who the fuck give's a toss what he said.. he liked to hear the sound of his own voice, the man was a prat and his brother is a twat,,

[914light]

hitchens was a bloated cow and said whatever he thought the audience would like !!

he NEVER talked about real issues ....totally worthless !

[zaprese]

He was for making Iraq a Democracy, not what the new goverment has done once in place.

[krugerfuchs]

no united ireland never

[gespb32]

@krugerfuchs We will when we have the majority vote as per Robinson, this will be very soon, he forecasted he will be the last Unionist First Minister. your apartheid policies have failed.

Erin Go Bragh.

[SlugANDsLIDE]

Strange, I swear he said the complete opposite of this in another video. I believe the other video was more recent as he was balding. Anyone else familiar with this video?

[thebrassdubliner]

@SlugANDsLIDE I havn't seen the vid but I doubt it. It's a long held opinion of his that goes back to his lefty college days. Still if you're right and you find it let me know, I'd love to know the reason for the change of heart. I'd say certain people have him very wary of changing his mind on anything these days!

[altosax1st]

Mr. Hitchens has always been anti-partition on such issues from Ireland to India and, as he mentioned, rather pro-self determination of peoples.

[cook119]

@altosax1st What about the self-determination of the protestants in NI?

[borledx]

@cook119 Protestants/unionists be in a minority in 20/30 years in NI. Then there will a referendum under the terms of the GFA & ireland will unite once again as god intended it should. Will you then oppose the granting of self determination for the majority catholic population in NI? Of course there won't be a NI then, but I'd be interested to know what your response would be??

[cook119]

@borledx I would be pissed off to see such a petty and deadly conflict re-ignited, for no good reason. In an ideal world the british Isles would share sovereignty, but thanks to the actions of some of our donut ancestors here we are.

The right to unionist self determination is not secondary to the nationalist one, as some people seem to suggest or forget.

[borledx]

@cook119 I voted 4 the GFA but against my more base instincts. I voted 2 avoid further bloodshed like any decent person North & south did. But heres the thing, Irish people almost to a man rightly consider that ireland is 1 country, not 2. NI is a gerrymandered state cut from the orginal 9 counties of Ulster at the point of a gun to ensure a unionist majority. This was an immoral act & no basis for the foundation of a state, & was always going to end in bloodshed. continued...

[cook119]

@borledx Ask the unionist community what they feel and they would have a different answer, just because a whole bunch of people believe something doesn't make it true. All nations are artifical there happens to be a lot of protestants in NI that's why its part of a protestant country catholics have the other four fifths of the country to live in if they want to live in a place that has only "their people".

[borledx]

@cook119 You seem to be under the mistaken impression that protestants are living in huge tracts of land in NI in the majority. The truth is that they are the majority now by about 4% & not at all in 2 of 6 counties. Another mistake you are making is assuming that religion plays any part at all with nationalists. Its all about land, religion is only a sideshow used by the british historically as a strategy to divide & conquer. Our people are the irish, catholic, proteastant, atheist, whatever

[borledx]

@borledx The Brit Govt may not recognise 1 group of people as superior to others today. But it certainly did in the past & the situation in ireland is a direct result of that policy. The protestants in Ulster are Irish, not british. If they were British they would have been born on the island of Britain but instead they were born on the island of Ireland. Britains policies have caused this & now it should be left up to people of irel as an island to solve ourselves with no outside interference.

[cook119]

@borledx I am not under that impression the point still stands. Religion has little to do with it its just a way of dividing the unionist from the republicans.

Again my points stand.

[22grena]

@cook119 Get ready for unification brother.

[krugerfuchs]

@22grena never

[borledx]

@cook119 It now looks certain Unionists will b in a minority in the North in the next couple of decades because of changing demographics. Self determination in a democracy means that a vote is held & then the majorities will is upheld. This has been provided for in the GFA agreement & will in my opinion lead inevitably to a united Ireland. At that point all legal & moral arguements for the existence of NI as a seperate state are invalid & they must assimilate into the Rep as equal citizens

[cook119]

@borledx The british government doesn't recognise some people as superior to others, those sort of falsehoods have helped perpetuate the conflict for the last 40 odd years.

[david552]

His reasons are pretty basic; opposition to the legacy of British imperialism, 2, opposition to yet another example of partition, opposition to the way Ulster Unionists ran NI after 1922.

Why were you surprised? It's a pretty common view for an old leftist of his vintage.

[thebrassdubliner]

I suppose I meant that some of his other views are anything but lefty, he is in fact generally a republican(american that is) supporter. He only supported Obama this time cauce of the complete retard that is Sarah Palin

[david552]

meh - I've read a lot of his stuff... it's really only the fact that he's a "War on Terror" Hawk that's a republican position - he supports universal healthcare for instance, mostly he's pretty liberal.

[Innuendo91]

I hope by "generally a republican" you mean a supporter of the Iraq war. He is no way "generally a republican". Perhaps it would have been more accurate to say "I was surprised given the only view of his that I know of."

[thebrassdubliner]

@Innuendo91

I said it because he said it himself, I saw him being interviewed on CNN and he said he generally votes republican, just wouldn't be this time(this was during the election campaign obviously) bacause of Palin. But fair enough, Im not particularly up on his views on alot of issues, except on religion.

[Romansteel13]

@Innuendo91

Republican is not a universal party.

He is a war-hawk conservative if that is what you mean.

Only if you knew what was going on in Kurdistan, Afghanistan, the systematic genocide in Sudan.

The rape committed by the Taliban. The stoning for one meaningless act.

You my friend are born in 1991, a child. You could not fathom what happens in the rest of the world.

Idiot.

Have a nice day.

You replying in anger, only proves my point.

[Daniel0112358]

@Innuendo91

He genuinely thinks we have brought Iraq democracy. The current system is enormously better but he ignores the knowing killing of civilians (including with cluster shelling of cities like Gaddafi), and now we have seen the Iraqi gov. fire on and kill almost 30 unarmed protesters!

He ignored the BS of the WMD and al qaida links, and he generalizes dangerously on the aggression of Islam. Look at Tahrir Egypt--some polls find what I think is a higher level of declared piety than Iran

[BobMcCob]

@Daniel0112358 He has commented on almost everything you have said.

[cmba101]

@thebrassdubliner I wouldn't call him republican by a long shot. He has his views, they are mostly to do with giving people freedom to do and say what they want as long as they don't affect others. And he opposes all religions with vigor. The only things I see him align with republicans on is the Iraq war, but for completely different reasons than them.

He just doesn't call himself a socialist any more, yet still a marxist.

[NemoUtopian]

heh now that is funny..Hitchens has long been generally a liberal.he just does not march in step to anyone's tune.

he is pretty much a neo-liberal that is very pro-interventionism on those that violate human rights.something that has caused lots of friction with other liberals.

about the only other thing he has said that could be considered right wing is a somewhat nebulous statement about his stance on abortion.