Christopher Hitchens versus Ritter: Iraq War debate PART 9

[batvette]

what hitchens says at the end is THE most powerful argument for the war in context of america's national security.

[batvette]

"Former chief U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter said Iraq is capable of reconstituting a chemical weapons program within a matter of weeks. "

"I believe Iraq will seek to reconstitute a militarized nerve agent that will be used in a last ditch defense of Baghdad, and I think the Iraqi government's efforts to acquire significant stockpiles of atropine are an indication that this is the direction that Saddam Hussein is heading," Ritter said on CNN's "Crossfire."

CNN Nov. 2002 No WMD?

[sinistar99]

It really bugs me how Hitchens makes rules: you can't say "I know Saddam was a really bad guy." You can't mention the cost in terms of human lives...  basically he's saying, "Anything inconvenient to my argument is inadmissible.."

[manonthemount]

why is the 'moderator' leveraging opinions?

[TheDavid2222]

Freedom isn't a concept that Ritter seems to value. Whatever happened to 'Give me liberty or give me death?!" Ritter would rather be able to consume just a bit more resources than to live in a free society. How disgraceful!! I value freedom a hell of alot more than consumerism. I'm suprised Hitchens didn't incorporate more of the pjilsophy behind the concept of freedom in this debate.

[sinistar99]

@TheDavid2222 When did the Iraqis have the "freedom" to vote on our invasion? When they get to vote our soldiers out of there and we stop torturing them and holding them without charges then we can talk about giving a rats ass about thier "freedom."

[sinistar99]

@TheDavid2222 ...and "Give me Liberty or give me death.." isn't so noble if you're talking about somebody else's death. It's a lot more convenient though and a lot easier to say. Chickenhawks are very cavilier and brave with other people's lives. Never their own. And that "free society" is now under Shira Law. Sorry ladies, can't drive a car or go out without a burkah now. Some "freedom" whith that kind of liberty who needs oppression!

[5147848amp]

Hitchens is always going on about his 'many Iraqi and Kurdish friends'. Well, I'd like to know how wide a cross-section of Iraqi society these war-hungry friends of his represent. I mean, are we to expect an upper-class chappy like Hitchens to hang out with the kind of peasants who have been on the regular receiving end of the depleted Uranium, White Phosphorous and civilian-seeking missiles the caucasian forces are so fond of? I think. Fucking. Not.

[RUBENSolol]

@5147848amp "civilian-seeking missiles the caucasian forces are so fond of" What kind of racist paranoid idiot are you?

[5147848amp]

@RUBENSolol

Yeah sorry for the language.

[5147848amp]

@RUBENSolol

It is a signature of western war-making, no? Contrasting sharply with the quote-unquote Islamic extremists, who at least turn up to their blood-letting, western powers employ young people to play war games sometimes miles away from the carnage they're causing with unmanned drones, for example. Westerners - in Afghanistan at least - commit acts of slaughter far removed from the scene of their crimes.

[sinistar99]

@RUBENSolol So you have to be a racist paranoid idiot to give a rats ass about the massive number of civilians killed with our tons and tons of random cluster bombs and munitions? They've kill thousands of regular peopls mostly children. What kind of a sick psychopathic sadist are you?

[RUBENSolol]

@sinistar99 Do you really think that coalition forces in Iraq use "civilian-seeking missiles"? In that case, you have no sense of reality.

[sinistar99]

@RUBENSolol Obviously it's a hyperbole.  I mean the technology just isn't there yet. The point I think is things like cluster bombs which kill a huge number of civilians.

[manonthemount]

@5147848amp bigotry is unbecoming of reason.

[sinistar99]

@5147848amp YES YES YES THANK YOU! But we're not allowed to speak of the dead and maimed don't you know, because Hitchens said so! These chicken hawk warmongers are what I once heard a combat soldier say, "... very brave with other people's lives..."

[Jmsadv]

@sinistar99 lol, Yeah Hitchens could go fight but then we would lose.

[sinistar99]

@5147848amp Somebody who gets it!  But we can't talk about the victims of the invasion can we? We're not allowed. Another thing Hitchens doesn't like to talk about conveniently are the many terrorist attacks in Turkey by his angelic Kurdish friends. We changed Iraq from a secular government to a terrorist training ground under Shira law. Great move. Kurds were rebelling weren't they? Try to over throw this government and see if they don't respond with violence.

[MrSalamander7]

1:36 is the angriest I've ever heard Hitchens speak.

[manonthemount]

@MrSalamander7 and rightfully so

[batvette]

@MrSalamander7 it's also the most damning argument against war critics, whose only alternative to the war has been that things were just fine as they were, starving millions to death- until we mucked it up with a war that killed lots of people.

As for Iraq and 9/11 perhaps people are ignorant that 9/11 happened because of our policy in containing saddam- see Al Qaeda's 1998 fatwa.