Christopher Hitchens and Wladyslaw Placzynski part 1/9 (1988 )

[tenthousandsuns]

I will give Wlady one thing: he's right in his criticism of the press.

[RockaRolla74]

Placzynski sounds like he's constantly out of breath. Then he does the Milton mumble throughout the discussion...weird

[paxpaul]

Wladyslaw Placzynski's inability to make eye contact while talking makes it nearly impossible to give him any credence or even any attention. He's shifty and dishonest, as least in appearance and sound, and he comes across as both foolish and pompous, a bad combination. Hitchens is already the polished rhetorician that sane and rational people love to this day.

[KEEYNOTEMUSIC]

what Bush memo is Hitchens talking about around 8:00

[harveysuperboy]

Everytime this ass speaks he come across as a racist.

[fos4242]

Wow, was this the time when people could discuss politics without screaming at each other?

[lustre5]

Wow--wasn't he cute in addition to that wonderful brain.

[pratto54321]

Is it me or does hitch look like the kind of guy that gets laid alot when he was young like this?

[MEpianist]

Wlady just spews weak insults. He is so out-classed by Hitch.

[jeffmaylor]

Hitchens was quite bad in the early days, having gotten it wrong on Communism and the fight for the West. It would be easier to take him seriously now if he formally renounced his very bad ideas early in his career (and not just begrudgingly as he has been forced to do by some of his more embarrassing positions). His non-analysis was trite and Leftist back then. Now he has been reborn as a NeoCon Atheist who keeps his Socialist sensibilities while having dumped their core substance.

[davethehostage]

@jeffmaylor I realize that this was posted 6 months ago, bu it looks like everyone has taken it at face value, for whatever reason. You actually couldn't be more wrong - you're either ill-informed, or simply lying when you suggest Hitchens is in any way conservative. The only issue he holds a "conservative" opinion about is the Iraq war. I can direct you, if you wish, to the article in which he dismisses the idea of being a "conservative" as "repulsive".

[david552]

"3rd world type candidate" does that even count as a euphemism?

[zootella]

Wladyslaw Placzynski ..where is he now?

[lanceawatt]

Woaw Hitchins lookin rough as usual... sure likes his drink!

[shashintokyo]

You think? I was just thinking how much younger and lighter he looked.

[lanceawatt]

I agree he looks more youthful and fitter... I was going by the bags under his eyes - probably not the best method of judgment.

But it's true that he often looks outrageously hungover.

[shashintokyo]

As he has often said himself, his intellect is at its best when its slightly well oiled. Honestly, I have to admire that because I know my intellect deteriorates in proportion to alcohol consumed.

[waz89]

AdamSzm saying about Rushdie! not at all, Hitchens one of the most independent thinkers, if not only one today - and of course its not hypocritical; prospects of nuclear war, Islamic extremism among many factors that have increased in 20 yrs

[seanearnest]

Is that a Johnny Walker pin on his lapel?! Rad

[AdamSzm]

If you do not think that oh, the Iraq War is bad, then I hate to break it to you but your circle of friends is getting smaller by the minute. Actually, there is you, Hitchens, and a few crazed neocons left. And maybe a few hicks that listen to Fox News religiously.

No WMDs. A puppet govt instead of promised democracy. The country destroyed. Thousands of people dead. Al Kaida all over Iraq. Terrorism on the rise in the Middle East.

But at least the pipelines are ours. For now.

[Zeromus7]

Since I assume you have heard Hitchens' reasons for supporting the war, what would you have people do in the face of terrorism? He's not defending the results of the war or even the manner in which it was conducted, but the reason for going to war. And not this WMD bullshit reason, but the fanaticism that would have all of us enslaved or dead. I'm sure his anti-theism, along with the Rushdie incident, gives him plenty of fuel for his convictions.

[GaiusIuliusTaberna]

@AdamSzm I'm going to quote Hitchens in his own words responding to someone calling him a neocon "I'm not any kind of conservative"

I hate to break it to you, but the vast majority of people against the Iraq war are conservatives who are against the amount of money we spent and the number of american lives lost, not your anti american propaganda.

The war in Iraq was a progressive war to rid the world of a brutal tyrant, and it succeeded.

[AdamSzm]

"what would you have people do in the face of terrorism?"

Fight it. But make a distinction between a criminal act and an act of war. 9/11 was not an act of war.

Imagine if the UK took the same approach in the 80s against the IRA, and invaded Ireland, after bombing Dublin, Derry, Limerick, and Cork for a month. It wouldn't make sense, would it?

It makes even less sense here because there is no evidence of a link between the Iraqi govt and Al-Kaida.

[GaiusIuliusTaberna]

@AdamSzm Sorry, but in what sense was 9-11 not an act of war?

A revolutionary organization bombed 2 american cities, the headquarters of the military and a major financial institution, killing thousands. Clearly that's a cassus beli to fight a war against at least the Islamic fundamentalist terrorist organization al Qaeda and their allies, if not all Islamic fundamentalist terrorist organizations.

The Taliban remains such an organization, hence the current conflict.

[AdamSzm]

"hence the current conflict"

This "current conflict" is not so current. It started way before 9/11, way before 1991, way before Halabja events of 1988 (when nothing was made of the atrocity in the media at the time because Saddam was our friend back then), way before the Iran-Iraq war... I would recommend a longer memory span.

"The Taliban"

The Taliban were not based in Iraq. But yeah, the "links" between Saddam and the Taliban, of course, everything based on solid intelligence...

[GaiusIuliusTaberna]

@AdamSzm No the Taliban are based in Afghanistan and Pakistan and are the group we are concentrating on today.

If you want to talk about the origin of the problems in Mesopotamia, it goes all the way back to the collapse of the Ottoman empire after world war one, and that's a long drawn out history that I have studied.

The relevant facts are, Saddams party was modeled on the worst examples of 20th century totalitarianism and had to be deposed.

[joejjohnston]

well actually Margaret Thatcher did nothing to help northern Ireland. In Parliament she said 'can't all the Catholics just go to the south?' Then some one said ' you mean like Cromwell did?' Her reply was ' yes thats the one'. Just to remind you that Cromwell was responsible for one of the largest acts of ethnic cleansing in europe. Tony Blair's labour government though has improved NI more in the last 13 years than any government in the 20th century.

[SuperColin74]

@joejjohnston maybe she was right.

[joejjohnston]

Well, she definately wasn't. That kind of Fascistic thinking is what caused the problem there anyway. Secondly, catholic-protestant relations were the worst they've been in the second half of the 20th century under Thatcher.

[LambadLambadLambda]

@GaiusIuliusTaberna

You're the biggest fucking idiot in the world. Everything you say is complete bullshit. I don't even have time to dismantle everything you say.

[GaiusIuliusTaberna]

Don't kid yourself into thinking you could.

[AdamSzm]

A "neocon lackey" is one of many terms that can be used. Richard Seymour in his book "Liberal Defense Of Murder" characterized Hitchens and a few other former leftists that supported the 2003 invasion (Bernard Henri-Levy, Kanan Makiya, Michael Ignatieff) as "useful idiots". Meaning that the Bush administration could point to them and say "see, it's not only neoconservatives that are pro-war, but also these guys".

As with Galloway's characterization of Hitchens, Seymour's is also spot on.

[AdamSzm]

There is nothing wrong with adjusting your views. He certainly did so.

He did a u-turn on the war in Iraq. He went from being right to being wrong.

As George Galloway put it, it was something unique in natural history, the first-ever metamorphosis from a butterfly back into a slug.

[aweiss]

george galloway is a dumb piece of shit. There is no one more slug-like than him

[AdamSzm]

That may be. But he's spot on about Hitchens' metamorphosis. Once an astute independent observer, now a neocon lackey.

[aweiss]

there's nothing that isn't astute about Hitchens :D lackeys tend to just go along with the consensus, "oh, the Iraq War is bad! Endless idiots express this nonsense and Hitchens puts them down.

[AdamSzm]

Hitchens likes to call himself an independent observer, a one-issue voter. He doesnt want to be affiliated with any political party or movement. This is commendable.

He did support Obama, but there was really no alternative. Unless you can call the McCain-Palin duo an alternative.

His views did change after his friend S. Rushdie received death threats. Hitchens admits that himself. On the subject of the war on terror, he teamed up with neocons, and completely abandoned the left.

[AdamSzm]

Hitchens' die-hard fans seem to have a hard time accepting that the dramatic change in his political views could have been motivated by things not necessarily related to a change of heart.

[F33bs]

If you knew anything about Christopher Hitchens, which you don't, then you'd know that his political views are pretty much the same now as then.

Iraq is really the only position he differed on with the left.

He voted for Obama and has said he supports universal healthcare. Don't know what kind of "neo-con" that would be.

[niginit]

Hitchens looks like he would be my older brother. So odd to see him this young.

Thanks for the upload, it was like opening a time capsule.

[AdamSzm]

Hitchens was brilliant. Too bad he sold out to neocons later on. Such a shame.

[sleepcity]

Let's also notice the young(ish) Brian Lamb! Combover and all!

[sleepcity]

"Bush is just a hole in the air..."

Brilliant as usual, Hitch!

[Shigawire]

Placzynski, wow.. what a fucking tool.

And he seems to be sweaty and awkward :D

[SmelOdies]

@Shigawire I wonder if you told ole Wlady 22 years ago an image search on him on the interwebs a couple decades in the future would generate images of almost all Hitchens, would he would be surprised.

[4449911]

Always great to see Hitch before the "sell-out".

[waksibra]

what "sell-out"?

[mjr256]

Lil' Hitchens! Wow, that's awesome! Thanks for uploading this.

[1qewretry]

Christ that Placzynski is boring.