Christopher Hitchens - 'America Reconsidered' (Radio Free Europe/ Radio Liberty)

Christopher Hitchens is one of the most prolific and controversial writers in the English-speaking world. A prominent atheist, he is the author of "God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything," which became an international best-seller in 2007. He has also written books on topics ranging from the partition of Cyprus to Thomas Jefferson and the Anglo-American relationship; his most recent is the memoir "Hitch 22."

RFE/RL writer at large James Kirchick recently interviewed Hitchens at his home in Washington about his left-wing revolutionary past, his views on America, Iran's nuclear program, Turkey's Islamist turn, Putin's Russia, the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and sampled his views on a variety of international figures.

Throughout most of his professional life, Hitchens railed against what he believed to be the abuses of U.S. power, from Vietnam to the Cold War policies of the Reagan administration. He hasn't changed his mind about those matters, but he has developed a new appreciation for
America and its role in the world.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• Hitchens
• politics
• Cold
• War
• diplomacy

[LowleyUK]

@KenyanObama Christopher loathed totalitarianism and by supporting the war he believed this would help the abused Iraqi people, it was a noble intention. It's not his fault it was handled abysmally.

[IconsOfTeleplay]

Collectivism provides NO incentive for product innovation. In the Soviet system intellectual property was shamelessly stolen from the West. The red Russians & the red Chinese couldn't manufacture a decent car, a modern commode nor keep market shelves stocked. Typically a Mother had to spend several hours in line to buy eggs, butter, bread, thread, coffee, tea, tobacco, sugar & meat. Exploding television sets killed 1,000's of Russians throughout the 1960's.

[SouthTexasThrowdown]

@LowleyUK Y'know I think the problem here is that people don't understand that old saying of "when you kill one it's a tragedy, but when you kill a million it's a statistic." It may sound cold but it's true. When we talk about death in large scale we need to start comparing the numbers, e.g., Around 50,000 Americans die every year from auto related accidents. Should we do away with automobiles now? Ok, but then how many will die because there is no longer an ambulance to take them to the ER?

[LowleyUK]

@SouthTexasThrowdown "WAR IS BAD" - This is exactly the case, they bleat it like sheep from Animal farm ("4 legs good..2 legs bad"). The government have failed to adequately explain to the public the reasons and intentions of the war. The people know nothing about Saddam's breaking of UN resolutions, threats, Hallabja, 30 yrs of totalitarianism, and instead the only information that's seemingly penetrated their ignorant minds is that awful phrase "Blood for Oil". Beyond which is a mental void.

[SouthTexasThrowdown]

@LowleyUK Bottom line is while 100,000 died because of the invasion, but millions died under Saddam. Would it have been better to leave him in power? Course people don't ask these questions they just see the TV and papers and say "OH NO!! WAR IS BAD!!!" Thank God for Christopher Hitchens, (yeah you heard me, I said thank God for Hitch.) He was a voice of reason in an insane world.

[roloug95]

for some reason this interview looks mocked up and fake

[KenyanObama]

(1) Stratospheric Welsbach seeding for reduction of global warming : U.S. Pat. 5003186 : Abstract: A method is described for reducing atmospheric or global warming resulting from the presence of heat-trapping gases in the atmosphere, i.e., from the greenhouse effect. Such gases are relatively transparent to sunshine, but absorb strongly the long-wavelength infrared radiation released by the earth. The method includes the step of seeding the layer

[andromidius]

@KenyanObama You're just a troll, as evident by your user name. Just because you lack values worth a human doesn't mean you have to incite others to do as you would.

[andromidius]

@Valk0010iv Its not bad taste. Its never bad to like books. But I imagine they are a collection that took decades to create. So start one now, and by the time you're 60 you may have an even greater collection!

[andromidius]

@LowleyUK Indeed, agreeing with the reasons for the war and agreeing with the methods used in the war are different things. People can't seem to seperate the two concepts, which I believe is a great shame.

[Valk0010iv]

This might seem bad taste for me to say now that he is dead. But forgive me if it might be. But what I would give to have all those books.