Spring Break
Christopher Hitchens explains why left is not right
Craig Whitney
Issue date: 2/3/04 Section: Focus
Whitney: So you would consider then supporting the war in Iraq a properly leftist position?
Hitchens: Yes, I think it's the only one. The leftist position is that co-existence with totalitarian dictatorship is undesirable and impossible. That's the principle position. That is, or should be the left position. It used to be.
Whitney: I know that you said following the Sept. 11 attacks that you realized you were very excited because it was going to be "a war of everything you loved against everything you hated."
Hitchens: Yes, more or less that's it. That's exactly what I said. I'll tell you what are the things I like and what are the things I hate if you like.
Whitney: I'd be very curious to hear but...
Hitchens: You could guess I bet.
Whitney: I'm sure I could. Earlier in your life you were much more radically leftist, I guess you could call it, being involved with the Trotskyist elements at Oxford. Do you feel that in any way you've moved away from that? Is your current position on the war in Iraq a part of that, or would you say you've revised your earlier views?
Hitchens: Well, you know I was actually a strong critic of the [1991] war in Iraq, and I got a quite good criticism in print of my position from Kanan Makiya, who I mentioned this evening, who wrote the Republic of Fear, who actually wrote a very generous and fair-minded attack on me, urging me to kind of reconsider. And he, among other people, did change my mind. But Kanan was, and is, the most important Trotskyist in the Middle East. He's a credit to the left opposition.
Whitney: Where did that appear in?
Hitchens: That's in his book "Cruelty and Silence," which is a wonderful book. His books on Iraq are the best Marxist analysis of the Ba'ath Party and its system, and of American foreign policy, that have been published. And this is from a guy who I knew only because he had been a very leading Trotskyist, left-opposition Marxist for a long time; a very brilliant one, too. So, you know, the other day you could see it on the TV and in the papers, though the captions were often very misleading. When Saddam Hussein was arrested there were these huge demonstrations in Baghdad of enthusiasm, with red flags and slogans... This was the Iraqi communist and labor movement saying, "To hell with fascism, workers of the world unite against terrorism." Now that works for me. The American left, you would think they didn't give a sh-- what happened to their comrades in Iraq as long as George Bush didn't benefit from it. This is parochial, petty, provincial thinking. You see it all over the place.
Hitchens: Yes, I think it's the only one. The leftist position is that co-existence with totalitarian dictatorship is undesirable and impossible. That's the principle position. That is, or should be the left position. It used to be.
Whitney: I know that you said following the Sept. 11 attacks that you realized you were very excited because it was going to be "a war of everything you loved against everything you hated."
Hitchens: Yes, more or less that's it. That's exactly what I said. I'll tell you what are the things I like and what are the things I hate if you like.
Whitney: I'd be very curious to hear but...
Hitchens: You could guess I bet.
Whitney: I'm sure I could. Earlier in your life you were much more radically leftist, I guess you could call it, being involved with the Trotskyist elements at Oxford. Do you feel that in any way you've moved away from that? Is your current position on the war in Iraq a part of that, or would you say you've revised your earlier views?
Hitchens: Well, you know I was actually a strong critic of the [1991] war in Iraq, and I got a quite good criticism in print of my position from Kanan Makiya, who I mentioned this evening, who wrote the Republic of Fear, who actually wrote a very generous and fair-minded attack on me, urging me to kind of reconsider. And he, among other people, did change my mind. But Kanan was, and is, the most important Trotskyist in the Middle East. He's a credit to the left opposition.
Whitney: Where did that appear in?
Hitchens: That's in his book "Cruelty and Silence," which is a wonderful book. His books on Iraq are the best Marxist analysis of the Ba'ath Party and its system, and of American foreign policy, that have been published. And this is from a guy who I knew only because he had been a very leading Trotskyist, left-opposition Marxist for a long time; a very brilliant one, too. So, you know, the other day you could see it on the TV and in the papers, though the captions were often very misleading. When Saddam Hussein was arrested there were these huge demonstrations in Baghdad of enthusiasm, with red flags and slogans... This was the Iraqi communist and labor movement saying, "To hell with fascism, workers of the world unite against terrorism." Now that works for me. The American left, you would think they didn't give a sh-- what happened to their comrades in Iraq as long as George Bush didn't benefit from it. This is parochial, petty, provincial thinking. You see it all over the place.