HITCH-COCKED: A Conversation with Christopher Hitchens

Recorded on March 25, 2005
Journalist Christopher Hitchens discusses neoconservatives and the left, his break with The Nation magazine over his support of the war in Iraq, and his tour of the three members of the "axis of evil."

[@tylerdurden7287]

We miss you, Hitch.

[@HooverInstitution]

The interview was recorded on March 25, 2005.

[@whosafraidoferiknrding4470]

HooverInstitution Thank you for uploading it.

[@no-oneman.4140]

What a mind. What a loss.

[@jestermoon]

Take A Moment The Man. Thx for posting Stay Safe and Stay Free

[@jestermoon]

April 2023. We need more help today.

[@adamtryczynski]

Why not just post the whole discussion?

[@VarrialeAndrea]

Anybody knows if the full interview is available?

[@Viky.A.V.]

Thank you so much for sharing! Where can I find the whole interview, please?

[@MuireKnight]

On the question on how the middle east would look 10 years from 2005, it's incredible how completely different from anyone predictions at that time, it actually turned out.Although Hitchen's warning of the Islamic caliphate from other interviews did come true.

[@jeffreycliff922]

a decade later...no Palestinian state, really.

[@darwinkilledgod]

His predictions were sadly untrue. No Palestinian state...Libya not a very functioning democracy.

[@gravenewworld6521]

His predictions changed in 2008-10 (I can't remember the exact time slot) in a few of his essays he altered his views based on a variety of geopolitical developments. His updated predictions were more or less right on, with great precision.

[@cmhardin37]

not since Hillary killed ghadafi

[@gravenewworld6521]

bob bob Ok... sure. Please see the phrase: More or less.

[@melvintheboxerdog2263]

there must never be a Palestinian state without total acceptance of Israel's right to exist...even that is too little. Palestinians live by dar so harb...house of war...and of the offensive kind. no democratic state can bear such an entity on its border...especially when that Islamic state is factionalized by Hamas which is dedicated to the total destruction of Israel....even hitch came to accept that much before his untimely death.

[@MrTokyojose]

What's the date of this? It's not from Sept 2008.

[@eashton42]

+Tokyorocks_2013 It's from March 25, 2005.

[@brandonsotomayor3]

Hitchens was wrong on Iraq, but not for the reason that most liberals think. Hussein did need to be deposed, but (as Hitchens concedes in some interviews) it was handled badly. Namely, the putting off of elections and America becoming an occupying force. Secondly, the dissolution of the old Iraqi military, which was unnecessary, and it guaranteed that a group like ISIS would arise.

[@matlord8799]

+Brandon Sotomayor He talked about these failings, at length lol, so he was right. I think the complete dissolving of the Iraqi army was a very bad idea. However, many of the generals (who then founded ISIS as you said) were war criminal mass murderers and rapists. They should have been captured by any means necessary and new military leadership stalled. The idea that ISIS only exist because of the Iraqi army dissolution is false though. Also, consider the amount of murder and rape these ISIS people committed when they were under Saddam (as his generals)? The difference now, is that they do not have massive stocks of poison gas, and crucially, they do not have an air-force. This is an improvement imo.

[@theeternaltheatreproductio8161]

I would agree. The issue is that although putting off elections and having America as an occupying force was a short term issue there is a strong correlation between the decrease in violence when American troops were present. The problem with all of this being that America never created the organic, long term institutions which would have aided democracy coming into fruition. Elections are the end goal, they shouldn't be the beginning step in democracy you need organic institutions (see the 13 Colonies which had essentially governed themselves for years and when they did become a part of an independent state they based their governing body on the English Parliament, the Act of Union and the Bill of Rights- essentially institutions and law they were already familiar with as members of the Anglosphere)

[@robertrichard6107]

I'm a Viet Nam era Libya, Lebanon, Libya, Persian Gulf (False Flag) war veteran and I think this 26-27 min. of hog wash with Peter Robinson is incomplete and simplistic. The only position Hitch is on the correct side on for peace, and justice was Viet Nam's. And I couldn't quite hear all of his sentences the way he drops off at the end of his speech. My research of North Korea reveals a lot of Catholic Church, and CIA prodding, that does sound facinating though of Hitch's trip there. On the street in Israel they brag about selling nuclear material to North Korea. They say some body will anyway. I didn't hear Robinson or Hitch mention Eisenhower's Atoms for Peace program for Iran, and Iraq which was how both their programs got started. Somebody was slipping MK-Ultra kool-aid in Hitch's gin me thinks by this 2005 period. The U.S. went into Iraq in 2003 one week before they were going to receive oil payments from France in Euros. The only true statement that anyone made in the 'W' Governor of Texas administration was Collin Blow Powell's when he said "If we go in there, we own it." Now of course those pallets of freshley printed cash that disappeared over there could sure help us out here in 2020 to help this inept president to fix infrastructure problems, corona virus etc. Our Congress has squandered trillions of dollars now since FDR's time making up problems we have to fix with our Military. The Congress has completely abdicated to fascist covert presidents and big government ABC agency's on the MIC gravy train.

[@jamesjefferson9228]

Well, as of March 2015, things didn't work out at Hitch expected.

[@01HILARYKEEGAN]

It pains me to watch Hitchens get it so wrong -unfortunately no one is infallible!

[@gravenewworld6521]

The issue is that whatever you think of saddam it is universally acknowledged that he was going to loose power because of his declining mental state, had this happened he would have been replace by his sons. That would have been catastrophic. His sons were known for going to weddings killing everybody in attendance, then kidnapping the bride and groom and forcing the groom to watch as the bride was gang rapped and then forcing the bride to watch as the groom was eaten alive by starving dogs, after this the bride was raped again and then tortured to death. This was done multiple times for no other reason than they thought it was funny.

[@jodawgsup]

although I don't doubt it, I haven't heard that story with such horridly vivid detail. Where did you get it from?

[@johnpoulsen7582]

Hilary Keegan me too. But I look at it as prep for his later greatness

[@momo22sissoko]

Peter , probed , n made hitch a wishy washy contrarian

[@HaleysComet81]

Hitchens was wrong about just about everything here. A rarity.