Sunday, December 18, 2011

Hitch and Havel

Christopher Hitchens died this week, along with Vaclev Havel. Men that I admired, still do. I was a huge fan of Christopher Hitchens. I believe he was a genius with the written and spoken word. I loved his politics, his support for Salman Rushdie when the fatwa was issued against him. All of these things and his wonderful books, what a body of work he left behind. Vaclav Havel rode the Velvet Revolution of 1989 as a Czech dissident. An accomplished writer, he wrote numerous successful plays, and he was President of Czechoslavakia. Two amazing voices are gone in a week. Also the Iraq war died this week. Something I never admired. Causing untold  misery for years to come. Families decimated, war veterans not being taken care of properly. Iraq in ruins. Mission accomplished for Rove, Cheney and Bush and all their minions. Christmas is a week away, the New Year  is almost upon us. I wish peace for the families of Christopher Hitchens and Vaclav Havel. Peace for all who have survived and those who did not in the Iraq War. Surely we can do better this year. If only we'd give peace a chance.

6 comments:

  1. And a Merry Christmas to you and yours.

    Phil

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  2. I was a fan of Hichens' work, too, but fell out of favor with his political leanings after he started carrying water for Dubya and Cheney. In my humble opinion, war criminals ought not be coddled, they deserve to be in shackles before a tribunal at The Hague. But whenever I read Hichens I was reminded of just what a great mind and quick witted curmudgeon he was... my favorite atheist philosopher (if you don't count Bill Maher...)

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  3. "Mission accomplished for Rove, Cheney and Bush and all their minions."

    I disagree. What did they accomplish?

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  4. @ notacynic, Well, I'll start w/ Cheney, former CEO of Haliburton. Owns 433,333 shares of Halliburton. Halliburton received over 9 billion worth of no bid contracts in Iraq. Winning! Lynne Cheney (Dicks wife)sat on the board of directors of Lockheed Martin, received contracts from the Pentagons 40 billion budget, for the Iraq war. General Dynamics, known for the Stryker vehicles, among others, used for the 2003 invasion of Iraq, John Ashcroft is just one of their lobbyists. Secretary of the Navy Gordon England, was the former VP of General Dynamics.Deputy Secretary of state Richard Armitage, former employee of Raytheon, reported directly to Karl Rove as senior advisor. The accomplishment of profit for the rape,pillage and murder of the country of Iraq and it's people, should be pretty obvious by now. As my friend Squatlo says, they need to be brought in front of an international tribunal and charged as war criminals.

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  5. If there were any justice in the world, the people who promoted, misled, and sold us this conflict would be rounded up, placed in shackles, and shipped off to The Hague as a reminder to others that war/torture/occupation HAS to be answered for. It's sad that our former prez hides at his "ranch" in Crawford, afraid to travel internationally for fear of arrest and prosecution, while we tolerate his ass like royalty.

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  6. Good points, Patricia. You caught me thinking along public policy lines and forgetting about the private profit element.

    Dismissing their stated reasons (which we know to be bullshit) many of us believe that the neo-cons imagined that they could remake the middle east. Whether or not they believed their own jibber jabber about bringing democracy to Iraq it seems obvious that they intended to increase America's influence in the region and gain more control of the oil over there. In that it would seem that they failed.

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