I just listened to the Debate between Hitchens and Berkeley J-School Professor Mark Danner on the topic of America's role in Iraq. It was held at Berkeley at a University Hall on Jan 29th, roughly 30 minutes after Bush's "State of the Union" address. It is one hour and forty minutes long, and took about 7 minutes to load by "Roadrunner" on Realplayer.
It was just outstanding, and I highly recommend it to all. Hitchens was even better in a Debate format than in written form. Danner held his own. Not as eloquent, but made his points well. The audience was 80% pro-Danner, and had to be restrained at times from heckling Hitchens, but he took it in stride. Hey, it's Berkeley! Ya shudda been there, FL. I made some notes on what Hitchens said, and they are below, followed by the URL. Hey, make your own Danner notes! :>)
We are already at war. The no-fly zones were never ok'd by the UN.
Ansar al-Islam, trained by and lined up ideologically with Al Qaeda, is fighting the Kurds alongside Saddam
The Kurdish north shows you a picture of what regime change can be like. 21 Newspapers, a parliament with several parties, some measure of prosperity, in an area that was the most beaten up and repressed in the ME.
The Utopian position is the one that thinks things can go on as they are in Iraq.
Saddam's burning of the Quwait Oil fields and continued attempts to develope WMD in the face of sanctions shows that he is round the bend and must be stopped.
Saddams worst crimes were committed when he was a client of the US, and that was "Blood for Oil" and that is when you people should have put your silly placards up.
If I was a Kurd or Iraqi I would be offended by the idea that I needed someone to run my life with a long occupation. The success of the Kurdish area, in spite of enormous difficulty, shows that these people are capable of running their own lifes.
To wait for Iraq to break up by itself instead of occupying and making a stable transition available is asking for an state of Anarchy to possibly develop on top of 20% of the worlds oil supply.
Chirac is a pimp who sold a nuclear reactor to Saddam, and Hitchens is happy to see the Germans as pacifists. May they stay that way.
webcast.berkeley.edu |
