A Long Short War

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A Long Short War
LC Class
DS79.76 .H58 2003

A Long Short War: The Postponed Liberation of Iraq is a collection of twenty-two articles originally written by Christopher Hitchens for the online magazine Slate. The articles support the impending American-led invasion of Iraq and were written between November 7, 2002 and April 18, 2003.

Background

In the preface, Hitchens is typically unapologetic about his pro-invasion stance (a stance which solidified the author's break with the anti-war leadership of the American left), stating:

I began from the viewpoint of one who took the side of the Iraqi and Kurdish opposition to Saddam Hussein, who hoped for their victory, and who had come to believe that the chiefest and gravest mistake of Western and especially American statecraft had been to reconfirm Saddam Hussein in power in 1991 (Hitchens, v).

Among the many individuals credited in the introduction are

Ahmad Chalabi
(former deputy Prime Minister of Iraq).

Contents

The essays are constructed in highly polemical prose, and heap especial scorn on what Hitchens sees as the sickly masochism of the dovish Left, systematically addressing and dismissing the most popular of the antiwar arguments while tendering ordered expostulations of his own position. Turkey and France were heavily chastised, while a qualified defence of George W. Bush is mounted, in one essay against the charge that the US president merits the appellative "cowboy" and in another that he rushed his nation into war.

"I used to call myself a

totalitarian protectors," wrote Hitchens in 2008, "and on that 'issue' I hope I can continue to expose and oppose any ambiguity."[2]

Responses

Hitchens is seen by many as a "

2003 Invasion of Iraq.[3][4] This informal grouping includes the British writers Nick Cohen, Johann Hari, David Aaronovitch, Norman Geras, Julie Burchill, and the Canadian Michael Ignatieff (see Euston Manifesto).[citation needed] Neoconservatives of the last decade are hesitant to embrace Hitchens as one of their own, in part because of his harsh criticisms of Ronald Reagan[5][6] and his refusal to associate himself as such.[7]

Despite his many articles supporting the US invasion of Iraq, Hitchens made a brief return to The Nation just before the

Republicans to equate Kerry with capitulation. There's no one to whom he can surrender, is there? I think that the nature of the jihadist enemy will decide things in the end".[8]

References

  1. ^ Long Short War: The Postponed Liberation of Iraq Paperback – June 3, 2003. Amazon
  2. ^ All Against Bush: Whom would the Democrats nominate? Slate, February 8, 2004
  3. Los Angeles CityBeat
    , 2004-12-02
  4. Slate.com
    , Monday, January 12, 2004
  5. ^ Not Even a Hedgehog: The stupidity of Ronald Reagan Archived 2011-09-07 at the Wayback Machine. Slate June 7, 2004
  6. ^ Dennis Campbell The snivelers of the Left are not fit to judge Ronald Reagan Archived 2004-06-25 at the Wayback Machine Renew America; June 15, 2004
  7. ^ "Tariq Ali v. Christopher Hitchens". Democracy Now. Retrieved 2007-05-09.
  8. ^ "My Endorsement and Osama's Video: The news in Bin Laden's comments had nothing to do with our election. Slate, November 1, 2004". Archived from the original on August 5, 2011. Retrieved February 1, 2010.
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