[lit-ideas] Christopher Hitchens: Trotskyite To Neocon?
- From: "M.A. Camp" <macampesq@xxxxxxxxx>
- To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
- Date: Wed, 5 Oct 2005 09:12:25 -0500
The Purest Neocon
The American Conservative
^<http://www.freerepublic.com/%5Ehttp://amconmag.com/2005/2005_10_10/article3.html>|
10/10/05 | Tom Piatak
Excerpt:
There is no denying Christopher Hitchens's skill as a public figure: he is
seldom at a loss for words, sometimes entertaining, and occasionally even
right. But he keeps getting important things wrong because, throughout his
political wanderings, there persists a strange loyalty to an obscure
bloodthirsty revolutionary and to the ideals of the Bolshevik Revolution.
For Hitchens - now honored throughout the neoconservative Right - remains
what he has been throughout his public life, a disciple of Leon Trotsky and
a talented writer and polemicist - perhaps the most talented polemicist the
Bolshevik tradition has produced in the West.
Given Hitchens's current role as a neocon fellow traveler, it is instructive
(not to mention fun) to recall with whom he used to travel. When the United
States was locked in a mortal struggle with Soviet Communism, Hitchens was
at best AWOL, at worst pulling for the other team. From his safe post at The
New Statesman and later The Nation, Hitchens opposed every effort to defeat
Communism including the defense of South Vietnam, the deployment of cruise
missiles and Pershing missiles in Europe, the invasion of Grenada, American
support for the Contras, and Reagans military buildup. Hitchens can be
sensitive about his past - he is quite angry with his brother Peter for
letting us know that Christopher used to joke about not caring if the Red
Army waters its horses in Hendon - but there can be no doubt where Hitchens
stood during the Cold War. He was faithfully following Leon Trotsky, who
wrote in 1939, the defense of the USSR coincides for us with the preparation
of world revolution.
--
Cheers,
M.A. Camp, Esq.
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