Mike Hudack

Pro-Torture?

I don’t normally post opinions here, but I’ve been reading a lot of vitriol against Christopher Hitchens for his latest piece against waterboarding. I don’t really understand why some people hate him so much. He supported the initial intelligence about Iraqi WMDs and thought something should be done. I’m not sure if he ever called for an invasion, but the reason the Iraq War has been so disastrous is because it was an invasion, not an attack. The Gulf War was a success because it was not an invasion.

As for people criticizing him for his stance against fascism with an Islamic face, I really think these people should evaluate how far they’ll go to protect themselves from connections between racism and criticizing a culture that hangs homosexuals, stones adulteresses, takes away basic human rights for women, and calls for the murder of critics and entire ethnicities.

I for one, am firm in my stance against anybody who espouses the above barbaric practices. If you’re a Muslim, Jew, Christian, Hindu, Buddhist, Confucianist, cultist, or athiest who does such things, I will speak out against you and support actions to stop your authority. I’m also against invasions of states, torture, and Western governments’ recent pushes to limit our liberties. Hitchens takes some hard lines, but judge them intellectually and not with your knee-jerk “oh well I heard he was a neo-con” mentality.

At the end of the day, though, even if you still hate the guy, how can you criticize him for saying that Westerners shouldn’t torture people? How petty can you be?

You can most certainly critize Hitchens for suggesting that Westerners shouldn’t torture people. I happen to agree with him, but there is an argument to be made in favor of torture although I don’t think it’s particularly valid and I wouldn’t make it, but it exists. If there’s one thing Hitchens likes, it’s a good argument. Don’t begrudge him that. He loves it. He loves being attacked and attacking back. He lives for it.

How do I know? I’ve argued with him. And gotten my ass kicked. It was during the run-up to the Iraq war and I attended a panel discussion he participated in. I went outside for a smoke, and there was Hitchens. We really got into it — several cigarettes worth. I was right and he was wrong, but that’s not the way it seemed at the time… he’s damn good at argument. He can defend himself.

Which brings me to my next problem with your post. Hitchens has been on the wrong side of almost every issue (torture aside) for his entire public life. In the space of a few years he pivoted from being a Soviet apologist to being a neoconservative apologist. This is why people dislike him. He has consistently defends corruption, ideology be damned. Does he do it just because he enjoys an intellectual challenge? I think so, but I couldn’t tell you for sure.