Unforgettable Ass-Kickings No. 1: Ed Herman deals to Christopher Hitchens (Jul. 18, 2013)

Morrissey24

18 July 2013 at 8:01 pm

Unforgettable Ass-Kickings
No. 1: Ed Herman deals to Christopher Hitchens

Rejoinder To Christopher Hitchens
by EDWARD HERMAN, 25 August 2008
http://www.zcommunications.org/rejoinder-to-christopher-hitchens-by-edward-herman

In a “Rejoinder to Noam Chomsky” in early October, Christopher Hitchens put up two sentences regarding my own writing, as follows:

“Mr. Herman has moved from opposing the bombing of Serbia to representing the Milosevic regime as a victim and as a nationalist peoples democracy. He has recently said, in a ludicrous attack on me, that the ‘methods and policies’ of the Western forces in Kosovo were ‘very similar’ to the tactics of Al-quaeda; an assertion that will not surprise those who are familiar with his style.”

This packs a lot of misrepresentation into two sentences. Nowhere in my writings have I ever used any one of the three words “nationalist peoples democracy” to describe the Milosevic regime and never would, so Hitchens’ language is straightforward fabrication and misrepresentation. For Hitchens I must be an apologist for Milosevic because I have “opposed the bombing of Serbia,” just as one might be called an apologist for Saddam Hussein for objecting to the “sanctions of mass destruction.” But of course he is not an apologist for NATO and Bill Clinton for supporting the bombing of Serbia.

Notice also that he speaks of my making the “Milosevic regime” the “victim” of NATO bombing rather than the people of that regime. But I have never focused my sympathy on the regime as victim, just the people killed, injured and traumatized. Imagine how Hitchens would assail for outrageous insensitivity to the real civilians massacred an individual who spoke sarcastically of somebody being bothered by the recent New York/Washington attacks which only “victimized” the “Bush and capitalist regimes.”

Hitchens says that I equate the tactics of Al-Quaeda with those of the Western forces “in Kosovo.” But the text that he is criticizing was comparing the attack on civilians in New York and Washington with the systematic NATO bombing of civilian facilities in SERBIA, not the military operations in Kosovo. In both the attacks on New York/Washington and Serbia, civilian “collateral damage” was either entirely acceptable or positively desired. In the Serbia bombing case there is solid evidence that the destruction of civilian facilities and inevitable civilian deaths and injuries were planned for and seen as positive….

Read more….
http://www.zcommunications.org/rejoinder-to-christopher-hitchens-by-edward-herman

• North24.1

  18 July 2013 at 9:29 pm

  Christopher Hitchens is/was a common prostitute to the ruling money class.

  One of these people who are so flakey as to be “look at me look at me” wahanui Trots’ and Commies early on and then jump heaps of fences clear to the other side of the political spectrum. Announcing their arrival with redoubled tino wahanui as though no one’s noticed. Classic con-men/women. For example Rob Campbell…….Progressive Youth Movement back in the day……..latterly a seriously malevolent right wing Ports of Auckland schemer.

  I must have got it wrong but I thought the unappealing egomaniac Hitchens died a couple of years ago. If you want some fun have a look on YouTube at the debate at some US university – Hard out George Galloway and Mr Pompous Narcissist Hitchens.

  Beautiful ! In keeping with the narcissism Hitchens thought he’d won. HaHaHa !
  • Morrissey24.1.1

    19 July 2013 at 8:24 am

    I thought the unappealing egomaniac Hitchens died a couple of years ago.

    He did indeed, but not before writing a particularly stupid autobiography. It looks like the poor fellow spent most of his last few months trying to get even with all those who had humiliated him over the last shameful decade of his life.

    And by the way, no one considered that Hitchens got the better of Galloway in that epic confrontation in 2005. The person who, more than anyone else, realized that Galloway had vanquished him was Hitchens himself.

    That laughable autobiography of his fires a few limp shots at Galloway, but I think even as he composed his bilious and dishonest prose, the dying Hitchens realized he was flogging a dead horse.

    I recommend it if you want a good laugh, or indeed, a melancholy look at what happens to the venal and unfeasibly self-important.
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