Hitchins' report/comment on London bombings..(partly blames Britain's

[bobbieinok]

'leniency' regarding Muslims

http://www.slate.com/id/2122186/#ContinueArticle

[gratuitous]

1. What was it Galloway called Hitchens?

Oh yes: "You're a drink-soaked former Trotskyist popinjay." Hitchens' hands are probably shaking right now; he badly needs another drink.

[wtmusic]

2. What else would you expect from a drink-soaked popinjay?

:eyes:

[amazona]

3. can't quite get it

Maybe I'm a drink-soaked popinjay myself but he points out that there is a large Muslim population in London and it is almost certain that Muslims would have been injured or killed in this type of attack.

Don't know what he is trying to say.

I agree with one point -- don't blame Iraq. Too many here on DU itself are saying, "Well this is payback for invading Iraq" which is tantamount for blaming Iraqis for something they almost certainly did not do.

You'd better show me some evidence before blaming Iraq.

[K-W]

5. Your Iraq point is a very flawed argument.

You are arguing that the only way Iraq could be involved in the motivation for this attack is if Iraqi's were involved. That is clearly not true, people around the world are angered about the invasion, especially those people who believe themselves to be fighting a war against the west to liberate muslims.

[newswolf56]

4. Hitchens' point -- and I think it is a very apt one -- is...

...that when Jihadist Muslims attack a nation in which there is a large (non-Jihadist) Muslim minority living in peaceful coexistence with the non-Islamic majority, part of the Jihadist purpose is to further divide the Muslim and non-Muslim populations, with the obvious long-range goal of further Jihadist recruitment. This makes particularly good sense given Hitchens' analysis that Jihadist terrorism is an expression of a "civil war" within Islam: the struggle between moderates (who seek coexistence) and extremists (who seek to impose a global caliphate). In this context the great failure of the Bush Administration is not merely its inability to distinguish between the two factions, but the backhanded support for the Jihadists shown by the "failure" to capture bin Laden and the "blunders" that are nurturing theocracy in Iraq.

[K-W]

6. I think civil war is a poor description

and Hitchens oversimplifies things quite a bit, but that is a good point

[theboss]

7. I don't think it's leniency

First of all, it's important to note that Hitchens thinks any religious person is deeply mistaken. He is an ardent secularist.

And the point is that Britain has a huge Muslim population that they are not quite sure how to deal with. Hitchens is a firm believer - as am I to a large degree - that a new wave of immigrants has to fold its beliefs and value system into the society they enter. Britain seems to be tempted to go the other way.

[MisterP]

8. smells like--like--sweat, gin, flop sweat, gin, bad writing, gin, gin,

cigars, gin, wine coolers, gin, gin, gin, scotch, gin, brandy, gin, gin again, gin, gin, (this is getting hypnotic) gin, even more brandy, vodka, gin, manscaping products, gin, grease, gin, and the tar that he keeps spitting up from the hydrocarbon reactions cracking his esophageal carbon from all the gin.

[OneBlueSky]

9. sorry . . . I don't listen to drunks . . . or read their stuff . . . n/t

.