In the light of current events in Iraq, I wonder if Christopher Hitchens still endorses his argument in this collection of essays – that the United States was right to invade Iraq and depose Saddam Hussein? With the last essay published in April 2003, he remains dismissive of the anti-war movement, dwelling rather on the celebration of Saddam’s defeat by Iraqi Americans in Dearborn, Michigan.
This is an ongoing theme of his book. He heaps his customary vitriol on United Nations weapons inspectors, the peace movement, the French and other such opponents of the war. He also lays into the arguments against the war, insisting that there are both justified grounds for pre-emptive strikes by the USA. It is not that he particularly like George W Bush and the Republicans, rather that he loathes Saddam Hussein and sees his continued existence as a threat to peace.
To be fair to Hitchens, some of his criticisms hit home. Many of the peace movement were (are) naïve, and there may well be politically expedient cases for pre-emptive war against a tyrant. Then again, a bit like roughly 80% of the US bombs used in the first Gulf War, quite often he is off target.
There are still no signs of finding Saddam’s vast arsenal of ‘weapons of mass destruction’. Of course, they may still be hidden somewhere in the desert. Or they may simply never have existed except in the fevered imagination of an American securocrat (or oil baron).
But what is more pertinent, and this seems to have eluded the marvellously eloquent Mr Hitchens, is the fact that – as many of the much-maligned peaceniks pointed out – the war was a dangerous exercise that has proven counterproductive, as daily news coverage attests. The issue was much bigger than getting rid of Saddam; the issue has become the West’s relationship with the Arab world and with Islam.
Simply put, with its oil interests and its all too cosy relationship with an increasingly rightwing and sabre-rattling Israel, the United States is the wrong country to play sheriff in the Middle East. No matter how well intended, no matter the potential for democratisation and increasing civil liberties in Iraq, the US invasion and occupation of Iraq is seen by many in the Arab and Muslim world as an attempt to grab Iraq’s resources and bolster up Israel. Ultimately it is seen as an attack on Islam. Now none of this may necessarily be true, but it is perceived as such and, as such, it can hardly further the cause of democratisation and human rights.
Christopher Hitchens is an excellent writer with a long list of provocative and progressive books behind his name. This new book is as provocative and well written as his earlier works. But, with the deepest respect, I think his conclusions are tragically wrong.