Young Blood and Guts (Was: Hitch)

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>Doug wrote that Generalissimo Hitchens bade him adieu saying:
>  > He adds: "Smash The Taliban: A good old left slogan for those with
>  > blood in their veins."
>
>Does this mean he intends to shed some of his? 
>
>I remember a editoral William Burroughs wrote way, way back in the 70s
>for High Times apropos of Anita Bryant's anti-homosexual rantings
>where he offered that religious zealots should be encouraged to become
>snake handlers: "Now you old boys dig in and test your faith."  I think
>those complaining about the lack of moral compass among those against the
>war should be held to the same standard: enlist, or shut the fuck up.
>--
>Curtiss

Which reminds me of Katha Pollitt's "Put Out No Flags" (_The Nation_ 
8 October 2001):

*****   As I write, the war talk revolves around Afghanistan, home of 
the vicious Taliban and hideaway of Osama bin Laden. I've never been 
one to blame the United States for every bad thing that happens in 
the Third World, but it is a fact that our government supported 
militant Islamic fundamentalism in Afghanistan after the Soviet 
invasion in 1979. The mujahedeen were freedom fighters against 
Communism, backed by more than $3 billion in US aid--more money and 
expertise than for any other cause in CIA history--and hailed as 
heroes by tag-along journalists from Dan Rather to William T. 
Vollmann, who saw these lawless fanatics as manly primitives 
untainted by the West. (There's a story in here about the attraction 
Afghan hypermasculinity holds for desk-bound modern men. How lovely 
not to pay lip service to women's equality! It's cowboys and Indians, 
with harems thrown in.)

<http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20011008&s=pollitt>   *****

Yoshie