----- Original Message ----- From: leocasey at aol.com To: asdnet at igc.topica.com Sent: Saturday, September 22, 2001 9:07 AM Subject: RE: [ASDnet] Wolin v. Hitchens
There must be two Christopher Hitchens, since Wolin is responding to an article that is almost, point for point, the opposite of the "Against Rationalization" one I read.
<< There is something especially sinister about the article you forwarded to me. By focusing on the purportedly profound question of "why" Tuesday's events came to pass instead of the question of "how" (as if this "why" is a mystery to all but the "enlightened" Christopher Hitchens), Hitchens suggests, via insinuation and innuendo, that in essence the United States brought this attack upon itself. This is the clear thrust of Hitchens's essay. But, in cowardly fashion, he refuses to state his thesis directly, for fear, no doubt, of having to take responsibility for its implications.
In the recent Guardian article and elsewhere, Hitchens insinuates that this "why" is a relatively simple matter: the US is supporting a "racist" Israeli government that has brought untold and undeserved woe upon the innocently suffering peoples of the Middle East - the Palestinians in particular. But in making such claims, Hitchens makes things too easy for himself. Here, too, I'm afraid Hitchens needs another history lesson - a field that's obviously not his strong point. >>
Leo Casey United Federation of Teachers 260 Park Avenue South New York, New York 10010-7272 (212-598-6869)
Power concedes nothing without a demand. It never has, and it never will. If there is no struggle, there is no progress. Those who profess to favor freedom, and yet deprecate agitation are men who want crops without plowing the ground. They want rain without thunder and lightning. They want the ocean without the awful roar of its waters.
-- Frederick Douglass --
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