> The line that connects Afghanistan to Iraq is
> not a straight one by any means. But the oblique connection is ignored by the potluck peaceniks, and
> one can be sure (judging by their past form) that it would be ignored even if it were as direct as
> the connection between al Qaeda and the Taliban. Saddam Hussein denounced the removal of the Sunni
> Muslim-murdering Slobodan Milosevic, and also denounced the removal of the Shiite-murdering Taliban.
> Reactionaries have a tendency to stick together (and I don't mean "guilt by association" here. I
> mean GUILT).
Indeed, "the line that connects Afghanistan to Iraq is not a straight one." Hitchens' implication here, that there is a line nonetheless, needs to be evened out: One of the groups Saddam has been actively trying to suppress in northern Iraq, Ansar al-Islam, has ties to al-Qaeda and Taliban fundamentalism. Like other fundamentalist Islamic groups, they want to replace Saddam's nominally secular Ba'ath party with something more theocratic.
Brian
--
"At times one remains faithful to a cause only because its opponents do not cease to be insipid." - Friedrich Nietzsche
"Il etait enfin venu, le jour ou je fus un pourceau!" - Comte de Lautreamont, Les Chants de Maldoror, 4th Hymn, Strophe 6