[...]
> But not everyone who calls
> themselves "revolutionary" deserves our reflexive support. The
> reactionaries who mislead working people are destructive and political
> Islam is a movement of reactionaries - or at the very least a
> reactionary movement.
>
> Let's end this absurdity. The American-Israeli Neo-Conservative,
> Neo-religious Strategy of Chaos is horrifying. Of course we want
> people to oppose it. But a lot of the people who DO oppose it are
> barbarians, unworthy of support. Stop the knee-jerk craziness.
========================
Are you in favour of the withdrawal of US forces from Iraq, understanding
that this means the likelihood of an Islamist government - yes or no?
That is what is at issue here. No one favours hanging gays or stoning women or repressing liberals and socialists. Hitchens is at least consistent when he argues that the "Islamo-fascists" are so "destructive" that they need to be stopped by any means necessary, notwithstanding that wide sectors of the population in these societies have not invited foreign invasion and occupation to save them from the "barbarians".
So perhaps you, Doug, and others can spare us the unnecessary lectures about the reactionary side of political Islam. If being aligned with the Islamists against US intervention makes you somehow anxious about having dirty hands, please don't try washing them at our expense by suggesting you are above those of us you taint as misguided or crazy.