Nazis! Part 2
Jonathan Foreman was the other person, beside Michael Totten, who was with Christopher Hitchens when he was attacked on Hamra Street in Beirut. Here’s his account of what happened.
No one from the café moved to help us. The policeman we had spoken to earlier was no longer in sight. Then a squat middle-aged man in a sweatshirt and open leather jacket, who seemed to be the leader of the attackers, said something to the youth kicking Christopher. He backed off. Christopher climbed uneasily to his feet, blood staining the arm of his blue shirt, just as another taxi pulled up to the intersection. The three of us jumped in with Hitch in the front seat. This time, when we asked the cabbie to “just drive”, he did so. Fortunately, the street was clear ahead. As we accelerated past the gang, one of them reached in an open window to punch Hitch once more in the face. Fearful of being followed, we had the driver take us to a big international hotel in another part of town.
Read the rest here.
So Hitchens writes obscenities on a flag in a third world country.
He’s out of his mind.
I first read of the attack on Hitchens last month and was similarly not surprised he was attacked. He was lucky he was not killed.
Westeners don’t go anywhere in the world anymore without being targets. We have few citizen allies in the world. The normally besotted Hitchens claims that he was not under the influence but he clearly ran out of common sense at the wrong time.
“So Hitchens writes obscenities on a flag in a third world country.
He’s out of his mind.” I believe it was a sign commemorating the Nazis’. Hitchens is a little “unhitched” true but a man of his convictions. One could easily imagine him bing put away in Iran, RUssia, or some other thugocracy. I suspect that he’d have share the fate of some jews and gypsies too in world war 2 Germany. I think the world is a little better with his kind.
BTW – can’t make the link work.
Annoy Mouse:
“I think the world is a little better with his kind.”
I agree 100% but I’d like him to survive long enough to practice what he does best. He’s got a great mind and a manner to cut through a lot of bull. I’d hate to lose his voice in some alley in Beirut.
If he wants to do those things he needs to hire some out of work BlackWater mercenaries to watch his six.
Hitchens did well the other day, along with Salman Rushdie, in challenging an offensive Islamist rapper on TV. Then he went and wrote an Anti-semitic screed repeating lies about the conduct of the Israeli Defense Forces in Gaza. He is unstable and unpredictable but he does have courage but not judgement. He is an old fashioned liberal imperialist who knows in his bones that he has the right to criticize the provincials.
Many many years ago my Father went on a trip to Latin America with a Letter of Introduction from somebody or other. When he arrived in Havana he said to the taxi driver that he understood they had a new man in charge. The reply was “Si, Señor, Sergeant Batista.” My Father, who was not anybody important, replied “Good, let’s go see him.” So the taxi took him to the barracks where Fulgencio Batista was living and the Sergeant came out to the veranda and apologized that his family had just sat down to dinner but spent 10 minutes in conversation with my Father, because an American had come to talk to him.
Lebanon has always seemed such a fascinating place of intrigue and contradictions. Maybe Algeria was that way once too. Unfortunately in that part of the world all that’s exotic and of interest is eventually bled dry by Muslim madmen.
Dont’ worry… Obama will make nice with the bad guys.
Hitchens acted like a self-righteous kid out of college. He’s an idiot, too convinced of his moral superiority to understand basic decency and respect. His antics could have gotten his associates in a bag. I hope he was grown-up enough to apologize to Mr. Totten who will have a tough time reporting out of the same place now that he’s been associated with a classless buffoon.
When you’re in a place as virulently bigoted as the Middle East like Lebanon, or racist like the Far East like Japan and Korea, it’s best not to try and pick fights by acting like a bigot yourself.
Hitchens’ assailant’s reaction to vandalism was perfectly understandable.
You’re a guest in their country; act accordingly. Recognize the culture for what it is and interact with it in a mature fashion….or leave.
I’m thinking, increasingly, that I’d like to have a beer (or five) with Mr. Hitchens in a dark bar some place. Wretchard is welcome to join us, too.
Theme song for the occasion might very well turn out to be Zevon’s “Send Lawyers, Guns and Money”.
These cockroaches come so readily to the bait, you would think someone could easily devise an effective means of extermination.