GrahamY,
Many regulars logging on for Monday's articles will assume there have not been any posted since Friday am, so they may miss this .... ??

I am intrigued with your comment about "the invasion of Iraq, an invasion which I [GrahamY] didn't support in principle, but once it had begun supported in practice."

What about the "practice" involving such arrogance that Iraqis were soon activated to attack "the liberators"?? and set the whole event back several years?

We live in a real world McReal. I wouldn't have invaded Iraq. Far cheaper, and probably effective in the longer term to enforce the no fly zone, let the Kurd's develop their own autonomy and wait for Saddam to die or fall from power.

It would have involved people dying, but they would have been different people, and who knows where the balance of deaths would have lain.

And then there are all those issues of domestic sovereignty, and I could go on.

But once the invasion was mooted by the US you had to be on board because it couldn't be allowed to fail. The consequences of that would have been worse than going in.

In the end it was a high risk gamble that paid off. The real question is not whether it succeeded, but whether an alternative strategy might not have succeeded better.

The Iraqis by and large didn't rise up against the US, but the invasion did unleash a mini civil war, and there were opportunistic forces like Al Qaeda and the Syrians and Iranians who got involved as well.

I thought Hitchens arguments were valuable, but I did see him as part of a cheer squad. And he had a former Marxist's bias in favour of violent overthrow. We published many who were formerly from the hard Marxist left who took a similar view. Indeed, the Neo-Cons in the US come from the same stable.

And when I publish something on the weekend because it is timely I always include it in the emails on the Monday. People will see it.

David writes

'Revering the works and words of Christopher Hitchens is really giving acclaim to an outstanding proponent of reason and clear thinking processes'

until you compare them with the words of the Master and Saviour.

Hitchens, the atheist supported an atrocity, the invasion of Iraq, and its consequences. I would have expected an atheist to have more compassion.

He might have been eloquent and engaging, however on the matter of Iraq, he was morally bankrupt.

let me begin with a quote..""Statistics are like a bikini. What they reveal is suggestive, but what they conceal is vital." - Aaron Levenstein""

so there is fact
statistic...or lie
much depends on the spin..
[or eloquence..of the one delivering the mess-age]

thing is we are energy activating the flesh
when we die..the energy that cant be detected nor destroyed/law..comes into affect

if hitchkins...was so clever
it wasnt comming from his body..but his mind
[the person he is/was...isnt written in his physical brain]
it likely was wrote large on his heart

and that is what this life here is for
to find our passions...[to fill eternity]

i wish he had used his mind to find a better way
not judge destroy the old way...what is blind faith in religeon..or blind faith in science..but a trust...trusting they have fact..then trusting their fact

hitckids had no fact
he had words...words other write large on their own heart

he has in his brief time...decieved near as many as any other deciever
[but when is the right time..to say so]

when sir joe died
protesters were asked and remained mute
and now it seems pety to pick at his dead corpse

so when is the right time to rebuke error
when is the right time to talk ill of the dead
[especially if you know he aint dead][indeed is suffering
by his own hand...depending on how much he really believed in no god]

god is like hitchkids...we cant speak ill of the dead
or of those who cant defend themselves..[or refuse to argue with children]

you who loved him
now think him dead
but what about us..who know he aint..

should we stand mute
say nuthing

lets hear of a lover of hitckins..putting up his main points
in a few pages...

then sort the gift
from the grift of the gab

to quote auther[the other christ-off/er]

quote..""We can expect detractors
to exit from the woodwork over the next months.[/quote]

just like the other christ
got his destracters

""There will be half-true and untrue rumours and stories
of a hateful nature,""

yet not one FULL truth?
just half truths..and untruths[lol]

""which will only go to reinforce
the greatness of this one human
who once trod the earth..in a dignified manner""

oh dear we got the first saint

"""Revering the works and words of Christopher Hitchens
is really giving acclaim to an outstanding proponent of reason and clear thinking processes.""

yes just as boxers have their idols
and the arts have theirs
and religeons got theirs

the antireligeonists now got their saint

""He had the remarkable ability to place shared concepts,
ideas and thoughts in an order not easily achievable by others.""

yes he had a way with words
but did his words crerate hope...or dilute faith
did he validate or just desiminate others 'works'..with his words

what are his ten key points?
[you know definitive statements..that if refuted refute his theory]

""His outstanding written and oral delivery
provided a basis for his colleagues, friends and admirers to build their own repertoires into more workable condition.""

yes having the right buzzwords
to the right type...its money in the bank

like holding an al gore authority...
to use his format..on seas rising

if you know what your trying to say
how many words does it take..to say this is my proof

can we get some main..bullit points
crist-offer 'hitch'....main points are...?

and im not reading his expensive book