tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448657.post337466162035351705..comments2023-09-30T08:07:26.165-04:00Comments on Mystical Politics: Christopher Hitchens and the Iraq WarRebeccahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/17626228106192215280noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448657.post-47091082614758435372011-12-23T11:54:45.463-05:002011-12-23T11:54:45.463-05:00Jacobus - I wasn't saying anything about you a...Jacobus - I wasn't saying anything about you as a person, since I don't know you personally. I was making a remark about your *argument*, not about you. I suggest that in the future, if you comment on this blog, that you not take disagreement quite so personally.<br /><br />P.S. I've looked at your blog and your work on magic looks very interesting to me.Rebeccahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17626228106192215280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448657.post-47272207021989696212011-12-23T11:29:56.758-05:002011-12-23T11:29:56.758-05:00I do not believe I suggested anything you purport ...I do not believe I suggested anything you purport to be my personal political stance, neither in my initial response to your missive nor in my subsequent query. I live in multi-cultured South Africa, where those of us who have had to live under the "apartheid" regime understand only too well the wretchedness of political dictatorship! However, we also know the real meaning of "revolution without blood" and the "spirit of reconciliation," having experienced these first hand under one of the greatest peace makers of all times. Plainly, since you are unfamiliar with my person, I consider your suggestion regarding my person to be both outrageous and impertinent! Hence I will rest my case, will refrain from further comment, and leave you with the "final word." Bidding you adieu, and wishing you the very best over the "Festive Season."Jacobus G. Swarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17813816143506526042noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448657.post-6739002616847356172011-12-23T07:50:28.726-05:002011-12-23T07:50:28.726-05:00I think that remains to be seen. It seems to me th...I think that remains to be seen. It seems to me that you're arguing that the only way to govern Iraq would be through a dictatorship that can strongarm the differing tribes and sects into coexisting in one state.Rebeccahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17626228106192215280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448657.post-3377645192235750672011-12-23T03:14:18.721-05:002011-12-23T03:14:18.721-05:00Please note that I used the term "wasteland&q...Please note that I used the term "wasteland" in a metaphorical rather than a literal sense, and that I was specifically referring to the "larger whole of Iraq" [not small barely controlled areas]. In the light of the current situation in "greater Iraq," in which America "funds the Kurdish Peshmerga, the Sunni Sahwa, and the Iraqi Security Forces heavily infiltrated by the Badr militia" [Paul Starr in "The American Prospect"]; in which American "money and arms flow not just to the three major sectarian groups but to contending factions and strongmen within each one" [ibid]; and the observation that the US military strategy stoked "the three forces that have traditionally threatened the stability of Middle Eastern states: tribalism, warlordism, and sectarianism” [Steven Simon in "Foreign Affairs" journal], would you suggest the "larger whole of Iraq" is no longer an ungovernable "swamp of misrule"?Jacobus G. Swarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17813816143506526042noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448657.post-74383195020347564762011-12-22T22:45:31.659-05:002011-12-22T22:45:31.659-05:00I appreciate the rhetoric, Jacobus, but Iraq still...I appreciate the rhetoric, Jacobus, but Iraq still has many people living it, and a government, however dysfunctional it may be.Rebeccahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17626228106192215280noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5448657.post-25618495596068116652011-12-22T18:19:51.919-05:002011-12-22T18:19:51.919-05:00Yes "Iraq is no longer ruled by Saddam Hussei...Yes "Iraq is no longer ruled by Saddam Hussein" (aka "Soddem Insane"). However, with the most profound "insight" of "far-sight," the remarkable President Mandela, assuredly the greatest peace-maker of the current era, correctly depicted the warmongering actions of George Bush "very junior," those of "a president who has no foresight," when he warned the latter of the "holocaust" which would follow the invasion of Iraq. So, whatever pretensions there may be today regarding "allied victory," or references to freely elected "rulers," whether these be mere pawns of international "political puppetry" or not, the larger whole of Iraq has been vacated and left an "unruly waste land" governed by "no-one"!Jacobus G. Swarthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17813816143506526042noreply@blogger.com