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fighting wordsFighting WordsA wartime lexicon.1NA=1154&NC=1262&DI=4098&PS=60381&PI=7315fightingfalsefalsespacernotembeddedfighting wordsHard EvidenceChristopher HitchensfalseSeven salient facts about Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan.noHard EvidenceSeven salient facts about Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan.noThe admonition not to rush to judgment or jump to conclusions might sound fair and prudent enough, perhaps even statesmanlike when uttered by the president, as long it's borne in mind that such advice is itself a judgment that is more than halfway to a conclusion. What it plainly implies in the present case is that the actions of Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan should not be assumed in any meaningful way to be related to his Muslim faith.truenotochyperlinkno20091116114620AMMondayNovNovember1111/16/2009 4:46:20 PM63393968780000000020091116114620AMMondayNovNovember1111/16/2009 4:46:20 PM633939687800000000fighting wordsThe Lessons of 1989Christopher HitchensfalseThe fall of the Berlin Wall is a reminder of the duty of solidarity.noThe Lessons of 1989The lessons of 1989.noLenin once defined a revolutionary situation as one that occurred when the rulers could not go on in the traditional way and the ruled did not wish to continue in that old way. Engels was more metaphorical, saying that revolution was the midwife that delivered a new life out of an older body. Both images come to mind in remembering the revolutions of 1989, which humbled a ruling system that believed itself to be based on the historical wisdom of Lenin and, indeed, of Engels.truenotochyperlinkno200911884609PMSundayNovNovember2011/9/2009 1:46:09 AM633933099690000000200911965924AMMondayNovNovember611/9/2009 11:59:24 AM633933467640000000fighting wordsFirst, Silence the Whistle-BlowerChristopher HitchensfalseThe United Nations' shameful complicity in this year's corrupt Afghan elections.noFirst, Silence the Whistle-BlowerThe United Nations' shameful complicity in this year's corrupt Afghan elections.noIf the time ever does come when we look back on our intervention in Afghanistan as a humiliating debacle, this past weekend may well be identified as one of the moments when the calamity became irreversible.truenotochyperlinkno2009112121027PMMondayNovNovember1211/2/2009 5:10:27 PM6339276062700000002009112121027PMMondayNovNovember1211/2/2009 5:10:27 PM633927606270000000fighting wordsFaith No MoreChristopher HitchensfalseWhat I've learned from debating religious people around the world.noFaith No MoreWhat I've learned from debating religious people around the world.noThis week sees the opening on various cinema marquees of the film Collision: a buddy-and-road movie featuring last year's debates between Pastor Douglas Wilson, who is a senior fellow at New St. Andrew's College, and your humble servant. (If I may be forgiven, it's also available on DVD, and you can buy our little book of exchanges, Is Christianity Good for the World?)truenotochyperlinkno20091026112151AMMondayOctOctober1110/26/2009 3:21:51 PM63392152911000000020091026112151AMMondayOctOctober1110/26/2009 3:21:51 PM633921529110000000fighting wordsWhy Wait To Disarm Iran?Christopher HitchensfalseThere's no possible advantage in waiting until Tehran has nukes.noWhy Wait To Disarm Iran?Why on earth would we wait to disarm Iran?noA contradiction must be faced by those of us who don't especially like the propaganda name neoconservative but who wish that there was a useful term for someone who favors a robust American attitude toward totalitarian and aggressive states. This contradiction often takes the form of wanting to emphasize a threat without overstating it. One can begin by viewing this argument from its opposite side. In the recent past, extremely nasty and dangerous one-party or one-man regimes in Serbia and Iraq have made real trouble for their neighbors and been a nightmare to their "own" people and have mocked all the canons of international law but have been considered by many commentators as too risky to confront. Go look this up, and you will discover that those who didn't want to confront Slobodan Milosevic or Saddam Hussein would always stress the awesome power of violence that they had at their command. If NATO bombed the Serbian positions around Sarajevo, say, it would unleash a monster of reaction that would draw a Russian intervention on the side of Belgrade, trigger a massive backlash throughout the Balkans, drown the region in bloodshed and "a wider war," and all that. Likewise, a military move against Saddam Hussein would incite him to saturate our troops with chemical weapons, ignite the oilfields, destroy Israel, inflame the "Arab street," and overthrow every friendly Middle Eastern government, etc., etc. Those of us who wanted to get rid of these hideous governments were bombarded with arguments that said, in effect, they are not only a threat but actually a lethal threat, and their forces are made up of people who are 10 feet tall. The contradiction cut both ways, in other words.truenotochyperlinkno20091019111517AMMondayOctOctober1110/19/2009 3:15:17 PM63391547717000000020091019111517AMMondayOctOctober1110/19/2009 3:15:17 PM633915477170000000200311445946PMTuesdayJanJanuary161/14/2003 9:59:46 PM63178160386000000020094951536PMThursdayAprApril174/9/2009 9:15:36 PM633748941360000000falsetruetruetruetruetruetrue20021111115253AMMondayNovNovember1111/11/2002 4:52:53 PM63172612373000000020021111115253AMMondayNovNovember1111/11/2002 4:52:53 PM631726123730000000