Tuesday, February 25, 2003

The first Hitchens offering I've seen since Krugman's column. Since his whole justification for the war has been to aid the Kurds and has used the success of the independent Kurdish region of Iraq as a positive example of a post-war Iraq, I've been eager to hear his response about the administration's willingness to sell out Kurdish autonomy to a helpful Turkey. But we get no such satisfaction here. His only mention of the Kurds is the following:

Saddam Hussein could have bought his regime a fresh lease on its ghastly life if he had been even slightly willing to "make nice," and the United States could have lowered its muzzle deep into Iraqi oil-wells on the same unspoken understanding. It is even possible that at the last moment Saddam will try the options of "self-preservation" that his fans believe he both possesses and understands. There would be those, some of them in high positions in Washington, who would be willing to dump the Iraqi opposition and the Kurds on just this wager. (It's barely possible to imagine anything more shameful, but those who hope for such outcomes must be prepared to live with what they desire.)

I assume he means that a shameful administration is one that would ignore the plight of the Kurds and back down from military action if Saddam acquiesces. I wonder what he thinks of an administration that does not back down, and sells the Kurds down the river anyway? His lips are sealed thus far, so we may never see him eat humble pie...

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