Acclaimed writer and political scholar Christopher Hitchens may just be the only writer to have recently visited Iran, Iraq and North Korea. Hitchens - known for his keen wit, sharp political insight and often controversial opinions - examines the differences between the countries once linked as the "axis of evil," while revealing intriguing connections between the nations.
Bio
Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Hitchens is an author and journalist whose books, essays, and journalistic career span more than four decades. He has been a columnist and literary critic at The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, Slate, World Affairs, The Nation, Free Inquiry, and became a media fellow at the Hoover Institution in 2008.
Steven Boyd Saum
Steven came to the SCU team in April 2006 from The Commonwealth Club of California, where he edited The Commonwealth magazine and the collection Each a Mighty Voice. He has served in the Peace Corps and directed the Fulbright program in Ukraine, and his writing has appeared in Salon, the Christian Science Monitor, the Kenyon Review, and elsewhere.
Systematic use of violence to create a general climate of fear in a population and thereby to bring about a particular political objective. It has been used throughout history by political organizations of both the left and the right, by nationalist and ethnic groups, and by revolutionaries. Although usually thought of as a means of destabilizing or overthrowing existing political institutions, terror also has been employed by governments against their own people to suppress dissent; examples include the reigns of certain Roman emperors, the French Revolution (seeReign of Terror), Nazi Germany, the Soviet Union under Stalin, and Argentina during the “dirty war” of the 1970s. Terrorism's impact has been magnified by the deadliness and technological sophistication of modern-day weapons and the capability of the media to disseminate news of such attacks instantaneously throughout the world. The deadliest terrorist attack ever occurred in the United States on Sept. 11, 2001 (seeSeptember 11 attacks), when members of al-Qaeda terrorist network hijacked four commercial airplanes and crashed two of them into the twin towers of the World Trade Center complex in New York City and one into the Pentagon building near Washington, D.C.; the fourth plane crashed near Pittsburgh, Pa. The crashes resulted in the collapse of much of the World Trade Center complex, the destruction of part of the southwest side of the Pentagon, and the deaths of some 3,000 people.
Thank you fora.tv for sharing this interview.
Mr. Christopher Hitchens is not infallible. Mind you, there are numerous & deluded members of our species who questionably claim themselves to be infallible. Mr. Hitchens' support for the removal of rulers and of regimes that were committing heinous crimes against humanity is quite a meaningful and humanitarian stance.
Christopher Hitchens - "A pacifist who states that under no circumstances do you take another person's life or be responsible, that, I think, is an immoral position. 'Cause it leaves other people to make the choices of who is going to die. You've just exempted yourself."
Hitchens is one-sided. He never questions mindless bloodshed caused by Americans around the world not to mention bullying every other country. What about the 600,000 Iraqi children who died for lack of food and medicine due to American-led sanctions?
I'm a huge fan of Christopher Hitchens but find it difficult to believe that a man so smart thought blended scotch whiskey was the best. Meanwhile, every "civilized man" who ever lived under the British Empire (I'm a Canadian born in 1952 so I'm included) knows that a single malt whiskey is far superior. I prefer Glenmorangie while my in laws prefer Glenfiddich.
Indeed. It is easier to rationalize an excuse to do nothing than to do the right thing. The right thing being what we do when everything else fails. Without denying the import of many moral questions, we appear to leave the greatest and most urgent to last. Hunger and genocide, despite its prevalence, requires only the resourse of will.
member. 
