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Saddam's crimes, al Qaeda massacres, Kurdish freedom, oil worth fighting for...
and a few other things Seattle's potlucking peaceniks might want to think about this weekend.





by Christopher Hitchens

Dear brothers and sisters, boys and girls, comrades and friends,

The editor of this rag told me of your upcoming "Potlucks for Peace" event
and invited my comments, and at first I couldn't think of a thing to say.
For one thing, why should I address a Seattle audience
(or even suppose that I have a Seattle audience, for that matter)?
I daresay that I can claim a tenuous connection, because I have always had a good crowd
when reading at the splendid bookstores of the city,
and because it was in Seattle that I stayed when grounded on September 11, 2001,
a date that now makes some people yawn.



I had been speaking to the students of Whitman College in Walla Walla
about the crimes of Henry Kissinger and had told them that 11 September--
which was then tomorrow--was a symbolic date.

On that day in 1973, the civilian government in Chile
had been drowned in blood by an atrocious military coup.
On the same day in 2001, a group of Chilean survivors proposed
to file a lawsuit against Kissinger in a federal court in Washington, D.C.
I showed a film illustrating this, made some additional remarks,
and closed by saying that the date would be long remembered
in the annals of the struggle for human rights.

I got some pretty decent applause--
and this from the alma mater of Henry "Scoop" Jackson, whose family was present.

On the following morning I got a very early call from my wife, who was three hours ahead of me.
She told me to turn on the TV, and she commented mordantly that the anti-Kissinger campaign
might have to be on hold for a while.
(Oddly enough, and as recent events have shown, she was mistaken about that.)
Everyone knows what I saw when I turned on the TV.



Now hear this.
Ever since that morning, the United States has been at war with the forces of reaction.
May I please entreat you to reread the preceding sentence?
Or perhaps you will let me restate it for emphasis.
The government and people of these United States are now at war with the forces of reaction.

read the rest of the article here

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