Christopher Hitchens died ten years ago this month. Hitchens was a militant atheist. He was also a very fine journalist and writer. On matters pertaining to faith, he was completely wrong and never understood faith.
On matters of politics he was a must read writer. He was always interesting and always intelligent and articulate. He was a man of the left but never hesitated from excoriating the left when he believed matters of principal were at stake.
He had no tolerance for the left if its representatives attempted to serve as apologists for jihadism post 9-11. Even though he was wrong for supporting the Iraq war, one could appreciate his arguments about the horrors of the regime of Saddam Hussein. Hitchens was a man of principal.
He was truly democratic and espoused the cause of democracy. One could respect his support for regime change in Iraq which was based on genuine support for democracy while disagreeing with the conclusions Hitchens reached. Hitchens was a true intellectual.
I first learned about Hitchens when I read his book “Hostage to History” about Cyprus. A superb book and Hitchens was a philhellene which I truly appreciated. Aside from espousing the cause of Greece and Cyprus, Hitchens supported justice for the Armenians, Kurds, and Palestinians.
He was the enemy of racism and anti-semitism and quite passionate on all subjects. He was usually lucid, but on matters of religion he demonstrated ignorance. This display of ignorance was rare for Hitchens.
Two other great books he wrote were “No one left to lie to” and “The Trial of Henry Kissinger”. When Hitchens was good, he was great. His condemnations of Bill Clinton and Henry Kissinger were Hitchens at his very best denouncing the evils that both of these villains were responsible for.
I have missed the writings and journalistic works of Christopher Hitchens. In the aftermath of his death, two volumes of articles written by Hitchens have been published and are worth reading. It would have been interesting to see what Hitchens who was opposed to political correctness would have thought about the wokeness.
Hitchens was once married in the Greek Orthodox Church. A pity he did not understand Orthodoxy.
His memory be eternal