Best Ever Debate? It's Christopher Hitchens v. George Galloway

[jgiffin]

By way of introducing this debate, here is an example of how Hitchens later characterized Galloway:

"Mr. Galloway is a thug and a liar and a demagogue and a man who has managed the odd feat of being able to be both a pimp for, and a prostitute of, Saddam Hussein."

So, yeah, they don't agree on much. The great feat of this debate, to my mind, is that Galloway more than holds his own. It's one of the few times I've seen Hitchens on his heels, ceding ground (inadvertently or not), reduced to shouting down the opponent. That says something. Anyway, the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2JVKeOExEE

[BikerDude]

By way of introducing this debate, here is an example of how Hitchens later characterized Galloway:

"Mr. Galloway is a thug and a liar and a demagogue and a man who has managed the odd feat of being able to be both a pimp for, and a prostitute of, Saddam Hussein."

So, yeah, they don't agree on much. The great feat of this debate, to my mind, is that Galloway more than holds his own. It's one of the few times I've seen Hitchens on his heels, ceding ground (inadvertently or not), reduced to shouting down the opponent. That says something. Anyway, the link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2JVKeOExEE

Yeah I've seen it.
I am usually a  Hitchens fan,  but am not 100% in agreement with him on matters of foreign policy. I think that is a debate that Hitchens doesn't typically win by a slam dunk.

This is a good Hitch vs Galway clip.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xUFAuE6dnZM

[jgiffin]

Nice. I hadn't seen them on Bill Maher's show. Gotta look up the whole episode when I have more time to watch it.

By the way, I agree with you on Hitchens not carrying the day on that particular foreign policy issue. I do like his point about the barbary pirates, though. I've used the same one, less artfully, when someone argues we could placate muslims by leaving the muslim world. Their world view has not changed much in the intervening centuries. I'm in favor of retracting US bases on foreign land but we can't pretend that will change their beliefs. Unfortunately, the dictates of the koran, sunnah, and haddith are what they are. 

[BikerDude]

Nice. I hadn't seen them on Bill Maher's show. Gotta look up the whole episode when I have more time to watch it.

By the way, I agree with you on Hitchens not carrying the day on that particular foreign policy issue. I do like his point about the barbary pirates, though. I've used the same one, less artfully, when someone argues we could placate muslims by leaving the muslim world. Their world view has not changed much in the intervening centuries. I'm in favor of retracting US bases on foreign land but we can't pretend that will change their beliefs. Unfortunately, the dictates of the koran, sunnah, and haddith are what they are. 

I don't agree that we can placate radical Muslims by leaving the Muslim world either.
But I believe we should leave the Muslim world and any other places that we essentially occupy. We've been led down this path for so long that most Americans never even question why we feel we have any say whatsoever about the path that sovereign nations take anywhere around the world. The rest of the world sees it for what it is. Imposition of will through power. That's something that has generally been anathema to the founding principles of the USA. We fought a revolution.
One can argue about what kind of world a hands off approach leads to, but in my opinion once you begin sacrificing ideals to practicality it's all down the drain.
It's one thing that I find very much out of character in Hitchens (or perhaps in character via his Britishness. No offense to our Dudeist Limeys)