Quote by Christopher Hitchens

That war [Bosnian war] in the early 1990s changed a lot for me. I never thought I would see, in Europe, a full-dress reprise of internment camps, the mass murder of civilians, the reinstiutution of torture and rape as acts of policy. And I didn't expect so many of my comrades to be indifferent - or even take the side of the fascists. It was a time when many people on the left were saying 'Don't intervene, we'll only make things worse' or, 'Don't intervene, it might destabilise the region. And I thought - destabilisation of fascist regimes is a good thing. Why should the left care about the stability of undemocratic regimes? Wasn't it a good thing to destabilise the regime of General Franco? It was a time when the left was mostly taking the conservative, status quo position - leave the Balkans alone, leave Milosevic alone, do nothing. And that kind of conservatism can easily mutate into actual support for the aggressors. Weimar-style conservatism can easily mutate into National Socialism. So you had people like Noam Chomsky's co-author Ed Herman go from saying 'Do nothing in the Balkans', to actually supporting Milosevic, the most reactionary force in the region. That's when I began to first find myself on the same side as the neocons. I was signing petitions in favour of action in Bosnia, and I would look down the list of names and I kept finding, there's Richard Perle. There's Paul Wolfowitz. That seemed interesting to me. These people were saying that we had to act. Before, I had avoided them like the plague, especially because of what they said about General Sharon and about Nicaragua. But nobody could say they were interested in oil in the Balkans, or in strategic needs, and the people who tried to say that - like Chomsky - looked ridiculous. So now I was interested.


That war [Bosnian war] in the early 1990s changed a lot for

Summary

This quote reflects the speaker's personal experience during the Bosnian war in the early 1990s and their realization that many individuals on the left were opposed to intervention in the conflict. The speaker expresses their surprise and disappointment with the indifference of their comrades and the left's conservative stance. They argue that the left should not be concerned about the stability of undemocratic regimes and that destabilizing fascist regimes can be a positive thing. The speaker also notes their unexpected alignment with neoconservatives who were advocating for action in Bosnia, as they found their arguments more compelling than those of left-wing figures like Noam Chomsky.

By Christopher Hitchens
Liked the quote? Share it with your friends.

Random Quotations