An interesting short piece from the always-readable Christopher Hitchens. It is a commentary on the 'war on terrorism' and a sort of obituary for Osama bin Laden, written not long after that man's ignoble death in the raid on Abbottabad. Whilst I did not agree with all of Hitchens' particular arguments – particularly his refutation of Michael Scheuer's perceptive appraisal of the al-Qaeda leader in his book Osama Bin Laden – his overall reasoning is sound. He recognises that radical Islamism is but one manifestation of the eternal struggle "against superstition and the totalitarian mentality… In protean forms, it is fought and refought in every country and every generation." The 'war' on terrorism and intolerance cannot be won by storming Abbottabad and blowing a hole in bin Laden's head, in the way one could win conventional wars by storming Berlin and Hitler blowing a hole in his own head. Quoting the playwright Bertolt Brecht (his sometimes-obscure literary references are always a delight), Hitchens reminds us that though the bastard may be dead, "the bitch that bore him is always in heat."

As always, Hitchens has no time for the self-flagellating and hand-wringing seemingly ingrained in Western society ("On no account—and this imperative was put forward by President Bush as well as by many liberals—were the less tender elements of his [bin Laden's] doctrine to be used as a critique of religion. A hitherto marginal propaganda term, 'Islamophobia,' underwent a mainstream baptism and was pressed into service to intimidate those who suspected that faith might indeed have something to do with it.") and is also keen-eyed in his literary destruction of the 'principles' of radical Islam and of the man who re-ignited it on one blue-skied September morning. It is this call-a-spade-a-spade mentality, allied with his irrepressible championing of freethinking and his eloquent writing style, which made Christopher Hitchens such a pleasure to read and his death to be mourned much more than that of a corpse dumped off the side of an American aircraft carrier into the North Arabian Sea. ( )

A very interesting Kindle Single written by English-American author/journalist Christopher Hitchens in which he discusses Bin Laden and bin Ladenism as a form of tyrannical despotism and includes his own critique of those who attempt to soften the deeds of Bin Laden...

This was a short read, although quite intense so it took me a little longer then expected to complete...the dictionary function on the Kindle really came in handy here ;) ( )