“The Case of Orientalism”

Hitchens’ review of Robert Irwin’s Dangerous Knowledge: Orientalism and its Discontents. Hitchens sums it up by writing “Though this book is an extraordinarily attractive short introduction to the different national schools of Orientalism, and to the various scholars who labored to make Eastern philology and philosophy more accessible, its chief interest to the lay reader lies in its consideration of Orientalism as a study of Islam.” It might be useful to define Orientalism – the patronizing study of the Middle Eastern and Eastern Cultures by western scholars. Of course, even the terms “Middle East” and “Far East” are patronizing.

Great "orientalist" cover of a 1932 Pulp magazine:

Great quote from Irwin about one orientalist “scholar” as having “the kind of beautiful mind that could see patterns where none existed”

New Learning: Alfred Thayer Mahan is the son of West Point military strategist Dennis Hart Mahan (who trained most of the officers on both sides of the US Civil War). He was born at West Point, named for the father of West Point (Sylvanus Thayer) but attended the Naval Academy at Annapolis. He coined the term “Middle East.”

Thayer Hall, West Point

New Word: In a nod to extreme linguistic snobbery, Hitchens writes, “In contradistinction, or at any rate by contrast…” I assume this is meant, not to impress us that he knows the difference, but to “school us” in the difference.

“Algeria: A French Quarrel”

Hitchens’ review of Alistair Horne’s book A Savage War of Peace: Algeria 1954-1962. This is the same period covered in the great film, The Battle of Algiers. Hitchens seems to like Horne’s exploration of the Algerian war of independence as marking the “…emergence of militant pan-Arab nationalism as well as, to some extent, the revival of Islam as a modern political force.”

He also spends some time digging into the role of the FLN and the Algerian Army’s “pitiless” repression on an Islamist insurgency in the 1990s but falls short of answering the question “How was it that Algeria in the 1990s became the first country to defeat a full-scale jihad and takfir rebellion, which had at one point threatened to overwhelm the entire state and society?”All very topical today in light of the Arab Spring movement across North Africa.

New Learning: The group leading the revolution, the Algerian Front de Libération Nationale,  emerging from a forerunner that was founded on the day that Dien Bien Phu fell, and had in its ranks hardened soldiers who had once fought under French colors in Indochina. They learned insurgency the hard way in Viet Nam.

DVD cover for the film..The Battle of Algeirs:

New Word: pied-noir = “black foot”, term used to describe French living in Algeria before its independence.

“The Perils of Partition”

Hitchens’ discussion of the failure of partition that replaced overt colonialism as the British Empire and colonialism in general receded. The list of examples is long: Palestine, Iraq, India, Pakistan, Gibraltar, Cyprus…not to mention Viet Nam. The result “…has been continuous strife, often spreading to neighboring countries, of the sort that partition was supposedly designed to prevent or solve.”

It’s also fair to say that much of the partition was to keep the former colonies in check, “The element of tragedy here is arguably implicit in the whole imperial project. Even since Rome conquered and partitioned Gaul, the best-known colonial precept has been divide et impera  ‘divide and rule.’”

In any case, Hitchens argues convincingly that the entire concept of partition imparted by a former colonial ruler is at best arbitrary (Pakistan – Afghanistan) and at worst a crime (Cypress)

New Learning: “The congested, hypertense crossing point of the River Jordan, between Jordan ‘proper’ and the Israeli-held West Bank, is to this day known as the Allenby Bridge, after T. E. Lawrence’s commander.”

…I like how he puts “”proper” in quotation marks.

New Word: febrile = showing symptoms of a fever

Partition

Unbiased at least he was when he arrived on his mission,
Having never set eyes on the land he was called to partition
Between two peoples fanatically at odds,
With their different diets and incompatible gods.
"Time," they had briefed him in London, "is short. It's too late
For mutual reconciliation or rational debate:
The only solution now lies in separation.
The Viceroy thinks, as you will see from his letter,
That the less you are seen in his company the better,
So we've arranged to provide you with other accommodation.
We can give you four judges, two Moslem and two Hindu,
To consult with, but the final decision must rest with you."

Shut up in a lonely mansion, with police night and day
Patrolling the gardens to keep the assassins away,
He got down to work, to the task of settling the fate
Of millions. The maps at his disposal were out of date
And the Census Returns almost certainly incorrect,
But there was no time to check them, no time to inspect
Contested areas. The weather was frightfully hot,
And a bout of dysentery kept him constantly on the trot,
But in seven weeks it was done, the frontiers decided,
A continent for better or worse divided.

The next day he sailed for England, where he could quickly forget
The case, as a good lawyer must. Return he would not,
Afraid, as he told his Club, that he might get shot. 

W.H. Auden

“From Abbottabad to Worse”

Hitchens’ comments on the Pakistani response to the raid on Abbottabad and the US culpability in the current state of Pakistani affairs. He writes, “We have been the enablers of every stage of that wretched state’s counter-evolution, to the point where it is a serious regional menace and an undisguised ally of our worst enemy, as well as the sworn enemy of some of our best allies.” He includes a very well written connection between the cultural state of Pakistan and the dysfunctional yet dependent relationship with the US, “There’s absolutely no mystery to the ‘Why do they hate us?’ question, at least as it arises in Pakistan. They hate us because they owe us, and are dependent upon us. The two main symbols of Pakistan’s pride— its army and its nuclear program— are wholly parasitic on American indulgence and patronage.”

A good thought near the end of the essay: Post the Navy Seal raid on Abbottabad. “General Ashfaq Kayani, head of the Pakistani…said that any similar American action ought to warrant a ‘review’ of the whole relationship between the two countries. How pitiful it is that a Pakistani and not an American should have been the first (and so far the only) leader to say those necessary things."

Who is this sign for?

New Learning: Salman Rushdie has an “upsettingly brilliant psycho-profile” of Pakistan in his 1983 novel Shame.

New Word: mendicant = given to begging

“Benazir Bhutto: Daughter of Destiny”

Hitchens’ brief essay on the complex life of Pakistan’s Benazir Bhutto.  Daughter and apologist for her “charming and unscrupulous” father who treated Pakistan like “Bhutto family property. She was the first elected female leader of an Islamic country but married to a corrupt “play boy.” She benefitted form broad popular support but was eventually proven to have led a corrupt government. She was the daughter of a slain politician but returned from exile three times to challenge a ruling regime. Once ending up imprisoned for five years and once being elected Prime Minister. She originally supported an “active pro-Taliban policy” but was likely moving to oppose the extremism of the Taliban and al-Qaeda when, on her third return to Pakistan, she was assassinated.

New Learning: Bhutto was in exile in Dubai before her final return.

New Phrase: cui bono = “to who’s benefit?”

Bhutto has a memorial women's cricket tournament named after her: