I could scarcely believe my eyes while reading a profile of Christopher Hitchens in the October 16th
New Yorker. Hitchens, whom I know and love from
Vanity Fair - he has an impeccably wry, dry, irreverent sense of humor and a wonderful way with words - apparently has made a transition to a sort of hybrid brand of conservatism. While I wasn't looking. But that isn't the point.
The point is that in the
New Yorker piece one finds the following anecdote:
[Ian Parker, author of the piece in question] mentioned [Hitchens'] Pentagon meeting [with then Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz]. "Wolfowitz was not asking my advice about Iraq - don't run away with that idea," Hitchens said. "He just felt that those who worked for the ousting of Saddam should get on closer terms with each other." According to [Kevin] Kellems [special adviser to Wolfowitz], who attended the meeting, "Hitchens said, 'I was trying to signal you'" - through his writing - "and Wolfowitz said, 'I wondered.'" Hitchens disputes that memory; he does remember asking Wolfowitz for reassurances that, in the event of an invasion, the United States would protect the Turks from the Kurds. (emph. added)It goes on but I won't because there is the kicker: Christopher Hitchens, journalist, has the ear of Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Secretary of Defense, and asks him this little favor that the Turks be protected from the Kurds if the U.S. invades Iraq. One can almost imagine Wolfowitz replying, "You have my word."
I'm trying to make the point that the level of access to the center of power that is available to the right white male is downright astounding. And even as I write this I am becoming tongue-tied by the casualness of the whole thing. "Hey - take care of the Turks for me, will you?"
So I'll end here, inarticulately, by saying WTF?!
