Hitchens on Iraq...

An interview with Christopher Hitchens...

Q: What's your assessment of Iraq?

A: Well, it's a race between the idea of federalism and democracy and the ideas of partition and theocracy, and the United States is on the right side of the argument. There are only three things that can happen in Iraq: One, that it's ruled by one of its three constituent parts (Kurdish, Sunni and Shia), which in practice means absolute rule by a minority of that minority, of a kind that was Baathism. The other is partition, where they just separate and you get in effect three states, one of which would probably be invaded by Turkey -- the Kurdish one; one of which might well become dominated by Iran and the other, I don't know, it would probably be dominated by Saudi Arabia. The third alternative is where all agree that no one group, let alone any minority of one group, can govern the country, which means that they agree to some form of federalism and democracy. And though I don't think that's fated to happen, I think there are a huge number of Iraqis who want it. And as I say, I think American policy is designed to help that emerge. The other thing about Iraq is that it is the chosen battleground of the al-Qaida fundamentalists. They've decided, as I think they had after they were thrown out of Afghanistan, to make Iraq the next place they make a stand. So it's also a test in that war.

Q: A test for the United States or al-Qaida?

A: A test for everybody. It's a test for anyone who is not indifferent to the idea of a country of the size and importance of Iraq becoming Talibanized. That is not America's sole concern. I would like to think that no one could view that with indifference. But an amazing number of people do view it with indifference and/or take the other side -- and I spend a lot of my time trashing them.