HITCHENS AGAINST THE STATUS QUO LEFT

Christopher Hitchens on the left's embrace of the Realist critique of war in Iraq:

What the Iraqi and Kurdish democrats would like is American aid for and endorsement of their own efforts to replace the regime. And what they fear is what I also fear - a heavy-handed US attack which results in an Iraqi puppet government that is designed to placate the Saudis and the Turks. That, it seems to me, is where a principled critique of the war-planning might begin. But it's depressing to see the status quo Left preferring to parrot the arguments of pacifist realpolitik.

I am baffled, however, by Hitchens assertion that "General Sharon" appears to be against a war to liberate Iraq in his "public pronouncements". Believe me, if there is anything that unites all Israelis from Yossi Sarid to Effi Eitam - its support for replacing Saddam Hussein with a democratic, pro-Western government. Which leads me to wonder if the source of this prevarication is Hitchens inability to be on the same side as Israel, or his awareness that anti-semitism has reached such a fever pitch among the Euroleft that the best argument one can make for a position is that Israel opposes it.