Hitchens dies in bombing of Tehran
http://tstiami.blogspot.com/2006/08/future-perfect_02.html
Future Perfect Sep 5, 2009 5:46 EDT
TEHRAN, IRAN (AP) - Christopher E. Hitchens, the celebrated
journalist, essayist and literary critic whose over 30-year career
spanned styles, continents and political ideologies, died today
during a combined Allied air strike on a reported insurgent
stronghold on the outskirts of the city. He was 60.
Hitchens, whose well-read works ranged from tabloid-like coverage of
American culture to almost academic books on the nature of politics
and religion, was in the region at an American Air Force base in
neighboring Kuwait as part of his “Glorious War Tour” while promoting
his most recent book Regan: Grace in Crisis.
After emigrating from his native England, where he received a degree
at Oxford University, to the United States in 1981, Hitchens worked
for a wide variety of publications including The Nation, The
Independent, Spy, Vanity Fair and Shock. Hitchen’s style and focus
was almost unavoidably political and inflammatory, usually consisting
of reasoned, if inordinately impassioned attacks on various
ideologies (fascism, liberalism, Islamism) or public figures (Noam
Chomsky, St. Teresa of Calcutta, Henry Kissinger). In one of
political literature’s more discussed sea changes, Hitchens, once a
liberal Trotskyite, publicly converted to a personalized form of
neoconservatism in response to various grievances with the foreign
policies of the first Clinton administration. His altered stance was
only hardened after the terror attacks of September 11th, 2001.
Recent months had seen him softening his position on liberalism and
openly supporting President Clinton’s current campaign in Iran.
During this, his third trip to the region in as many months, Hitchens
had been seen enjoying his free time in the company of pilots and
loading crews of the 4404th Air Expeditionary Wing stationed here at
Ali Al Salem Air Base. It appears that last night Hitchens managed to
convince the crew of a B52-H to take him on board for it night
mission over the pockmarked edges of Iran’s former capital.
While details remain unconfirmed, it appears, through a released
night-vision photo, that Hitchens climbed atop one of the larger
conventional warheads in the B52-H’s bomb bay only seconds before the
crew released its payload on target. The Air Force has launched a
full investigation and an unnamed Defense Department official stated
on the condition of anonymity that he expects the crew to face
disciplinary charges calling the incident, “an egregious lapse in
battlefield judgment.”
Hitchens is survived by his wife, Carol Blue, their daughter Antonia,
and two other children, Alexander and Sophia, from a pervious marriage.