Threats To Liberty

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS was on the Bill Mayer show last night. He was jeered by the audience because of the following:

"Christopher Hitchens: “Who wants a Third Word War? The Iranian President says that one member state of the United Nations should be wiped physically from the map with all its people. He says the United States is a Satanic power. Members of his government, named members of his government have been caught sponsoring deaths squads. He's lied, he's lied to the European Union about his nuclear program-”"

The interchange between Mayer and Hitchens, as well as with the audience, suggests that many disagreed with Hitchens that Islamo-fascism is a serious threat, and Hitchens asserted the audience was frivolous. Hitchens said:

“Cheer yourself up like that. The President has said, quite a great contrast before the podium of the Senate, I think applauded by most present, in his State of the Union address, that we support the democratic movement of the Iranian people to be free of theocracy -- not that we will impose ourselves on them, but that if they fight for it we're on their side. That seems to be the right position to take, jeer all you like.”

I agree with Hitchens.

Glynn Reynolds comments on the incident:

. . . Should things go badly with the war, Maher's audience -- and, for that matter, Maher himself -- will be cited by historians as evidence of the American opposition's unseriousness.

UPDATE: Rand Simberg emails: "I suspect that historians will judge Democrats unserious regardless of the war's outcome. In fact, if it goes badly enough, history of the era will be written in Arabic." And even those historians won't respect Maher and his audience, though they may be grateful for their petty Bush-hatred.

Is there a serious threat to liberty today? Is Iran and Islamo-fascism a serious threat? It seems to me the answer is yes. The worldwide nature of the attacks against freedom seems obvious to me, but apparently not to many others.

Could it be that there is a grave threat to liberty right here in our system of political economy? As I think Hitchens and Reynolds comments suggest, those in our country who are frivolous with their petty Bush hatred may pull our system of political economy away from confronting the challenge to liberty posed by Iran and Islamo-fascism.