Uh, Those Guys, Whoever They Were

Couldn't help myself. I read Hitchens' latest at Slate, concerning the recent Bali terror bombings. As with most of his output these days, it was a slog, the eyes trying mightily to trudge through so much clotted prose and reasoning. But after hacking away miles of twisted vines and vegetation, I came to this:

"East Timor was for many years, and quite rightly, a signature cause of the Noam Chomsky 'left.' The near-genocide of its people is an eternal stain on Indonesia and on the Western states that were complicit or silent."

"Western states." Hmm. Wonder who Hitch means here. Spain? Iceland? Just which "Western state" does he have in mind?

It couldn't be the really big powerful rich one that's spreading freedom all over the globe, could it? Because as Hitch never ceases to remind us, that "Western state" isn't imperialist, so how could it be "complicit" in the near-genocide of the Timorese people?

I know -- Scotland!