"'Anybody But Bush'--and this from those who decry simple-mindedness"--Christopher Hitchens

Andrew Sullivan is right in praising the Nation for printing this.

In "Why I'm (Slightly) for Bush," Hitchens writes that he is "a member of a small international regime-change 'left' that originates in solidarity with our embattled brothers and sisters in Afghanistan and Iraq, brave people who have received zero support from the American 'antiwar' movement." The international regime-change left is what the mainstream left all-to-frequently lumps into the category of "conservatives." The thing is, if, as I'd imagine many pro-intervention liberals believe, the choice is between a potentially preferable foreign policy under Bush and a definitively preferable domestic agenda under Kerry, then how can someone like Hitchens, claiming to be of the left, completely ignore the fact that Bush is, well conservative, on everything from the economy to rights for gay couples?

Hitchens is best, though, when criticizing the absurd slogan, "Anybody But Bush":

"Anybody But Bush"--and this from those who decry simple-mindedness--is now the only glue binding the radical left to the Democratic Party right. The amazing thing is the literalness with which the mantra is chanted. Anybody? Including Muqtada al-Sadr? The chilling answer is, quite often, yes. This is nihilism. Actually, it's nihilism at best. If it isn't treason to the country--let us by all means not go there--it is certainly treason to the principles of the left."

So, in essence, to Hitchens, the mainstream left is just that bad, and Bush offers the best way out:

"The President, notwithstanding his shortcomings of intellect, has been able to say, repeatedly and even repetitively, the essential thing: that we are involved in this war without apology and without remorse. He should go further, and admit the evident possibility of defeat--which might concentrate a few minds--while abjuring any notion of capitulation. Senator Kerry is also capable of saying this, but not without cheapening it or qualifying it, so that, in the Nation prisoners' dilemma, he is offering you the worst of both worlds."

Hitchens may not have created all that many new Bush supporters out of Nation readers, but he just made things a lot more confusing for the undecideds among its readership. All three of them, most likely, but still...