As Christopher Hitchens himself once said about Jerry Falwell. Which is really all you need to say about Hitchens’ death as well. I’ve been a bit disappointed about the response to the news of his death, far too respectful and admiring of him. He has always been a douchenozzle, a bully boy who was full of his own courage, unsupported by the facts. He was a leftist when everybody was a socialist, then turned rightwing contrarian when fashions changed and finally turning himself in a professional atheist for the American market. But at all times he remained an asshole.
It’s just that this was easier to live with when his targets were a Henry Kissinger then when he used his talents to support the War on Iraq.