A warning

 

Remarks made by Christopher Hitchens at The Nation Institute in 1995.  Let me give you the highlights, but do watch it all.

"In 1945 Hitler's chief of intelligence Reinhard Gehlen, the man who had run the entire Nazi intelligence system throughout occupied Europe for five years, was hired by the CIA to run American intelligence from then on...straight out of Berlin, straight out of the occupation of Belarus and Ukraine and Latvia, I think something very bad entered the American system that no one has really been able to face up to or ask about since.  Something really bad that we still haven't combed out or even confronted...the inheritance of fascism, the ghost in the machine...The stench in 1945 all across Europe was the stench of disinfectant being sprayed on rubble...the particular odor of fascism.  We used to give the title 'Antifascist' to the older comrades, to those who'd suffered.  We never thought how soon we'd have to earn this great title of honor for ourselves."

Reagan visiting Bitburg and snuggling up to Spanish fascism sounds so quaint and harmless now, as we stare into the abyss.  Christopher saw what was coming, though he probably never expected American fascism to have a gormless orange face.  He left too soon.