Unquote” Hitchens

Chistopher Hitchens, a well-respected journalist, author and foreign-policy wonk, on the multitude of international issues — Burma, the rise of China and the Shanghai Cooperation Organization –that will be presented to the new president:

“If the possibility of failure may have to be admitted (and when is this not true?), it would still be highly clarifying, to that large constituency which interests itself in democracy and human rights and humanitarian aid, to see which nation said and done what in this latest crisis. The worst outcome, in other words, would be, and would have been, for us not to try, or not to have tried.”

I don’t completely agree with Hitchens on this seemingly unilateral interventionism, but — first and foremost — the intentions of Shanghai Cooperation Organization must be understood and addressed. The organization, which began in 2001, includes China, Russia, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, with Iran and India, among others, at “observer” status.

Iran applied for full membership in March. The U.S. applied for observer status in 2005, but was rejected.

The SCO and NATO will chiefly disagree on democracy, and their resulting and conflicting actions could be the groundwork of the new multi-polar world.

G