Who Can Really Say?

Dining with Perfect Gentlemen

Tim Blair calls it "an excellent fight". And he's right.

Blair's referring to Michael Totten's account of dinner a week ago Sunday following the Iraqi elections. CSPAN ran a two hour program that afternoon covering the election, and Totten was enlisted (along with another blogger who's name escapes me) to update the discussion on what folks were saying online, etc. Christopher Hitchens was a panel member, and that night, after the program, Totten went to dinner with Hitchens and several Iraqis. A tremendous verbal battle ensued, and Totten's account is the best reason to read it all. But his enjoyment of sharing dinner (and too many drinks afterwards) with Hitchens also makes it a good read. The highlight is this bit, which wraps up the earlier pissing contest quite nicely.

At one point, apropos of something I can’t remember, Ahman said to me: “I can tell you in one sentence how my country feels about your country.”

“Really?” I said. “Can you really boil it down to one sentence?”

“Yes,” he said. “And it is this: Thank you for coming, now please leave and take us with you.”

It's been said before but I'll say it again. Read the whole thing.

Linked to You Know Where the Beltway Traffic Jam.

Posted by Peter at February 7, 2005 09:24 PM