--- title: "7 Al qaeda Quotes By Christopher Hitchens" description: "7 Al qaeda quotes by Christopher Hitchens. Plus more from Christopher Hitchens and more Al qaeda sayings from other authors." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/61a/christopher-hitchens-117_al-qaeda_it-was-sometimes-feebly-argued-as-the-po_660479.jpg" --- > [“It was sometimes feebly argued, as the political and military war against this enemy ran into difficulties, that it was 'a war…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/it-was-sometimes-feebly-argued-as-the-political-and-military-war/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/61a/christopher-hitchens-117_al-qaeda_it-was-sometimes-feebly-argued-as-the-po_660479.jpg) > [Will an Iraq war make our Al Qaeda problem worse? Not likely.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/will-an-iraq-war-make-our-al-qaeda-problem-worse-not-likely/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f43/christopher-hitchens-117_al-qaeda_will-an-iraq-war-make-our-al-qaeda-probl_968384.jpg) > [“As to the 'Left' I'll say briefly why this was the finish for me. Here is American society, attacked under open skies…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/as-to-the-left-i-ll-say-briefly-why-this-was-the-finish-for-me-here/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a1a/christopher-hitchens-117_afghanistan_as-to-the-left-i-ll-say-briefly-why-this_1455099.jpg) > [“The little boats cannot make much difference to the welfare of Gaza either way, since the materials being shipped are in such…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/the-little-boats-cannot-make-much-difference-to-the-welfare-of-gaza/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cb6/christopher-hitchens-117_activism_the-little-boats-cannot-make-much-differ_2039526.jpg) > [“Remaining for a moment with the question of legality and illegality: United Nations Security Council Resolution 1368, unanimously passed, explicitly recognized the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/remaining-for-a-moment-with-the-question-of-legality-and-illegality/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bcf/christopher-hitchens-117_al-qaeda_remaining-for-a-moment-with-the-question_2707146.jpg) > [“Shrouded as he was for a decade in an apparent cloak of anonymity and obscurity, Osama bin Laden was by no means…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/shrouded-as-he-was-for-a-decade-in-an-apparent-cloak-of-anonymity-and/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/85c/christopher-hitchens-117_2011_shrouded-as-he-was-for-a-decade-in-an-ap_2781110.jpg) > [No possible future government in Kabul can be worse than the Taliban, and no thinkable future government would allow the level of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/no-possible-future-government-in-kabul-can-be-worse-than-the-taliban/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ed6/christopher-hitchens-117_al-qaeda_no-possible-future-government-in-kabul-c_2862590.jpg) ## Other authors on Al qaeda ## More by Christopher Hitchens > [“The spirit of our accurate and exact philosophy is outraged by conclusions that contradict each other so glaringly.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/the-spirit-of-our-accurate-and-exact-philosophy-is-outraged-by/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) > [“Many governments employ torture but this was the first time that the element of Saturnalia and pornography in the process had been made so…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/many-governments-employ-torture-but-this-was-the-first-time-that-the/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) > [ It's \[Los Angeles\] mostly full of nonsense and delusion and egomania. They think they'll be young and beautiful forever, even though most of them… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/it-s-los-angeles-mostly-full-of-nonsense-and-delusion-and-egomania/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) > [To be against rationalization is not the same as to be opposed to reasoning.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/to-be-against-rationalization-is-not-the-same-as-to-be-opposed-to/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) > [ \[Religion\] attacks us in our deepest integrity - the core of our self-respect. Religion says that we would not know right from wrong, we… ](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/religion-attacks-us-in-our-deepest-integrity-the-core-of-our-self/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) > [“In the very recent past, we have seen the Church of Rome befouled by its complicity with the unpardonable sin of child rape, or,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/in-the-very-recent-past-we-have-seen-the-church-of-rome-befouled-by/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) > [It's surprising to me how many of my friends send Christmas cards, or holiday cards, including my atheist and secular friends.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/it-s-surprising-to-me-how-many-of-my-friends-send-christmas-cards-or/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) > [Suppose there were groups of secularists at hospitals who went round the terminally ill and urged them to adopt atheism: 'Don't be a mug…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/suppose-there-were-groups-of-secularists-at-hospitals-who-went-round/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) > [There are, after all, atheists who say they wish the fable were true but are unable to suspend the requisite disbelief, or who have…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/there-are-after-all-atheists-who-say-they-wish-the-fable-were-true/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) > [“It isn’t so long since a test of Anglican orthodoxy was applied to anyone seeking to study or teach at Oxford and Cambridge universities.…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/it-isn-t-so-long-since-a-test-of-anglican-orthodoxy-was-applied-to/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) > [Gullibility and credulity are considered undesireable qualities in every department of human life - except religion ... Why are we praised by godly men…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/gullibility-and-credulity-are-considered-undesireable-qualities-in/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) > [It's much worse to see a woman drunk than a man: I don't know quite why this is true but it just is. Don't…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/it-s-much-worse-to-see-a-woman-drunk-than-a-man-i-don-t-know-quite/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) > [It's true that obscenity is a matter of taste and in the eye of the beholder.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/it-s-true-that-obscenity-is-a-matter-of-taste-and-in-the-eye-of-the/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) > [I worked out early on to give up things I couldn't do well at all.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/i-worked-out-early-on-to-give-up-things-i-couldn-t-do-well-at-all/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) > [Writing is what's important to me, and anything that helps me do that - or enhances and prolongs and deepens and sometimes intensifies argument…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/writing-is-what-s-important-to-me-and-anything-that-helps-me-do-that/) [Christopher Hitchens](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/christopher-hitchens/) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/al-qaeda/christopher-hitchens/#itemlist", "name": "7 Al qaeda Quotes By Christopher Hitchens", "numberOfItems": 7, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“It was sometimes feebly argued, as the political and military war against this enemy ran into difficulties, that it was 'a war without end.' I never saw the point of this plaintive objection. The war against superstition and the totalitarian mentality is an endless war. In protean forms, it is fought and refought in every country and every generation. In bin Ladenism we confront again the awful combination of the highly authoritarian personality with the chaotically nihilist and anarchic one. Temporary victories can be registered against this, but not permanent ones. As Bertold Brecht's character says over the corpse of the terrible Arturo Ui, the bitch that bore him is always in heat. But it is in this struggle that we develop the muscles and sinews that enable us to defend civilization, and the moral courage to name it as something worth fighting for.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Christopher Hitchens" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/it-was-sometimes-feebly-argued-as-the-political-and-military-war/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/61a/christopher-hitchens-117_al-qaeda_it-was-sometimes-feebly-argued-as-the-po_660479.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/61a/christopher-hitchens-117_al-qaeda_it-was-sometimes-feebly-argued-as-the-po_660479.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/61a/christopher-hitchens-117_al-qaeda_it-was-sometimes-feebly-argued-as-the-po_660479.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“It was sometimes feebly argued, as the political and military war against this enemy ran into difficulties…” — Christopher Hitchens", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "Will an Iraq war make our Al Qaeda problem worse? Not likely.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Christopher Hitchens" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/will-an-iraq-war-make-our-al-qaeda-problem-worse-not-likely/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f43/christopher-hitchens-117_al-qaeda_will-an-iraq-war-make-our-al-qaeda-probl_968384.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f43/christopher-hitchens-117_al-qaeda_will-an-iraq-war-make-our-al-qaeda-probl_968384.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f43/christopher-hitchens-117_al-qaeda_will-an-iraq-war-make-our-al-qaeda-probl_968384.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Will an Iraq war make our Al Qaeda problem worse? Not likely.” — Christopher Hitchens", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“As to the 'Left' I'll say briefly why this was the finish for me. Here is American society, attacked under open skies in broad daylight by the most reactionary and vicious force in the contemporary world, a force which treats Afghans and Algerians and Egyptians far worse than it has yet been able to treat us. The vaunted CIA and FBI are asleep, at best. The working-class heroes move, without orders and at risk to their lives, to fill the moral and political vacuum. The moral idiots, meanwhile, like Falwell and Robertson and Rabbi Lapin, announce that this clerical aggression is a punishment for our secularism. And the governments of Pakistan and Saudi Arabia, hitherto considered allies on our 'national security' calculus, prove to be the most friendly to the Taliban and Al Qaeda. Here was a time for the Left to demand a top-to-bottom house-cleaning of the state and of our covert alliances, a full inquiry into the origins of the defeat, and a resolute declaration in favor of a fight to the end for secular and humanist values: a fight which would make friends of the democratic and secular forces in the Muslim world. And instead, the near-majority of 'Left' intellectuals started sounding like Falwell, and bleating that the main problem was Bush's legitimacy. So I don't even muster a hollow laugh when this pathetic faction says that I, and not they, are in bed with the forces of reaction.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Christopher Hitchens" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/as-to-the-left-i-ll-say-briefly-why-this-was-the-finish-for-me-here/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a1a/christopher-hitchens-117_afghanistan_as-to-the-left-i-ll-say-briefly-why-this_1455099.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a1a/christopher-hitchens-117_afghanistan_as-to-the-left-i-ll-say-briefly-why-this_1455099.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a1a/christopher-hitchens-117_afghanistan_as-to-the-left-i-ll-say-briefly-why-this_1455099.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“As to the 'Left' I'll say briefly why this was the finish for me. Here is American society, attacked under…” — Christopher Hitchens", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“The little boats cannot make much difference to the welfare of Gaza either way, since the materials being shipped are in such negligible quantity. The chief significance of the enterprise is therefore symbolic. And the symbolism, when examined even cursorily, doesn't seem too adorable. The intended beneficiary of the stunt is a ruling group with close ties to two of the most retrograde dictatorships in the Middle East, each of which has recently been up to its elbows in the blood of its own civilians. The same group also manages to maintain warm relations with, or at the very least to make cordial remarks about, both Hezbollah and al-Qaida. Meanwhile, a document that was once accurately described as a 'warrant for genocide' forms part of the declared political platform of the aforesaid group. There is something about this that fails to pass a smell test.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Christopher Hitchens" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/the-little-boats-cannot-make-much-difference-to-the-welfare-of-gaza/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cb6/christopher-hitchens-117_activism_the-little-boats-cannot-make-much-differ_2039526.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cb6/christopher-hitchens-117_activism_the-little-boats-cannot-make-much-differ_2039526.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/cb6/christopher-hitchens-117_activism_the-little-boats-cannot-make-much-differ_2039526.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“The little boats cannot make much difference to the welfare of Gaza either way, since the materials being…” — Christopher Hitchens", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 5, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Remaining for a moment with the question of legality and illegality: United Nations Security Council Resolution 1368, unanimously passed, explicitly recognized the right of the United States to self-defense and further called upon all member states 'to bring to justice the perpetrators, organizers and sponsors of the terrorist attacks. It added that 'those responsible for aiding, supporting or harboring the perpetrators, organizers and sponsors of those acts will be held accountable.' In a speech the following month, the United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan publicly acknowledged the right of self-defense as a legitimate basis for military action. The SEAL unit dispatched by President Obama to Abbottabad was large enough to allow for the contingency of bin-Laden's capture and detention. The naïve statement that he was 'unarmed' when shot is only loosely compatible with the fact that he was housed in a military garrison town, had a loaded automatic weapon in the room with him, could well have been wearing a suicide vest, had stated repeatedly that he would never be taken alive, was the commander of one of the most violent organizations in history, and had declared himself at war with the United States. It perhaps says something that not even the most casuistic apologist for al-Qaeda has ever even attempted to justify any of its 'operations' in terms that could be covered by any known law, with the possible exception of some sanguinary verses of the Koran.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Christopher Hitchens" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/remaining-for-a-moment-with-the-question-of-legality-and-illegality/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bcf/christopher-hitchens-117_al-qaeda_remaining-for-a-moment-with-the-question_2707146.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bcf/christopher-hitchens-117_al-qaeda_remaining-for-a-moment-with-the-question_2707146.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/bcf/christopher-hitchens-117_al-qaeda_remaining-for-a-moment-with-the-question_2707146.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Remaining for a moment with the question of legality and illegality: United Nations Security Council…” — Christopher Hitchens", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 6, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Shrouded as he was for a decade in an apparent cloak of anonymity and obscurity, Osama bin Laden was by no means an invisible man. He was ubiquitous and palpable, both in a physical and a cyber-spectral form, to the extent that his death took on something of the feel of an exorcism. It is satisfying to know that, before the end came, he had begun at least to guess at the magnitude of his 9/11 mistake. It is essential to remember that his most fanatical and militant deputy, Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, did not just leave his corpse in Iraq but was isolated and repudiated even by the minority Sunnis on whose presumed behalf he spilled so much blood and wrought such hectic destruction. It is even more gratifying that bin Laden himself was exposed as an excrescence on the putrid body of a bankrupt and brutish state machine, and that he found himself quite unable to make any coherent comment on the tide—one hopes that it is a tide, rather than a mere wave—of demand for an accountable and secular form of civil society. There could not have been a finer affirmation of the force of life, so warmly and authentically counterposed to the hysterical celebration of death, and of that death-in-life that is experienced in the stultifications of theocracy, where womanhood and music and literature are stifled and young men mutated into robotic slaughterers.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Christopher Hitchens" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/shrouded-as-he-was-for-a-decade-in-an-apparent-cloak-of-anonymity-and/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/85c/christopher-hitchens-117_2011_shrouded-as-he-was-for-a-decade-in-an-ap_2781110.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/85c/christopher-hitchens-117_2011_shrouded-as-he-was-for-a-decade-in-an-ap_2781110.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/85c/christopher-hitchens-117_2011_shrouded-as-he-was-for-a-decade-in-an-ap_2781110.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Shrouded as he was for a decade in an apparent cloak of anonymity and obscurity, Osama bin Laden was by no…” — Christopher Hitchens", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 7, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "No possible future government in Kabul can be worse than the Taliban, and no thinkable future government would allow the level of Al Qaeda gangsterism to recur. So the outcome is proportionate and congruent with international principles of self-defense.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Christopher Hitchens" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/christopher-hitchens/no-possible-future-government-in-kabul-can-be-worse-than-the-taliban/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ed6/christopher-hitchens-117_al-qaeda_no-possible-future-government-in-kabul-c_2862590.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ed6/christopher-hitchens-117_al-qaeda_no-possible-future-government-in-kabul-c_2862590.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ed6/christopher-hitchens-117_al-qaeda_no-possible-future-government-in-kabul-c_2862590.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“No possible future government in Kabul can be worse than the Taliban, and no thinkable future government…” — Christopher Hitchens", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } } ] }, { "@type": "CollectionPage", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/al-qaeda/christopher-hitchens/#webpage", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/al-qaeda/christopher-hitchens/", "name": "Al qaeda Quotes by Christopher Hitchens", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/al-qaeda/christopher-hitchens/#itemlist" }, "primaryImageOfPage": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/61a/christopher-hitchens-117_al-qaeda_it-was-sometimes-feebly-argued-as-the-po_660479.jpg" }, "description": "7 Al qaeda quotes by Christopher Hitchens. Plus more from Christopher Hitchens and more Al qaeda sayings from other authors.", "breadcrumb": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/al-qaeda/christopher-hitchens/#breadcrumb" } }, { "@type": "BreadcrumbList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/al-qaeda/christopher-hitchens/#breadcrumb", "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "name": "Home", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 2, "name": "Quotes", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 3, "name": "Topics", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/categories/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 4, "name": "Al Qaeda", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/al-qaeda/" }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 5, "name": "Christopher Hitchens", "item": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/al-qaeda/christopher-hitchens/" } ] }, { "@type": "WebSite", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "publisher": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } }, { "@type": "Organization", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization", "name": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/", "logo": { "@type": "ImageObject", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/wp-content/themes/sq/assets/icons/icon-512.png", "width": 512, "height": 512 } } ] } ```