A faction willing to take the risks of making war on the ossified status quo in the Middle East can be described as many things, but not as conservative.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes that those willing to challenge entrenched power structures in the Middle East cannot be labeled as conservative.
Christopher Hitchens asserts that any group or faction that is prepared to engage in conflict against the established and rigid systems of power in the Middle East should not be classified as conservative. This suggests that true conservatism entails a desire to maintain the status quo rather than disrupt it, and therefore those advocating for significant change, even through warfare, are fundamentally aligned with more revolutionary ideals rather than conservative ones.
In practice
In a debate on foreign policy, one might quote Hitchens to argue against traditional conservative approaches to international relations.
In a public dialogue with Salman in London he [Edward Said] had once described the Palestinian plight as one where his people, expelled and dispossessed by Jewish victors, were in the unique historical position of being 'the victims of the victims': there was something quasi-Christian, I thought, in the apparent humility of that statement.
What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence.
Never ask while you are doing it if what you are doing is fun. Don't introduce even your most reliably witty acquaintance as someone who will set the table on a roar.
[E]xceptional claims demand exceptional evidence.
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Let me tell you something: for hundreds of thousands of years, this kind of discussion would have been impossible to have, or those like us would have been having it at the risk of our lives. Religion now comes to us in this smiley-face, ingratiating way β because itβs had to give so much more ground and because we know so much more. But youβve got no right to forget the way it behaved when it was strong, and when it really did believe that it had God on its side.
Our form of government can no longer be considered an experiment in politics. Crowned with success, it stands forth an example to the world and exhibits the proudest triumph of reason and philosophy.
Public buildings, built from the rates and taxes paid by past generations, are being auctioned off by impoverished councils who need the money to pay the redundancies of workers they can no longer afford to employ. Many of these grand Victorian buildings will be turned into flats that most people will never be able to afford.
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There are a number of things wrong with Washington. One of them is that everyone is too far from home.
Nobody should have any illusions. The United States has essentially a one-party system and the ruling party is the business party.
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