An interview with Christopher Hitchens at Powell's Books. I think his hopes for a tolerant, secular state emerging in Iraq are . . . naive. Given the corrupt manner in which we have managed the war, I do not think we ever really intended to create such a state, even assuming it could have been done. I think our priorities lay elsewhere, with oil and strategic military dominance in the region. Hitchens is a brilliant essayist, but he is also a bit of a crank.