Ranger from the North

Radio Blogger has the transcript of the debate between Ron Reagan and Christopher Hitchens that took place on MSNBC tonight. The debate was about the War on Terror and quickly became focused on Iraq's sponsorship of terrorism under Saddam Hussein. Here's part of the exchange:

RR: Well, I'm following the lead of the 9/11 Commission, which...

CH: Have you ever heard of Abu Nidal, the most wanted man in the world, who was sheltered in Baghdad? The man who pushed Leon Klinghoffer off the boat, was sheltered by Saddam Hussein. The man who blew up the World Trade Center in 1993 was sheltered by Saddam Hussein, and you have the nerve to say that terrorism is caused by resisting it? And by deposing governments that endorse it?

RR: No, actually, I didn't say that, Christopher.

CH: At this stage, after what happened in London yesterday?

RR: What I did say, though, was that Iraq was not a center of terrorism before we went in there, but it might be now.

CH: How can you know so little about...

RR: You can make the claim that you just made about any other country in the Middle East, including Saudi Arabia.

CH: Absolutely nonsense.

RR: So do you think we ought to invade Saudi Arabia, where most of the hijackers from 9/11 came from, following your logic, Christopher?

CH: Uh, no. Excuse me. The hijackers may have been Saudi and Yemeni, but they were not envoys of the Saudi Arabian government, even when you said the worst...

RR: Zarqawi is not an envoy of Saddam Hussein, either.

CH: Excuse me. When I went to interview Abu Nidal, then the most wanted terrorist in the world, in Baghdad, he was operating out of an Iraqi government office. He was an arm of the Iraqi State, while being the most wanted man in the world. The same is true of the shelter and safe house offered by the Iraqi government, to the murderers of Leon Klinghoffer, and to Mr. Yassin, who mixed the chemicals for the World Trade Center bombing in 1993. How can you know so little about this, and be occupying a chair at the time that you do?

Ouch. Mr. Hitchens' last question in that excerpt certainly deserves an answer from a MSNBC executive.

Beltway Boy Fred Barnes had this to say after hearing the Hitchens-Reagan exchange played on the Hugh Hewitt show:

Ronald Reagan living off his father's name. I mean, c'mon. He's not only a twit, he's...if you've ever watched him, he's fairly obnoxious.

That had me laughing for awhile. The complete transcript of the Beltway Boys on the Hugh Hewitt Show from tonight can be found at Radio Blogger here.

Hewitt's post about the smackdown is here.

Abigail points out that John Nichols from The Nation didn't do much better than Ron in the debate.

Hey Ron, do you want to take a shot at answering Andrew McCarthy's questions?