17.5.03
Review/profile of Hunter S. Thompson
The Guardian reviews Thompson's new book, Kingdom of Fear: Loathsome Secrets of a Star-Crossed Child in the Final Days of the American Century, and includes some of his thoughts on the past and the present:On the US in the run-up to the Iraq war:
Last year, well before the Iraq war, Thompson wrote: "We have become a Nazi monster in the eyes of the whole world - a nation of bullies and bastards who would rather kill than live peacefully. We are not just whores for power and oil, but killer whores with hate and fear in our hearts. We are human scum, and that is how history will judge us. George W Bush does not speak for me or my son or my mother or my friends or the people I respect in this world."On the post-September 11 US:
...written on September 12 2001... he predicted "a religious war, a sort of Christian jihad, fuelled by religious hatred and led by merciless fanatics on both sides. It will be guerrilla warfare on a global scale, with no front lines. We are going to punish somebody for this attack, but just who or what will be blown to smithereens for it is hard to say. Maybe Afghanistan, maybe Pakistan or Iraq, or possibly all three at once."On Nixon:
As the funeral orations were being delivered and everyone was praising Nixon, Thompson wrote "He Was a Crook", one of the best, the funniest, the most sustained polemics I have ever read. Midway through it, in a burst of candour, Thompson reflects on his harsh words and says, "but I have written worse things about Nixon many times, and the record will show that I kicked him repeatedly long before he went down. I beat him like a mad dog with mange every time I got a chance, and I am proud of it."We should all be proud. But let us not rest on our laurels, Hunter: there's plenty to do these days.
