How about Hitchens hand deliver a portion of the contributed volumes. Perhaps our benefactor can stay awhile in and outside the green zone, sans security detail, for say, a month or so, During the month, Hitchens could do a series of public readings at the university, local library, and other public places. Now, if he were to do that, he would earn some measure of respect. Otherwise, this is a standard Hitchens stunt. I suspect Hitchens will take the safe and meaningless route because all this is a clever little idea designed do inflate his delusional sense of sacrifice. The proverbial ball's in your court Hitchens, what say you? Are you a man or simply a well lubricated mouth?

Good idea. Hitchens could give daily readings in downtown Baghdad from his screed, “God is Not Great”—that is until he realizes after several seconds that his head no longer is attached to his body and is rolling down some dirty alley with his lips uttering his last gasp of nonsense.

CH: Hey. There's a startup university in a place that needs it that is having trouble getting books. Think you could spare some?

Ag: I'm on to you, pal.

There were many functioning universities in Iraq prior to the invasion that produced scholars and teachers and doctors. The Iraqi people did not require your or Mr. Hitchens' charity. The Iraqi people were and remain a learned, sophisticated people long before they were "liberated" by your military's campaign of "shock and awe." Many of those univeristies and the students that inhabited them no longer exist because of this ugly war begun by your President and sanctioned by your Congress and approved by Americans. To suggest that now you are going to somehow remedy all of the loss, anguish and suffering endured by the Iraqi people by collecting a few books is nauseating evidence of Mr. Hitchens' and your collosal hubris and ignorance. Keep your books. I think most Iraqis would much prefer to have their country back.

I commend you on your eloquent dodge of any action whatsoever. It succinctly states all anyone really needs to know about you.

As for those wonderful universities Iraq had before the invasion, sorry blockade, sorry first gulf war, sorry Iran-Iraq war, sorry coup, sorry theocratic monarchy, sorry whenever; name three.

By the by, you did catch the election, right?

And so again, if you can stifle your nausea for a moment to give some used books to a struggling university, that would be nice. Do you have any books?

Oh, here we go, the classic Hitchens game....name three universities....I won't participate in your gotcha games, like Mr. Hitchens hapless victim Charlton Heston. I could easily google the universities but that wouldn't satisfy for you...you would still deny my broader point that a few books can't erase the lasting damage your nation has caused to a country and a people. But here's a challenge that's more to the point: Name 10 Iraqi children that have been killed by this invasion because of all the so-called smart bombs your nation has dropped on them. You can't name a single one because you feign concern for Iraq and Iraqis and if sending a few books alleviates your guilt - whether you acknowledge it or not - then by all means. But don't for a moment suggest that this is some sort of act of alturism for a people in need.

"name three universities....I won't participate in your gotcha games"

Gotcha Gotcha Gotcha!

"But don't for a moment suggest that this is some sort of act of alturism for a people in need."

You're right. I'm sending books to support big oil. Go me!

I'll bet your wife buys the groceries.

Wife: "Honey, we're almost out of toilet paper."

You: "Do you have any idea of how much virgin forest is eliminated by paper companies?"

Wife: "We need peanut butter, too."

You: "George Washington Carver was screwed over by the acadamy of sciences."

Wife: "Did you get the car fixed?"

You: "And be a stooge in Big Oil's plans? No thank you!"

What do you actually do, anyway?

I think I'll send them my Mack Bolan collection. It's where the good guy shoots the bad guy a lot. You'd think the writer would try something different but that's pretty much the theme in all 27 books.

This is a statement of pure genius.

The only problem is Hitchens might take this idea and run with it. I don't mean that he would actually expose himself to danger. But, we might see some nice photo ops of Hitchens reading to children on the front line, all done in that grand tradition of congressional fact-finding trips to Baghdad, Hillary's Bosnian excursion, and Heraldo's reporting on Afghanistan.