Does Hitchens Think Bush is the Jefferson of His Age?

No, of course not. But in a very interesting article on "America’s first confrontation with the Islamic world" entitled Jefferson Versus the Muslim Pirates, Christopher Hitchens notes some almost eerie parallels between then and now:

Questions of nation-building, of regime change, of “mission creep,” of congressional versus presidential authority to make war, of negotiation versus confrontation, of “entangling alliances,” and of the “clash of civilizations”—all arose in the first overseas war that the United States ever fought. The “nation-building” that occurred, however, took place not overseas but in the 13 colonies, welded by warfare into something more like a republic.

I rather doubt, among a few other points, Hitchen's contention "that Jefferson had long sought a pretext for war. His problem was his own party and the clause in the Constitution that gave Congress the power to declare war." Jefferson certainly wasn't above ignoring his own principles, but I think he would have understood clearly that any unnecessary sort of foreign military adventurism would likely further the very federalist agenda he so strongly opposed.

Still, it's a good read, especially for those of us who like our history in small doses and written with a bit more panache than those dreary textbooks of yore. After all, as Carlos Santana once sang, those who don't learn history have to go to summer school, or something like that.