You've studied this far more than I ever did, but I doubt very much that Hitchens becoming a hawk on Saddam/Iraq had anything to do with money. He was not, as far as I know, getting paid by Fox. He and his opinions were not for sale to Fox or anyone on the left. I disagreed 100 percent with Hitchens regarding Iraq. He seemed as happy as a rebellious teenager to be a maverick and to have pissed off his old leftwing pals at the Nation and elsewhere. (FYI, The paper I worked for, the Pgh Tribune Review, was conservative/libertarian and we, almost alone among newspapers/media in the USA, editorialized against going to Iraq. Hardly anyone noticed; the Trib was small and irrelevant.) Hitchens was wrong about the Iraq War, just as Hedges was a chicken-shit or stupid regarding covid war. I liked Hitchens for all the good things he did and said and believed; ditto on Hedges, whose substack essays on the evil nature of Israel's government and the thugs who run it are powerful and persuasive as hell. I excuse both men's 'mistakes,' big as they are, but Hitchens was 80 percent good. In this era, finding yourself 80 percent in agreement with any pundit or politician is about all you can ask for -- especially for a libertarian like me. As for Hedges, I'm with him 100 percent when he slams Israel and US interventionism for all the right reasons. But he's an idiot on climate, covid and left-wing economics.
You've studied this far more than I ever did, but I doubt very much that Hitchens becoming a hawk on Saddam/Iraq had anything to do with money. He was not, as far as I know, getting paid by Fox. He and his opinions were not for sale to Fox or anyone on the left. I disagreed 100 percent with Hitchens regarding Iraq. He seemed as happy as a rebellious teenager to be a maverick and to have pissed off his old leftwing pals at the Nation and elsewhere. (FYI, The paper I worked for, the Pgh Tribune Review, was conservative/libertarian and we, almost alone among newspapers/media in the USA, editorialized against going to Iraq. Hardly anyone noticed; the Trib was small and irrelevant.) Hitchens was wrong about the Iraq War, just as Hedges was a chicken-shit or stupid regarding covid war. I liked Hitchens for all the good things he did and said and believed; ditto on Hedges, whose substack essays on the evil nature of Israel's government and the thugs who run it are powerful and persuasive as hell. I excuse both men's 'mistakes,' big as they are, but Hitchens was 80 percent good. In this era, finding yourself 80 percent in agreement with any pundit or politician is about all you can ask for -- especially for a libertarian like me. As for Hedges, I'm with him 100 percent when he slams Israel and US interventionism for all the right reasons. But he's an idiot on climate, covid and left-wing economics.
Here's some thoughts about Hitchens and why he lives on, kind of.
https://thespectator.com/book-and-art/afterlife-christopher-hitchens-atheism/
Thanks. Good luck to you, too.