I felt a bit stung about this as it seems from the point of view of my main argument very one sided and rhetorical. I felt like retorting something about the 1000 murders a year in New York, which of course are only *indirectly* associated with the class system of the society. Then I thought I had better check out some of Brad de Long's other posts and I see/remind myself that he is a potential reformer of the IMF, and very much into the serious details of what changes are or are not possible.
His remark above echoes his post of Sunday:
>>>>>>>
For most of this century, the left has severely diminished its chances of
doing anything constructive by virtue of its attachment to--and eagerness
to explain away the devastation wrought by--a bunch of very nasty dictators.
Why does my heart sink at the thought of the left thinking that the way to start a crusade to add flesh to the dry bones of international law by taking up the cause of bin Laden, the Taliban, the Iraqi dictatorship, and the Sudanese government? <<<<<<<<
As at the very least a foil for my argument this is useful, and rather than attack Brad de Long personally, I shall take his remarks as representative of a wide range of opinion in the US and Britain that affects how we resist imperialist actions by our own governments. Indeed our own governments could not perform these imperialist reactions without these widespread attitudes. The interesting thing about Sudan was how well the Sudanese presented their case without falling into the stereotype of nasty, violent and unpredictable muslims. It was unfortunate that their president wore a funny headdress as far as western audiences were concerned but I suspose like Bill Clinton he has his own constituency. Clinton adds height and stature by his hair dresser brushing his hair back and up, and the president of the Sudan wears a turban.
The unfamiliar is dangerous. So the terrorism (counter-terrorism) of the US government depends on an assumption that these muslims do not have a right to be regarded as part of a world wide global civil society. Brad's remark about teaching, pithily says why. In developed capitalist society women should have absolute nominal equality. The fact that they do not on average get more than 70% of the male wage is not for want of trying.
It is best for the people of Afghanistan to resolve their gender roles without outside interference, and had the USA and Saudi Arabia not spent 40 billion dollars on arming fundamentalist islamic fighters against the socially more liberal regime in Afghanistan (including bin Laden) there might be a gentler society there.
The Taliban are primitive communists, and we need to analyse and understand the contradictions of the islamic anti-imperialist movements much more closely. It does not help to lump them all into the same charicature.
Of course I take Brad's point that states need to learn not to attempt assassination across national borders but we should not overlook the actions of the imperialists if they think they can get away with it. Details have been published of how the Brits planned to assassinate Hitler during war, but were soon followed by allegations that they were trying to assassinate a head of state as recently as 1996.
Brad's mention of the crusades is particularly insensitive. To warn against the left starting a new "crusade" really inverts the problem when what Clinton has done is perceived in the Arab world as indeed a new crusade. That word has terrible and disgusting significance for muslims, which we as children of the other two great intolerant monotheistic religions cannot understand. The shining knights who acted like pirates, often also had morals that fell short of their image.
US public opinion may react to the headlines with support of Clinton's terrorist vengeance, but it seems opinion is also shifting that it may not be acceptable to have a president who has lied on personal matters for so long.
We do indeed need to get beyond leftist knee jerk reactions, analyse the underlying forces in the world, be a bit dialectical and discriminating in that analysis, that we are not talking about a world of goodies and baddies, and support moves toward greater international justice and accountability.
Chris Burford
London.