> Personally, I think the domestic "left" (such as and whatever that is) is
> totally fucked on Afghanistan, and might be on Iraq. (Palestine is a
> different matter, and there solidarity efforts with those in the territories
> and in Israel may produce some positive results.) I read that the body count
> in Afghanistan is anywhere from 3700 to 5000 -- who really knows (and we may
> never really know), but the bottom line is that most Americans don't seem to
> care about it, any more than they probably cared about German or Japanese
> civilian dead (though most may not hold the same kind of racist contempt for
> Afghans that their grandparents did for "the Japs"). "Antiwar" efforts,
> pitiful and sputtering at best, have been confined to the sectarian left and
> the paleo-right and are seen by the majority as at best a joke, at worst,
> treason. Meantime the US bombs away and draws up plans for expanded action,
> while the populace at home wave flags and prepare for the holidays.
I think the domestic anti-war movement has nothing to be ashamed of, given the circumstances. Organizing movements against was takes time, yet the protests against this war of two months have been respectable. Another problem, which I think Chomsky has recently pointed out, is that this really wasn't a "war", rather a "police action."
There does seem to be alot of confusion about what the "war" actually is. Leftists seem to think that it is a war against Afghanistan, whereas the American people see it as a war against al Queda, the Taliban and Osama bin Laden. I think it pays more to listen to what the Pentagon says. Rumsfeld has said times that the "war on terrorism" is something akin to the Cold War (WW3). In that case, it would behoove the anti-war Left to make long term plans.
> While I side more with Chomsky's take on events, I do see where Hitchens is
> coming from, and his recent speech in Chicago was thought provoking. I found
> myself agreeing with many of his points. Let's face it: The Taliban were
> awful, and no one should mourn their passing. Al-Qaida is even worse, a
> brutal gang of theocratic gangsters, and I'm certainly not against their
> elimination, or at least dispersal.
None of us are sorry to see them gone. It does piss me off that the pro-war crowd have successfully convinced people that we are pro-Taliban. That's what the shallow anti-imperialism of the IAC gets us.
I've been pretty successful in arguing with people when I point out that the response to the 1993 WTC bombing was pursued as an international criminal investigation. While Osama and al Queda might be based in Afghanistan, but you are basically fighting a war against a country instead of pursuing a criminal investigation.
> I do believe that if al-Qaida got hold
> of a nuke they'd use it with no second thoughts, so they must be engaged.
> The challenge for "us" (motley and bickering) is to reframe the debate, to
> not simply fall back on "No US War in Afghanistan!" which is now moot, and
> to say openly that, yes, there is a threat to citizens everywhere (and a
> threat to progressive values), a threat that cannot be excused or
> rationalized away. We should discuss how best to deal with this threat, in
> real terms that make sense to common people. Lefty teach-ins where speakers
> drone on and on about how Marx or Lenin might see this just won't cut it in
> the current atmosphere.
Agreed.
<< Chuck0 >>
Infoshop.org -> http://www.infoshop.org/ Alternative Press Review -> http://www.altpr.org/ Practical Anarchy Online -> http://www.practicalanarchy.org/ Anarchy: AJODA -> http://www.anarchymag.org/ Factsheet 5 -> http://www.factsheet5.com/ MutualAid.org (coming soon) AIM: AgentHelloKitty
INTERNATIONALISM IN PRACTICE
An American soldier in a hospital explained how he was wounded: He said, "I was told that the way to tell a hostile Vietnamese from a friendly Vietnamese was to shout ‘To hell with Ho Chi Minh!’ If he shoots, he’s unfriendly. So I saw this dude and yelled ‘To hell with Ho Chi Minh!’ and he yelled back, ‘To hell with President Johnson!’ We were shaking hands when a truck hit us."
(from 1,001 Ways to Beat the Draft, by Tuli Kupferburg).