>Oh, if you're just talking about the tactical use of violence, I
>personally agree with all you said above: violence and it's uses
>doesn't impress me much. Max just seemed to say, in essence, "How's
>that gonna look to the folks back home?" using a "hearts and minds"
>logic....
<snip>
>However, my post really had to do with Max's "hearts and minds"
>strategy critique: Max seemed to argue that violence should be
>played down because of the negative image; however, if that begins
>to radicalize at least a fraction of the viewers/critics, the cost
>of alienating others MIGHT be worth it.
Here's a report on the "hearts and minds" in Italy:
***** The Battle of Genoa
by WALDEN BELLO
Genoa; Sunday, July 23
...It is, however, for the new Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi, that the protesters, both Italian and non-Italian, reserve their greatest anger. During the struggle at the Corso Torino, Gino Pierantoni, another Genoese, told me, "I don't know where you will find truth in this mess. But I am sure that a great part of the blame rests with this man, who really is incapable of leading this country." Berlusconi is regarded as having militarized the situation, going against the moves of the local government, which tried to accommodate the protest movement. A retired Italian general who headed the United Nations peacekeeping force in Beirut in the seventies summed up the feelings of many Italians when he commented that he did not know why Berlusconi assigned 20,000 carabineri to Genoa when he only needed 2,500 troops to keep the peace in the whole of Beirut....
<http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=special&s=bello20010721> *****
Italian comrades can make some political hay out of public sentiments against Berlusconi & militarization of policing.
Yoshie