Arguments for ground war - forget it

Chris Burford cburford at gn.apc.org
Sat Nov 17 00:23:09 PST 2001


At 16/11/01 16:33 -0800, you wrote:
>>Of course the war was not legitimate. Of course in a world in which there
>>are such inequalities of wealth and power, a counterattack was illegitimate.
>
>
>So we should have gone to visit the homes of the dishwashers at Windows on
>the World killed on September 11, and told their wives, husbands, and
>children that "Because the United States is a rich and powerful country,
>it would be illegitimate to take any steps to force the Taliban to hand
>over those responsible for this atrocity, and illegitimate to take any
>steps to reduce Al-Qaeda's ability to commit a similar atrocity again?"
>
>Somehow I don't think so.
>
>
>Brad DeLong

Nor do I. I am trying to contrast what I see as an idealist response to political events as to whether we personally think they are legitimate or not and whether they offend what all good leftists should think - and a materialist analysis, which I think is the true marxist [small letters] approach, which sees the clash of material forces as it actually unfolds. What Brad rightly rejects is preaching, and offensive preaching at that.

But if Hakki wants to pose the question in terms of whether the war is legitimate, of course it was not legitimate, but it was going to happen in some form or other. Better that it happened in a less violent and destructive way than a more destructive and violent way. And a way hopefully, and this is what is important now, opens the door to more progressive world politics.

BTW I agree with another of Carrol's pithy remarks in this context- that the Left does not exist. I as reacting to what I saw as the implication behind Hakki's statement that the Left does exist, and it has clear standards about what is legitimate of not - certainly as far as the attack on the Taliban regime is concerned. I do not believe this to be the case. But perhaps as Greg constructively suggests, we have been talking past each other.

Chris Burford



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