Opposing the Protector of Global Capitalism in Principle

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>I'm all for an anti-imperialist movement, but not one that
>isn't against massacring innocent civilians. In respect
>to Israel, Edward Said wrote:
>
>"Many ordinary Europeans and Americans no longer accept the
>notion that Israel enjoys some special moral status, which makes
>its policies of dispossession and assassination pardonable. The
>occupying power still has its imperial protectors abroad. But in
>the court of world opinion it has grown more isolated, and
>Israelis know it.
>
>That is what explains the desperate expedients to which its
>friends in the United States have resorted, as they thrash about
>in search of a way to extricate Israel from the impasse of its
>attempts to suppress the new Intifida."
>
>There was anti-imperialism brewing, even before
>the current war.
>Al Queda may have struck a blow against the Empire,
>but it was suicidal and gave the US a nudge towards
>fascism. Nor very smart anti-imperialism.
>
>against the Empire and Al Queda, sorry you can't say the same.
>
>Peter

Some things should go without saying: e.g., "against Al Qaeda"; 
"against massacring innocent civilians"; and so on.  Why should you, 
or anyone else for that matter, be *afraid* that you'd be mistaken 
for being in favor of Al Qaeda, massacring innocent civilians, etc., 
*unless you explicitly say you are against them, again and again and 
again*?  In my opinion, such repetition is an *insult* to your 
audience, as the repetition implies that your audience may be *so 
dumb or inhumane or both* as to not know enough to take a correct 
position *without your incessant reminder*.

BTW, why do you qualify "civilians" by the adjective "innocent"?  How 
do you, and soldiers on the ground, judge which civilians are 
innocent?  And innocent of what???
-- 
Yoshie

* Calendar of Anti-War Events in Columbus: 
<http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/calendar.html>
* Anti-War Activist Resources: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/activist.html>
* Student International Forum: <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/>
* Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osu.edu/students/CJP/>