A well argued piece, indeed. Worthy the "socialist" boilerplate.
What I particularly liked about this piece is that unlike the "Pomo drivel" (the authors' phrase) it focuses on complexities of social-political reality instead of its "cultural interpretations" (translation: spin). Also notheworthy is how they construct their argument. Unlike the First World haters saying "we regret the loss of life, but the US deserved it yada, yada, yada...." (fill-in one of the usual "US-bad, Third World-good" ditaribes), these folks say "we do not endorse some of the US policies, but let's look at the reality of that attack" (who perpetrated it and who were the victims).
I may add that this piece is a relatively rare example of genuine critical thinking on the left nowadays. A much more common tendency is the latter-days lefties "going native." In anthropological parlance, "going native" denotes a situation in which a researcher, who is required to suspend his/her own cultural judgments and perceptions when studying other cultures, carries this otherwise sound rule of professionalism too far and renounces his/her own cultural background and identifies with the native culture. That is, btw, so pettit bourgeois: escaping the unbearable boredom of pettit bourgeois desk-bound life into more exotic cultural (and countercultural) identities.
How ironic that many latter-days lefties fell right into that trap. It is hard to escape the impression that much of what is posted to this list (including citations from other "lefty" sources) falls under the rubric of juvenile contumacy - conspicuos embracement of outrageous views and life styles for the sole purpose of pissing off teachers and parents. That might be a normal stage in teenage development - but it is quite pathetic when adults "go native" and embrace this juvenile contumacy as their own political stance: from unprotected butt-fucking, to gangsta-rap, to glass-smashing, and to mysogynist islamist warriors - anything goes as long as it offends mainstream European sensibilities. Another irony is that Limbaugh, Horowitz & Co. adopted the exact same strategy against its original sympathizers (if not perpetrators) - any idiocy goes as long as it offends liberal sensibilities. (For Horowitz it was not even that much of a switch - juvenile contumacy seems to come to him naturally since his Berkeley times.)
So here we go: the righties deconstructing and pissing off the lefties, the lefties paying back in kind - everyone quoting each other. Mutual adoration society pomo style.
wojtek