Is there a nonviolent response to September 11?

Carl Remick carlremick at hotmail.com
Tue Oct 9 22:25:15 PDT 2001



>From: Seth Ackerman <sackerman at FAIR.org>
>Reply-To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
>To: "'lbo-talk at lists.panix.com'" <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com>
>Subject: RE: Is there a nonviolent response to September 11?
>Date: Tue, 9 Oct 2001 17:01:43 -0400
>
>In the sprit of Doug's call for some practical thinking about a left
>position on this war, I'll say some things about David McReynolds'
>comments.
>
>The best thing about his statement is that he rejects simplistic answers.
>Just saying "no" doesn't work and it's not right. This war is not the same
>as Vietnam and it's not the same as the Gulf War. We were attacked and
>we're
>entitled to some measure of justice.

Take it up with God, then. The challenge presented here is the most literal rendering of damned-if-you-do-damned-if-you-don't I've ever seen. There are no good answers here *at all*. Of course we're entitled to some measure of justice, but I take it as a given that our pursuit of that right will itself cause injustice and further intensify Anti-American sentiment worldwide. Only a miracle can prevent a completely nightmarish outcome. As McReynolds notes so acutely: "Wars, once under way, have an illogic all their own."

The time to develop *good* solutions to foreign policy problems was in the past two decades, when Reagan, Bush I, and Clinton bestrode the narrow world like cardboard colossi and encouraged Americans to live in a state of fantasy. Now it's too late.

Carl

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