On Thu, 18 Oct 2001 18:23:37 -0400 Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu>
writes:
>
>
> Nearly all the people in the world, including Americans, tolerate
> the
> existence of the U.S. armed forces stationed not just on the U.S.
> soil but in many parts of the world -- the standing army of
> volunteers (a big no-no for Renaissance humanists!), heavily armed &
>
> willing to fight to the death, with poor records when it comes to
> observance of human rights, laws of warfare, and so on; the CIA; the
>
> armed forces, mercenaries, death squads, etc. in the rest of the
> world, a lot of them aided & abetted by American politicians; etc.
> However, American leftists, for the most part, seem content with
> "doing nothing" about them, as it is impossible to abolish them
> overnight, & no American leftist is calling for the use of
> "considerable force" to bring American war criminals (current &
> former presidents, congresspersons, generals, etc.) to justice. Why
>
> is that? Are lives of civilians in the USA worth more than those in
>
> the rest of the world?
I am sure you know Yoshie that this sort of capitulationism that we are seeing among many American leftists to the imperatives of imperialism is not exactly a new phenomena. The classic example of this was the 1912 Basle Congress, where the Second International proclaimed its determination to resist the oncoming war through general strikes and the like. When war actually did break out two years later, the majority of European socialists capitulated to the forces of social chauvinism in their countries. Even such eminent socialist leaders and theoreticians like Kautsky of Germany and Plekhanov of Russia so capitulated, rallying in one case to the Kaiser and the Fatherland, and to Czar and country in their respective cases. As a consequence, many hundreds of thousands of workers slaughter each other in the four years that followed.
Sad to say if people of the caliber of Kautsky and Plekhanov could succumb, then perhaps we shouldn't be too surprised when lesser figures like Hitchens (and possibly even our esteemed Doug Henwood) succumb in our own time.
>
> >And, yes, a long-term "solution" requires the U.S. transform its
> >Middle East policies dramatically - which is a polite way of
> >describing a substantial retreat from its empire. Absolutely right
> >and just, but that's serious stuff, and I don't think a lot of
> >lefties urging that have thought through just how profound and
> >difficult a struggle that will be.
Most lefties of our day are not consistent through-and-through anti-imperialists. The same was true in the days of Lenin & Rosa Luxemburg. Apparently some things don't change much, even after ninety years.
Jim F.
>
> Well, most of us have, believe it or not. You might trust
> anti-imperialists, for a change.
>
> --
> 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>
> * Anti-War Organizing in Columbus Covered by the Media:
> <http://www.osu.edu/students/sif/media.html>
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