----- Original Message ----- From: "Yoshie Furuhashi" <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu> To: <lbo-talk at lists.panix.com> Sent: Tuesday, September 18, 2001 11:13 AM Subject: Re: The Wager (Re: Interview with Noam Chomsky by Radio B92, Belgrade (fwd)
> > > That costly and protracted wars with high levels of casualties
tend
> >> to destablize all states involved, heightening social
contradictions
> > > & bringing down some regimes, is a matter of historical
knowledge
> >> (Cf. Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War), independent of our
ethical
> >> preferences. How you make use of such historical knowledge
> >> politically is up to you. BTW, there is another possibility
that I
> >> have not mentioned in my post that you condemn:
> >>
> >=========
> >Historical knowledge is never independent of all agents ethical
> >preferences; indeed alot of history is made as a result of agents
> >ethical preferences. The independence assumption of 'historical
> >methods' is too problematic to be of use at this juncture.
> >
> >Ian
>
> That costly and protracted wars with high levels of casualties tend
> to destablize all states involved, heightening social contradictions
> & bringing down some regimes appears to me to be one of the truths
> that individuals of contradictory ethical and political dispositions
> can recognize, be they religious fundamentalist worriers,
strategists
> for the U.S. national security state, or Noam Chomsky, if they do
not
> to act like an ostrich with his head in the sand (and they don't,
> unlike some LBO-talkers).
>
> While (A) all of us should do all we can to prevent a U.S. war on
> Middle-Eastern nations from happening, it is probable (B) that we
> will not be able to prevent it from beginning, given objective
> circumstances (only one in the entire U.S. Congress voting against
> war; a far larger number of Americans preferring military action,
> even if it results in civilian casualties, than those who desire
> other options; marginality and disorganization of leftists in the
US;
> US governing elite's willingness to exploit the WTC bombings to test
> what Americans tolerate; etc.). (A) expresses my ethical
preference;
> (B) is my prediction based upon historical knowledge and objective
> analysis of current conditions. Therefore, I think leftists should
> think about what may result from (B) & how to respond to it, and in
> that spirit I've laid out several possibilities (one of which may
> likely doom us all, whatever we do).
>
> Try not to be an ostrich.
>
> Yoshie
===========
You are pathetic. Kill file time...
Ian