----- Original Message -----
From: "Noam A" <noamish at home.com>
> And I think that we must choose both our political targets and our allies
> based on reality, not on trying to self-fulfillingly prophesize our way into
> a Jedi/Dark Side state of simplicity.
>
There is nothing simple. This is the most important and engaging fight that we on the left and under 35 have ever had to wade into. It is paramount importance that we have the important debates. Debating whether or not we can target one single industry (or two) and therefore call for reform of this mess- when this mess is indeed created by the whole superstructure is not an option.
Debating with you about whether or not one can analyze different departments of the ruling clas in isolation- and come up with strategic orientation based on the single issue analysis that comes from such an investigation, is to miss the point entirely. It is to try and avoid the central questions in such a manner that all discussion becomes empty- without the liberating aspects of analysis: the part that allows us to act as a result of what we know.
We know that the different compartments of the American and Canadian ruling classes are conspiring together on this war. And no, they are not decided 100% in unison- I nor anyone else wishes to push this idea as none have said it. Their "debates" in the media ARE NOT THE REAL DEBATES. The real debates are what we have over reaction/strategy- and their real debates are over who to kill/invade/cost-benefit to themselves, how much is too much risk in the Middle East, how fast can the military be ready, will the (also vicious) Northern Alliance be "ready" to "take direction". All of these things.
However, we should be drawn into the role of theatre critic, either. This kind of war is inevitable in the current geo-political world, as it is currently (mis)led by the US. That much we all know. The different ways that the media are entertaining us currently is debates about "terror eradication". Terrorists that operate with total impunity act all over the world, I don't mean imperialist bombs everytime- but people who use mass murder as a tactic- but do it FOR America (read: the corporate class), Canada and Europe. As a payment for this, our shoes cost less and our houses have heat. But we aren't doing this and we are the only ones who can truly stop it. That is, to be blunt, if we leave the theatre critic crap alone and get down to actively putting in our efforts to end the imperialist war drive.
Jonas Savimbi and UNITA in Angola are some of the most vicious ones out there. They are actively burning Angola and have been doing so for the last 30 years. Killing and maiming people keeps them from organising and overthrowing their state. It keeps the others working for less than nothing giving some of the richest diamonds in the world to the imperialists (excuse me, mutli-national elites).
Terrorists who have blown up jet airliners and poisoned school childrens milk, destroyed sugar and tobacco crops with "dusters" and poisoned millions of swine have been operating out of Miami for 42 years. They are given congressional medals and operate with legal charity status. they do this against the peaceful Cuban people. They do it for the United Fruit company portion of south Florida's exile community. This is also an act of imperialism.
These but two examples should leave us with no doubt this war is no longer about "terrorism"in the abstract- it is about anti-imperialist terrorism coming from the Arab and Muslim world. It is being turned into a war to re-conquer the oil-fields right at a time when we know the world is rapidly running out of oil. WE need to discuss this openly and immediately. The US economy and oil do not simply have a relationship between Mobil, Exxon and the MIC. What needs to be stressed is that the "American way of life" is intimately wrapped in about seventeen different direction, overlapping and utterly indivisible from the oil reaches. It is the power in your home, the enrgy running your computer, it is the very fabric of our consumption- which is the teeth and legs of imperialism; the North American energy (read: spending) concern.
North America reaps and consumes 55% of the worlds Oil/energy. If we are folly now to go into a direction which states that the oil concern is divided from McDonalds, we are accidentally lying to all the people we talk to. We aren't looking at companies and methane- we are looking at a whole social order based on these resources. These resources are leaving us with the bodies of 1.5 million Iraqis alone. We are starting to see the blowback from the part of the world most directly constantly denied their right to humanity based on this imperial relation between our governments in North America, Europe and Japan and their clients in the Middle East. Eventually, this absolute washing of these whole peoples off the radar screen causes acts of desperation: "we are human, we do exist and we are dying in mass numbers".
We must heed this, since we know the strategy of America is now going to evolve somehow including the reconquest of the oil producing regions of the planet.
Aparently, several of the most "upstanding" media (such as the BBC) have pointed out that the oil reserves are running dry right now (i.e: post 9/11). Other "reputable" media have spoken of the first to go being Afghanistan, followed by Iraq, followed by the joint re-occupation "green light" to Israel for the sounthern (name escapes me) valley of Lebanon recently liberated by the Hizb'allah guerilla army. That would co-incide with The Sudan being taken by the Americans. I'm not interested in "decontructing" the forces at work driving this war. I'm interested in calling for the end of it and hoping to marshal the people to that call.
The debates about who what when where, how to best serve the MIC, the best for...etc., leave that nonsense up to Colin Powell to debate with Donald Rumsfeld and Dubya. It's not our concern.
This war is a form of imperialism. No amount of debating the different hallways within the elite will change that. What they all agree on is the need to fight this war and re-conquer the Middle East. The empire is nearing it's end game; to quote
"Rage rage against the dying of the light". This is the "strategy" the USA and the enforcers in the Pentagon are trying to do- they are demanding we go lock step with this or be labelled a "terrorist".
Whether they know what they are getting into well enough to succeed is their problem through their analysis to some extent, and one gets the feeling that strategy they are floating is indeed what they spoke of, but they are viciously divided on tactics. This is not our concern, but it is a possible opening. We must continue to get people into serious conflict with their government about this war- and with themselves about their complacency. It will not protect us- and it will mean a terrible disservice to those who just died. Their death can awake us all to the true, vicious nature of the Empire. We cannot go into denial.
We have two choices: "Never Again" or "Never again to us, or we kill them all".
One is revolutionary, the other is apocolyptic- never mind suicidal.
I hope this clarifies imperialism for you. If it does not, I refer you to other listmembers who might wish to continue this. I do not think it a worthy use of my time, given the current situation, to go over too much of this. My apologies on the matter for the future.
Macdonald