How can all of you so called leftists continue to debate US militarism as if it were unconnected with the domestic legitimacy of the state. If they had killed no Afghans, it wouldn't make the West intervention any less deplorable. If by some miracle smart warfare ousted Saddam without killing a single civilian life that wouldn't make a shred of difference either. If we criticise the war on the basis of its effects rather than the inbalance of power relations that allows it to occur then we will be for ever trapped in the cycle of reacting to what our governments do (and often accepting at face value their own justifications for it), rather than undermining their right/power to act. The real war for us is being waged in these quarters, current U.S. policy in the Middle East and beyond comes from the _general_ need to exert power, not its specific targets: it is consolidating its authority by externalising the nature of the threat, taming the beast within. Wake up. The war is being waged on us.
Bye