Anti-Imperialism 101 Re: Hitchens quits Nation

[Justin Schwartz]

Btw,
>>what do you think would have been the right position to take about Rwanda, 
>>apart from calling on the Tutsis to resist?
>
>No position we (US leftists) could have taken in 1994 would have made any 
>difference in Rwanda.  If we had acted earlier, say in 1990, vigorously 
>opposing US support for Paul Kagame and the Rwanda Patriotic Army (see 
>below), or better yet, if we had built our strength enough to effectively 
>counter the Washington consensus on economy (see below), we might have been 
>able to make a difference. (Likewise, we [US leftists] couldn't have done 
>anything to prevent the 9.11 attacks in 2001, but we could have acted 
>earlier, when the USSR still existed, to vigorously oppose US support of 
>mujahideen in Afghanistan, which might have made a difference.)

If we restrict our thinking about what positions to take to the cases where 
it would make a difference, we'll have a large degree of agnosticism about 
almost everything. In fact we edon't know ina dvance where it wouls make a 
diff. Who would have imagined, Yoshie, that that demo that you and I, among 
others, organized at OSU against Albright would have kept the Clinton 
administratioon from invading Iraq? So I ask again, what should we have 
advocated wrt to Rwanda?

jks

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