[lbo-talk] Bring Them Home Now: Leaflets & Website (from Stan Goff)

Nathan Newman nathanne at nathannewman.org
Tue Jul 22 11:34:28 PDT 2003


From: "Yoshie Furuhashi" <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu> At 9:35 AM -0400 7/22/03, Nathan Newman wrote:
>Bring Them Home Now! Screw the Iraqis! Leave them to Starve!
>Protect Our Boys!
>
>Why not, Demand UN administration! Democracy for Iraq!

-If masses of Iraqis demanded UN administration, you might support -them. Otherwise, don't call for what they aren't calling for.

What counts as "masses"? Do leaders of such masses count? Bush has assembled a group of leaders, including from the Iraqi Communist Party, to administer the country. If those "masses" demand that the US stay militarily, do you defer to them and drop the antiwar organizing?

What qualifies as "masses" that you listen to and those you ignore? This is the problem with moral-free procedural rules-- they just aren't very useful when there are competiting claims.

At some point, the US left has to get beyond all its procedural bases for foreign policy and decide, in alliance with other global folks around the world, what is the moral basis for the international order. The human rights movement, which I don't agree with across the board, at least has a general idea of what it wants beyond a purely negative "US out of everywhere" proceduralism.

-- Nathan Newman



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