Nathan Newman wrote:
>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.
-That's a weird definition of proceduaralism - it's just basic
-anti-imperialism. But what's your moral compass telling you about an
-Iraqi government. Suppose it emerges as an Islamic theocracy - that
-might be democratic, but I doubt you'd approve. So what do you & the
-other "global folks" think you should be agitating for?
ANTI-imperialism is exactly the emphasis on negative proceduralism that I'm talking about. It says nothing about what people want, only what they don't. While it could have substance through demands for global social equity, that is a demand for postive interventionism in many ways, since it would require various forms of coercive redistribution of resources against the wealthy. But there is not even a serious anti-imperialism in current antiwar rhetoric, as evidenced by the "Bring Them Home" slogan. That's a chauvinistic slogan, not a demand for justice for Iraqis.
As for a democratic theocracy, I actually don't have a big problem with Islamic views being reflected by governments, even if I'd prefer secularism. But I've argued in the US that I prefer secularism to be fought for democratically (and therefore oppose a bunch of Supreme Court decision on church-state relations), so why would I have a different standard in Islamic countries. If the majority of the population is believing Muslim, that should be reflected in their politics.
And as is evident in Iran, most folks don't really want theocracy and will soon vote against it if it gets extreme. Letting Islam into government is probably the best way to destroy its street cred and reopen the general population to secular socialist challenges to the global system.
-- Nathan newman