>Date: Fri, 28 Mar 2003 08:14:26 +0000
>To: pen-l at galaxy.csuchico.edu
>From: Chris Burford <cburford at gn.apc.org>
>Subject: hegemons lose this war
>
>There is so much evidence available in London this morning, that I can no
>longer afford personally and professionally the time to detail it.
>
>I have the advantage of more sceptical media in the UK, and a personal
>interest in the minutiae of tactics, and meaning, which IMO allows me to
>see behind the spin, rather than just criticise it. Usually the left has
>to have broad propagandist approaches to the enemy. While this is
>necessary, the internet now allows the possibility of seeing the conflicts
>and contradictions among the imperialist and other powers close up, with
>the potentiality for the new global movement to combine tactics and
>strategy. I appreciate that some people may feel "there is something
>bourgeois about everything I write" and if I have a contribution to make
>now, it is for the same reasons as many viewed my contributions at the
>time of the Kosova war with great suspicion although I think I always
>chose my words carefully. For me the emotional bedrock is a prejudice to
>solidarity with muslim and other third world peoples, as a guiding star
>for any change in the world.
>
>To Hari's post (below):-
>
>Blair's worried sick look is deliberate. We now have a situation in which
>London will systematically leak against the most flagrant hegemonistic
>camp in a war which is suddenly going to be long drawn out. The IMF has
>warned that the fundamentals have already turned adverse. It has become
>apparent that whatever violations of human rights in Iraq, and whatever
>commandist errors by the Baath party, it has enough roots in the
>population to maintain a war of national resistance for months, and years.
>
>Even Rumsfeld blenches to accept the challenge of the Iraqi Defence
>Minister to go into the graveyard of Baghdad.
>
>Yes yesterday evening the BBC correspondent did not repeat the Stalingrad
>word on camera, but had without doubt been briefed that the Pentagon had
>finally got part of the message - US troops on the ground to be doubled +
>probably a delay on attacking Baghdad unless personally agreed by Blair
>and Bush, I would guess.
>
>The war is to be prolonged. But what we are going to see is the politics
>of the war in Vietnam telescoped into 9 months. That is electrifying.
>
>The only major question I would have to say in response to Hari is to
>agree how to define defeat. Just because hegemonism is going to lose this
>war, does not mean that hegemonism is defeated across the world. But Blair
>is already beavering away about the technical details of how humanitarian
>aid is got into the cities, and that will undermine the pretensions of the
>Pentagon to run a civilian administration. So the net result may just be
>an adjustment of the balance of imperialist forces in the world.
>
>But the people of the world are being politicised as never before, and the
>hegemons are going to lose this war, in a way no one will be able to forget.
>
>IMHO
>
>Chris Burford
>London
>
>
>
>At 2003-03-27 19:33 -0500, Hari Kumar wrote:
>>Dear Chris:
>>I really would hope that you are right. But, again I doubt it. The
>>"worried sick" look on Blair's face in the interviews at the War Summit
>>with his leader Bush - certainly indicate that Blair is worried and sick.
>>but what about exactly?
>>Of course the longer the heroic struggle of the Iraqi peoples plays out,
>>the worse is his likely political fate. But.. Stalingrad? I still doubt
>>that - Guerilla warfare with significant casualties on the "Liberators"?
>>YEs. But - no victory to the Iraq peoples in the short term. Again - what
>>is the definition of "defeat"?
>>The USA will be defeated purely by teh monumental exposure of imperial
>>arragant might that this war shows. The exposure of the events to the
>>peoples of the world - including in North America & in the UK - is a HUGE
>>victory - in the long term for us. But - in the sort term a different
>>story I suspect. That is what I think anyway.
>>Cheers, Hari
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