[lbo-talk] in Geras' black and white world, is this guy a terrorist?

kjkhoo at softhome.net kjkhoo at softhome.net
Wed Apr 28 18:37:41 PDT 2004


At 11:13 am -0700 28/4/04, Michael Pugliese wrote:
> My mistake. Rahul makes note of Hizbollah and Iranian involvement
>in Fallujah.
> You consistently kneejerk by asserting that there are not sectors
>of the Movement that, 'er "Objectively, " support the sectors of the
>Iraqi Resistance that are rooted in Ba'athism, reactionary Islamism
>or the bankrupt pan-Arab nationalism that a Ohio State Univ. Prof.,
>Iraqi born political scientist, rubbishes in, "The Rise and Fall of
>Arab Nationalism, " by Aded Dawisha, reviewed here by Avi Schlaim,
>http://books.guardian.co.uk/writersoniraq/story/0,12975,924664,00.html
>

Watching this kind of exchange being re-played over and over and over again, I am very much tempted into thinking -- thank god, the independence movements didn't have to satisfy the stringent criteria not to be labelled "reactionary", "bankrupt", "nationalist", etc. and have to satisfy the tender consciences of some people. Else we would all still be under "tutelage", for even Gandhi would not have passed their scrutiny -- he was reactionary, wasn't he, and definitely nationalist.

By the way -- and I know people are aware of this, but the slippage in language is perhaps symptomatic -- there are plenty of foreign fighters in Iraq. Some are Americans and Brits, some are Iranians, Arabs, "Wahabis", even bad Iraqi shias. The last were "good" guys, emblems of the evil that was Saddam Hussein, until they turned "bad", emblems of the evil of reactionary Islamism.

kj khoo



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