[lbo-talk] Iraq, the left and the 'resistance' (Geras blog)

Stephen E Philion philion at hawaii.edu
Mon Feb 9 09:02:48 PST 2004


seth asked Steve, isn't the point that any political group that repeatedly blows up innocent civilians to the horror of most of the population probably doesn't deserve our support?

--good question, but to tell ya the truth i don't know who within the resistance is blowing up the civilians . from what i read in the WP or NYT reports, most Iraqis seem to be saying that attacks that target civilians (and by civilians i don't mean police) are done by non- Iraqis, but I have little way of knowing who is responsible for that. I do sense that many of the killings and injuring of Americans are due to the fact of occupation (i.e. illegal occupiers can't provide security no matter how hard they try). Even in the NYT and Post we read of Iraqis frequently saying that they blame the US occupation for the civilian attacks, i.e. the US occupation brings on these type of phenomena.

In terms of who we support and don't support, I dunno. I do know that the ONLY factor that will revive the US antiwar movement is if, like today, on an average 1.5 AMERICAN deaths occur in Iraq. Otherwise, little in the way of movement in the US on the antiwar front is likely. Little else can I be certain of.

steve



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