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

[Yoshie Furuhashi]

>>If most Iraqis are scared to death of resistance fighters taking 
>>power, they will have to get organized so they can bid for power 
>>themselves or at least try to protect themselves, come what may.
>
>Agreed. But that would leave them in bitter opposition to John 
>Pilger: "I think the resistance in Iraq is incredibly important for 
>all of us. I think that we depend on the resistance to win."
>
>Seth

Perhaps, Pilger has a different understanding of what "winning" means 
than mine.  In my view, resistance fighters themselves cannot win as 
long as they have no political wing that can command allegiance of 
sizable sectors of all critical constituencies in Iraq.  War is the 
continuation of politics by other means -- to put it differently, 
what is primary is political struggle, not armed struggle.

Right now, resistance fighters have no political wing at all, as far 
as I can see -- most likely, there are many autonomous cells with 
different political tendencies engaged in armed struggle with no 
common political program to unite them.  If the occupation continues 
for long and the ranks of resistance fighters grow, however, they may 
eventually develop a political wing, whose program it is impossible 
to foresee at this moment.
-- 
Yoshie

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