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

Seth Ackerman sethia at speakeasy.net
Tue Feb 10 17:46:04 PST 2004


From: "Yoshie Furuhashi" <furuhashi.1 at osu.edu>


> 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.

Not true. Armed groups win power all the time without the allegience of the population, often with ugly results.


> 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.

In other words, if an armed resistance that we can support emerges, we should support it. Agreed. In the meantime, it's worth pointing out how destructive, apolitical and nihilistic the existing armed resistance in Iraq is. Which means that leftists like Pilger are wrong.

Seth



More information about the lbo-talk mailing list