[lbo-talk] Re: people in glass cages shouldn't...

[Stephen Philion]

Yoshie wrote:
The concept of "monsters" is a mental block that prevents us from analyzing
the history of Iraq in particular and the nature of
political power in a modern state in general.

--it also really distorts reality about the nature of dictatorships around
the world that we are, like Saddam, quite responsible for in terms of
financial, military, moral support.  Saddam was a dictator, war maker, etc.
I'm still at a loss as to how Saddam is a monster, Musharraf, Mubarak, Saudi
Royales, Uzbekhi dictators, etc. are not monsters in the general discourse.
Once we think in terms of monsterism, it gets pretty hard to get at the
roots of what moved the US to illegally invade and occupy Iraq.
I think Scott Burchill really got at this in his recent Counterpunch
article:
http://counterpunch.org/burchill12272003.html