[lbo-talk] re:New Imperialism?

[Michael Dawson]

Why all the culturalism?  After 1967, it dawned on otherwise/previously
anti-semitic U.S. elites that they could have a marvelously insane,
destabilizing, and deniable aircraft carrier right next to the oil.  What
else does anybody need to know?  These people don't give a rat's ass about
anybody's "civilization," including their own.


> -----Original Message-----
> From: lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org [mailto:lbo-talk-bounces at lbo-talk.org]
> On Behalf Of M. Junaid Alam
> Sent: Tuesday, April 05, 2005 7:35 AM
> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org
> Subject: [lbo-talk] re:New Imperialism?
> 
> "
> 
> I agree with lots of your analysis, but I think you underestimate the
> degree to which much of the American ruling class sees Israel as a
> bulwark of "civilization" against the Arab hordes. Israelis are
> people like us, struggling to subdue an enemy whose irrationality and
> violence is almost hardwired into their mysterious heads. Israel is
> like a besieged outcropping of Europe - only with big balls and heavy
> weaponry - fighting our fight.
> 
> Doug"
> 
> It's remarkable the way you stated that - I used almost the exact same
> language
> in one of my articles analyzing this question - but the fundamental
> question here
> you have to answer is *why* America is fighting this fight, why it has
> adopted the
> Israeli dynamic in terms of how it views the racial Other.
> 
> There are competing and evolving tendencies and contradictions in American
> society - the Manifest Destiny strand is obviously quite similar to
> Zionist expansionism.
> But the same case could be made for British colonialism, or French
> settlerism, or Spanish
> conquistatdorism - why aren't these countries so rabidly pro-Israel based
> on a
> civilizational approach?
> 
> I attempted to address this question in an article I wrote about a year
> ago, focused mainly
> on certain psychological-political aspects of colonialism generally and
> how our invasion of Iraq feeds into the Israelized view of Arabs
> specifically, called
> 
> "An Anti-Civilizational War?: America and Israel on the Front Line of
> Colonialism"
> 
> (http://www.counterpunch.org/alam03102004.html)
> 
> I think as far as developing a full-on analysis goes the thing has
> serious limitations, but the way the question is posed
> opens up, I think, possibilities for deeper inquiry.
> 
> 
> 
> 
> 
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
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