M. Pugliese tells of a Pacifica reporter:
>critical of, certain attitudes on the , "The
American
>Left, " reticent or hostile to a criticism of
>Ba'athism and the Islamist insurgents.
As if your long service as the Last Man on the Left willing to reckon with the horrors of Stalinism weren't tiring enough (to you and us both), now you're going to similalry stand against Baathism and Islamism. At least you'll have Hitchens keeping you company.
Listen, I'll start worrying about what you and the good folks at Dissent have to say about The Left's "seriousness" and "relevance" when you present a sufficient number of leftists who are flacking for Saddam or whatever it is you care to charge. So Glantz is upset that Michael Moore used imagery of an Iraqi kid flying a pre-war kite rather than discourse at length about Iraq's history and geopolitical situation. He's a fucking film maker, for God's sake.
Maybe Marc Cooper's blog has a comment section where you can post this stuff.
I don't see anybody on this list at all enamored with Saddam or hardocre Islamist worldviews. Some think - rightly, I'd say - that their primary responsibility as subjects of and taxpayers to a nasty imperial power is to somehow check that power. If we're ever able to do that, maybe then we can discuss why Islamism is compelling in this day and age. And then _after_ that we can critique Islamism/Baathism/Stalinism/Ward Churchill's fottnoting practices and ethnic heritage/the personal politics of listmembers you personally don't like.
Leaving a bag of flaming dog shit on somebody's doorstep, ringing the bell and doing a runner was funny when I was ten. Your listserve equivalent at my advanced age is much less so. It's a particularly sleazy mode of argument.
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