I believe you are lumping too many disparate groups together. I have not read Doug blaming Iraqis nor can I imagine him doing so any more than I can see you doing that. If I read him right, Doug blames BushCo and the larger mob, and perhaps their supporters.
Doug writes:
>
> I opposed the invasion of Iraq. I marched against it, wrote against
> it, talked against it. The same can be said for almost everyone on
> this list. How the fuck am I responsible for it? By continuing to
> live in the USA? It's the worst sort of activistism that holds that
> if only we'd had one more demo, one more petition, one more sign, one
> more slogan the war could have been stopped. <...> Americans who
> supported the war deserve some blame, but I'm not taking any, and you
> shouldn't either, unless it makes you feel more important.
I doubt one more petition or slogan would have helped, but you are not being serious in suggesting that all that can be done has been done. Just off the top of my head: everyone who is anti-war could stop paying our taxes (or that portion that supports the war apparatus). We could take a flight to Iraq or Palestine and form a human shield like Rachel Corey [sp?] did.
As I mentioned there are some who perhaps have done everything they can (in this case you). There are many "anti-war" liberals, Democrats, etc who did not do the things you have done. I was just watching Manufacturing Consent on YouTube and there is a point where the interviewer asks Chomsky how he can go on reading and analysing the horrible stuff that happens (Nicaragua, East Timor, and on and on) and he responds: "It's a matter of looking yourself in the mirror each morning".
I do take the blame for how little I have done. Not because I am important, but exactly because I am not i.e., it is the sense of importance that drives the attitude of individualism over all else (such as the endless arguments over trivial points of difference). IMHO, with the realisation of the unimportance of each of the majority comes the potential of achieving something collectively.
Which brings me to Carrol's response:
>
> This is true, but my earlier argument holds, because blaming or
> ascribing responsibility simply doesn't generate political power. ...
> but I see nothing to be gained by holding
> "the american people" or the "western left" or any other general
> category (even the ABBs or the Committees of Correspndence or UFPJ, as
> much as I am pissed off at those groups) responsible.
>
Well, yeah sanctimonious acts like blaming are not, at least, tactically a smart thing to do. But its standard belief that knowing the truth, understanding the nature of things, helps in both crafting a response/action and in convincing people about that action. The hope is that if I am able to get the ABBs, liberals, Democrats (many of whom have marched as Doug and I have) that our actions and inactions contribute to these abhorrent results I trigger further their moral sentiments and (for our selfish reasons) make the necessary actions easier for all of us. The point is not so much to harp on blame and responsibility but to show that there are a range of actions and inactions that we are a part of in some way that led to the displeasing result. Knowing what BushCo are doing to the world is the first act of awakening, such as what many USers go through when they put down their first Chomsky book, but the endless rediscovery of this truth leads to impotence and cynicism -- a few rallies and so on and most of the people either move on, or a few find little bits of things to disagree over, with each other, on mailing lists.
Understanding what one can and *must* do is a necessary if insufficient part of getting us towards the goal.
I do realise that some of this runs very counter to your own expressed views about planning and such towards a revolution or some progressive goal.
--ravi