[lbo-talk] Platypus: what we are, what we do, and why

[James Heartfield]

Chris Cutrone writes:
'Is the Taliban/al-Qaeda opposition to the U.S. "anticapitalist" (or "anti-imperialist," in the sense of Lenin, Luxemburg and Trotsky's anti-imperialism)? We think not. But this doesn't mean that the U.S. govt. is progressive!'

I agree with that. But it still says to me that one ought to oppose the allied war in Afghanistan. I am less impressed with Kanan Makiya, who, it seems to me, confuses two separate issues: the first is the undoubted reactionary nature of Saddam's regime; the second is the  potential of the U.S., or 'international community', to do good there. The first is true. The second is false.