I don't care for Ali at all and as a matter of fact I think it very likely that a majority, or at least a large minority approaching a majority, of violent deaths in Iraq are due to inter-Iraqi violence (made possible by removal of the Ba'ath government). However, I don't think that Ali is just making shit up.
----- Original Message ---- From: Christopher Cutrone <ccutrone at speedsite.com> To: lbo-talk at lbo-talk.org Sent: Sat, April 10, 2010 3:59:27 AM Subject: Re: [lbo-talk] Platypus: what we are, what we do, and why
I was operating from memory, which I think is clear. I didn't misquote, because I didn't quote, but paraphrased Ali. I was not speaking as a journalist, but recalling an interview I conducted, and which is well documented. I just listened to the audio recording, and I stand by my characterization of what Ali was saying. I'll let people make up their own minds, rather than being baited endlessly into defending what I wrote.
I made a polemical critique of Ali that he falsified the situation in Iraq under the occupation. Saying or even implying that marketplace and mosque bombings were the work of Black Ops and not sectarian forces was and remains a lie. Equating the actions of the U.S. in Iraq 2003-10 with those of the British in Iraq in the 1920s-30s is falsifying of present political realities. The sectarian violence is a real issue and not simply the fault of the U.S. and British but of Iraqi political actors who need to be held responsible for it. I stand by that. This is not some "neocon" take on events but should be a Leftist one.
If there was already a suspicion that "Platypus was mostly bullshit," and if the conclusion is to "stop thinking," then I suppose that's what's actually been driving this all along. The reason that good faith critiques on the "Left" are anathema is because the "Left is dead!"
-- Chris