On 2011-03-23, at 10:33 PM, Somebody Somebody wrote:
> Would Achcar and others support the current air-war against Libya if the Israeli's were involved, or leading it? If not, why not? What if they behaved in such a way that they caused fewer death (even if by 1), than those that would have been caused by Qaddafi taking Benghazi?
Now we are really letting our imagination run riot. And here I thought you had a good understanding of US imperialism and what its objectives are in the current situation. The White House and Pentagon are many things but they are not stupid, and putting the Israelis in the mix would not, shall we say, be a sound strategic way of cultivating the Arab masses who still seem to be supporting the uprising against Gadhafi. Their tea leaves say Gadhafi is yesterday's man, and the only reason they are using force is to speed the old tyrant on his way is that he has not yet dutifully complied, like Mubarak and Ben Ali, to their demand that he peacefully step aside for a more legitimate bourgeois regime which would tamp down rather than stoke the democratic fires in the Middle East. It is not about Libya's oil, which Gadhafi has not denied to them. The Libyan opposition and Arab masses remain deeply distrustful of the Americans whom they hated under Bush when they invaded and occupied an Arab land, but they are more forgiving of Obama. They still hate the Israelis who have been occupying Arab land for generations, which is why you will see the Star of David over Libya only in your imagination.
But your question is hypothetical, as is my answer. If it had only been Israeli aircraft attacking Gadhafi's forces, I expect the entrapped residents and their miitias in the opposition strongholds would have been scratching their heads with one hand and wildly applauding with the other.
At bottom, I think this discussion really boils down to the question I raised earlier: Do cities and the popular movements they harbour have the right to defend themselves from a violently repressive regime by any means necessary, or is this a right you would extend only on condition they refused "on principle" to accept military assistance from the US and its allies - premised, of course, on your superior understanding of the greater dangers which lie ahead than the crazed domestic tiger at the gate waiting to devour them? Should they have called instead on the Venezuelan, Iranian, or North Korean air forces to save them? Would this have altered, do you think, the relationship of forces in their favour against imperialism? Perhaps you have find forays by the Egyptian air force behind an American fig-leaf more acceptable? Or, as Carrol the incorrigible romantic might say, should they have gone down fighting and left an inspiring example for subsequent generations like the martyred Paris communards?