Re: [A-List] James Petras on Beslan - fire away

["viveka" <kaliyuga@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Stan,

An excellent article.

Petras writes:

"The rather
mindless support of many on the left of the Kosovo and Chechen gangsters
under the principle of Âself-determination without any prior analysis of
the context and politics reveals their mediocrity and worse their servile
submission to imperial propaganda."

And further:

"Can it be that the progressives have more in common with their
imperial rulers than they care to admit, especially when it comes to
questions of war and peace, terrorism and self-determination?"

Two thoughts come to mind.  The first is that "progressives" have an
historical aversion to Russia as remnant of the Soviet Union, which still,
in their minds was the "evil empire" of Solzenitszen's gulags.  To make an
obvious point, "progressives" are not communists and remain on this side, if
you will, of what was once a real, but is only now an imaginary wall.  To
cross over the rubicon and defend Russia would require a leap they are not
willing to make because, as Petras points out, they do have more in common
with their rulers than they care to admit.

Secondly, for all the liberal angst over Iraq, few of those same liberals
took issue with the war against Yugoslavia, because it was crafted by one of
"them."  Even now, when I talk to my recently politicized liberal friends,
mention of the Yugoslavia war puts them immediately on the defensive.  THAT
was a good war fought for the RIGHT reason, and nothing I can say will make
them alter their position one iota, because they cannot imagine that one of
"them" would use propaganda to justify bombing a country completely unable
to defend itself.