Re: [A-List] Re: A reformulation (only five?)

["Henry C.K. Liu" <hliu@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

hari.kumar@xxxxxxxxxxxx wrote:

> 1) The support of Iraq - is NOT the same as - support of Saddam.
> Refuting imperialist 'rights' to invade Iraq - is not the same as support of Saddam.
> To think and argue that it is so, I submit - is to destroy any credibility for a socialist path with those who have struggled against Sadddam in his years in power.
This is the kind of socialist piety that destroys the revolution. In a
world order of nation states, a sitting president of a nation and his
government is the nation, good or bad.  The only legitimate removal of a
bad government is an internal revolution, never a foreign  invasion.  I
have no trouble with Left opposition to Saddam or with Iraqi dissidents
during his reign, as long as they were not seeking US support. which at
any rate was unavailable.  But when the US targeted Saddam, not because
he was a dictator, but because he was not the US's dictator, my sympathy
for Saddam grew exponentially. This is not the enemy of my enemy
argument.  It is that Saddam was being attcked for that part of him that
was good and by defending Saddam, I am defending that good. When facts
change, reasonable people change their minds. Most every revolutionary
started out as a conservative, or moderate or even reactionary. It's not
where you are coming from, it's where your are going that counts. To
jump withn joy because the US toppled Saddam because the Western Left
once opposed Saddam under very different consitions is unwittingly
reactionary. It is in fact destructive of "any credibility for a
socialist path".

> 2) Politeness:
> I would have to challenge you to find anywhere that I have been less than 'polite' to Lui. If you mean accept whatever he says, you might be correct I have failed to do that.

My name is Liu. No one else on this list has trouble with its spelling.
If you want to be polite, start with calling someone his correct name.
It was not a typo, you used it several times.

Henry C. K. Liu, and that is LIU.