[Marxism] Democrats call for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq

[Yoshie Furuhashi <furuhashi.1@xxxxxxx>]

> > GRANMA INTERNATIONAL
> > Havana. April, 9 2004
> > Democrats call for U.S. withdrawal from Iraq
> >
> > WASHINGTON (PL).-The escalation of Iraqi resistance actions against
> > the U.S. occupation forces has mobilized Democrat leaders, who are
> > demanding a withdrawal strategy from the White House. According to
> > Thursday's edition of The Washington Times, members of the
> > opposition are criticizing the Bush administration position of
> > increasing troops in response to the insurgents.
> >
> > According to Senator Robert Byrd, one of the higher-ranking
> > Democrats in the Senate, the White House committed a monumental
> > error in the invasion of Iraq and on no account should it increase
> > the number of troops deployed there. Instead of that, a strategy of
> > withdrawal should be drawn up, Byrd emphasized, affirming that he
> > is definitely not the only person to perceive shades of Viet Nam in
> > this militaristic adventure.
>
> This is wishful thinking on Granma's part. Byrd is about as
> representative of the Democratic Party leadership as Senator
> Gruening was in 1965, the only one who voted against the Gulf of
> Tonkin resolution. Furthermore, Kerry's is pro-war. Frankly, it
> miseducates its readers for Granma to write such a confused
> analysis. Finally, there is no relationship in class terms between
> the Spanish SP and the Democratic Party in the USA. Unfortunately,
> the USA lacks a labor or social democratic party, even one that has
> all the reformist faults of the PSOE.
>
> Louis Proyect

Isn't the Democratic Party in the USA like the Labor Party in Israel?

*****   Yitzhak Laor

The Tears of Zion

Public opinion in Europe and America is principally informed about
developments within Israel by a select group of spokesmen, whose
voices are heard over and over again. It represents itself as an
enlightened opposition to mainstream prejudices, critical of much in
Israeli political and intellectual life from a progressive point of
view. The reality is quite different. Intellectuals of the Zionist
Left play a crucial part in sustaining the oppression and exclusion
of the Arab populations of Palestine. A look at the period from the
collapse of the Camp David negotiations at the end of July 2000,
through the outbreak of the second Intifada in October, up to the
Israeli elections of February, 2001, offers a graphic demonstration
of this role.

The starting-point of the Zionist Left was the assumption that there
was only one central contradiction in Israeli politics -- the rivalry
between Labour and Likud, or the contrast between peace and war. Its
intellectuals expected the Palestinians to accept this
presupposition, and assist 'the good to overcome the evil'. In the
year 2000, what this meant was to help Ehud Barak overcome Ariel
Sharon. Everything boiled down to just this one choice. Or in
slightly more theoretical language: the sum of contradictions 'among
us' is the only totality, everything else is secondary and
insignificant; therefore, the focal contradiction in our lives has to
become central in theirs, too.

The repression of the contradiction between Palestinian interests and
the Israeli occupation, between the occupation and Palestinians'
lives under it, has been a long process, of which the Oslo Accords
were a culmination. But it has since continued with the
transformation of Meretz from a centre-left to simply an
'anti-religious' party, followed by the disappearance of Peace Now.
[1] Its next stage was the 'obligation' of the Left -- and even of
the Palestinians -- to assist Ehud Barak to be re-elected as Prime
Minister. . . .

(_New Left Review_ 10, July-August 2001,
<http://www.newleftreview.net/NLR24403.shtml> &
<http://www.newleftreview.net/PDFarticles/NLR24403.pdf>)   *****
--
Yoshie

* Bring Them Home Now! <http://www.bringthemhomenow.org/>
* Calendars of Events in Columbus:
<http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/calendar.html>,
<http://www.freepress.org/calendar.php>, & <http://www.cpanews.org/>
* Student International Forum: <http://sif.org.ohio-state.edu/>
* Committee for Justice in Palestine: <http://www.osudivest.org/>
* Al-Awda-Ohio: <http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Al-Awda-Ohio>
* Solidarity: <http://www.solidarity-us.org/>

_______________________________________________
Marxism mailing list
Marxism@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/listinfo/marxism