Re: [Marxism] Re: The Talibanization of Iraq

[Andy <esquincle@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Yoshie:

> The "bad news," which isn't really news, is that Washington doesn't
> appear to be close to leaving.  As Joseph Stiglitz noted, the Iraq War
> may cost $1-2 trillion

link:
<http://www2.gsb.columbia.edu/faculty/jstiglitz/cost_of_war_in_iraq.pdf>

> Not only can Washington afford it economically, it can also afford it
> politically: there is no revolt against the war among US soldiers, nor
> is there one in civil society in the USA.  You look to your left, and
> you look to your right, and there is NOT a ripple of militant
> opposition.  The calm is almost eerie.  Have the secular left died not
> only in the Middle East but also in the USA?  Or could it be that
> we've been dead for some time but didn't really know, being the living
> dead?

When Staughton Lynd came through town for May Day 2004 he wrote a
beautiful long speech just for our peace group in which he recalled the
crimes at Guantanamo, the struggle for habeas corpus, Henry David
Thoreau -- and called upon us to perform civil disobedience.  A bold
challenge.  Yet, in recent weeks the discussion has reemerged.  (I
found the Anne Braden reprint in this month's MR compelling from this
point of view.  <http://monthlyreview.org/0606braden.htm> )

Yoshie's sentiment beautifully encapsulates the feelings of every
single one of dozens of activist acquaintances and friends -- mostly
all who consider themselves militant (not calm) but I know what Yoshie
means.  On the other hand our peace group is growing still -- new
activists coming forward, new faces at the weekly vigils, etc.

In many other ways our local "left" appears to me to be growing not
dying -- but still we lack an organized presence within the bourgeois
culture.  I don't think we are the living dead as much as living within
a dying culture -- a culture now too weak to acknowledge, let alone
echo, our presence.

> The "bad news" has a silver lining: Washington is less likely to do
> Iran and/or Venezuela as long as it's stuck like no joke in Iraq.

Silver lining indeed, although I think Yoshie already convinced me that
they will probably attack Iran anyway.

Andy


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