[PEN-L:33029] Re: Re: Re: Blowback

[Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxx>]

Eugene Coyle wrote:
>
> Carrol, I was talking of "blowback," not the overthrow of capitalism.
> Kenya, Bali, and ... wherever is next seems to me evidence of blowback.
>
> Gene Coyle
>

Yeah -- I see.

I'm thinking out loud in what follows.

That makes my response a bit skewed, or irrelevant to your point. But I
think it can still stand as a general argument. Note that at the end I
speak of _intra-imperialist_ rivalry, and perhaps even at some point
war. To cite Luxemburg again, the "blowback" can take the form either of
her barbarism or her socialism. That could be a more complicated
blowback.

As I argued here (and as others have argued here and elsewhere), the
U.S. (and the ruling class seems pretty unified on this) is using the
challenge posed by Al-Q as a pretext for firming up _military_ control
of mideastern oil. And from there point of view, what difference does
Kenya, Bali, another u.s. warship or two, a London hotel. Ultimately,
the u.s. capitalist class cares no more for "westerners" than for
Palestinians or Iraqi. The Blowback affects not the "u.s." (as distinct
of us, the people of the u.s.) but merely people.

Bin Laden in that recent statement argued that the people of the U.S.
were just as responsible as the state. That's vicious nonsense -- but
nevertheless it is _us_ not the state that he can attack. And when he
does that, it gives the state more room for maneuver.

So I guess I still want to say they aren't stupid. Albright's statement
that "it was worth it" (however we define that "it") means that she
thinks it perfectly acceptable that the rest of us suffer from blowback.
She won't -- she hopes. They need to keep control of oil. (Control:
'they' don't need it themselves.) There is _no_ abstractly intelligent
way to do that. Just as there is no abstractly  intelligent way for
Israel to maintain itself as a "pure" western enclave lording it over
the Palestinians.

Assume they _know_ that there will be blowback -- but simply think
(perhaps correctly form the perspective of u.s.  imperialism, that is
u.s. capitalism) that there is no alternative.

				I am in blood
	Stepped in so far that, should I wade no more,
	Returning were as tedious as go o'er.
			Macbeth III.4. 135-37

Carrol