Re: [Marxism] Jonathan Schell on the DP's prowar stance

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Marvin Gandall wrote:

> (Jonathan Schell, in the forthcoming issue of The Nation, argues that the
> Democratic party has locked itself into continuing the war in Iraq, even
> though its base is in denial and is hoping Kerry's pledge to do so is just
> rhetoric designed to win the election. In fact, the outcome of the US
> occupation, has little to do with what the Democrats or Republicans do or do
> not say, or what their intentions are. As in Vietnam and any occupation, it
> will be decided by the level and durability of Iraqi resistance.

What Schell leaves out is the organized antiwar movement. One of the
main goals of the Democratic Party over the past year or so, besides
ousting Bush so as to provide sinecures in Washington for their own
loyalists, has been to disarm the antiwar movement. By creating fake
antiwar outfits like Moveon.org, by unleashing hate campaigns against
ANWER in the pages of Democratic Party outlets like the Nation, Salon
and LA Weekly, by launching an Orwellian "hate Nader" campaign, it has
forced politics to the center. If you want to oppose the war in Iraq, it
is necessary to support a pro-war candidate. "WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS
SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH ."

Jonathan Schell:
> What of the antiwar sentiment that is still in truth at the heart of most
> Democrats' anger? It has been displaced downward and outward, into the
> outlying precincts of American politics. The political class as a whole has
> proved incapable of taking responsibility for the future of the nation, and
> the education of the American public has been left to those without hope of
> office. Like a balloon that squeezed at the top expands at the base,
> opposition to the war increases the farther you get from John Kerry. Carter
> and Gore can express a little more of it. Howard Dean, who infused the party
> with its now-muffled antiwar passion, can express more still. Representative
> Kucinich, a full-throated peace candidate, has endorsed Kerry and has kind
> words to say about him but holds fast to his antiwar position. On the
> Internet, Tomdispatch.com, AlterNet.org, commondreams.org, antiwar.com,
> MoveOn.org and many others are buzzing and bubbling with honest and inspired
> reporting and commentary. Michael Moore is packing audiences into 2,000
> theaters to see Fahrenheit 9/11.

Except for antiwar.com, every one of these outlets has been beating the
drums for Kerry. I feel like Winston Smyth.

> commented, may take the country over Niagara Falls. Then Kerry may wish that
> he and his admirers at this year's convention had thought to place a higher
> value on his service to his country when he opposed the Vietnam War.

Today's John Kerry has about as much connection with that John Kerry as
Christopher Hitchens or David Horowitz have with their 1973 personae.


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