Re: [Fwd: Re: Najaf]

[Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxx>]

Jim Devine wrote:

> the more people who demand immediate withdrawal, the sooner the troops
> will come home. (The power elite is more willing to compromise, all else
> equal, the more "unrealizable demands" are endorsed on the street.)
>

My one chance (before politics and clinical depression intervened) to
make associate professor was wrecked by the error a committee I was on
made when we incorporated a compromise position into our report. Then
the powers that were compromised _from_ our compromise. I.e., gave us
shit, while if we had been radical in our report, the compromise imposed
would have been fairly decent. We lost our cool, and my 'career' was
effectively over before it had even got started. So in university
politics, prior to becoming a marxist, I learned how right-opportunism
endlessly generates left opportunism.

> On the other hand, moralistic criticisms of those with more "moderate"
> (realizable) demands are silly. Those folks act as what the military
> calls "force multipliers" for those with less realizable demands.

I would agree. In fact, in any given locality, most of the actual troops
think in terms of "moderate" demands. One can't attack them. We are back
to Lenin's "patience, patience, and patience" as the three revolutionary
virtues. (My source for the quote a friend back in the '60s; I don't
know when or where Lenin said it, if he did. But it's still good
revolutionary advice, whether Lenin said it or not.)

Carrol