Re: [OT] free Cindy Sheehan!

[Jim Devine <jdevine03@xxxxxxxxx>]

Wikiquote has the following:

    * Translation: "We shall support whatever our enemies oppose; and
oppose whatever our enemies support"
    * Source: Quotations from Chairman Mao Zedong, Chapter 2

see: http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Mao_Zedong 

On 8/26/05, Jim Devine <jdevine03@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> I think Mao used it to justify China's tilt toward the US, because the
> US was better than the dreaded USSR during the Sino-Soviet split
> years. However, I'll have to check my rusty memory banks.
> 
> It's true that the statement is abstract. But it would have been
> better to avoid such abstractions and say "In a bad spot, sometimes
> you have to ally with what would normally be seen as bad guys." (If
> you _really_ thought that Bush was Hitler during 2004, not voting for
> Kerry but allying with him would be justified.)
> 
> On 8/26/05, Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
> > Jim Devine wrote:
> > >
> > >
> > > this is proof, once again, that Chairman Mao's dictum that "the enemy
> > > of my enemy is my friend" is total and utter BS.
> >
> > I don't remember Mao saying exactly that. I do remember something like
> > it, though I can't remember the exact wording, and when I read it I both
> > disagreed and _also_ saw, in the context in which he said it, that it
> > made some sense. Something like it was, of course, the foundation of the
> > United Front Against the Japanese invacion. And it is easy to make up
> > hypothetical (but reasonable) situations in which it holds. If a
> > purse-snatcher scares off a would-be rapist, for example. I would say
> > the dictum (as you phrase it) is neither right nor wrong in the
> > abstract. Its whole meaning depends on context.
> >
> > Carrol
> >
> 
> 
> --
> Jim Devine
> "An economic forecaster is like a cross-eyed javelin thrower: they
> don't win many accuracy contests, but they keep the crowd's
> attention." -- Anonymous
> 


-- 
Jim Devine
"An economic forecaster is like a cross-eyed javelin thrower: they
don't win many accuracy contests, but they keep the crowd's
attention." -- Anonymous