Re: Idea of Rapid Withdrawal from Iraq Fast Receding

[Carrol Cox <cbcox@xxxxxxxxx>]

Jim Devine wrote:
>
> a bit off the topic: even though the US attemped conquest of Iraq is
> definitely a bad thing, maybe it's good for the left that the US is
> going to be mired there for a long time.

We can only know the truth or falsity of this after the fact, looking
back on the world from the perspective of 2050 or so (if there is still
a 'world' then). But if we generalize it a bit probably we can see the
possible truth of the specific and the certain truth of the generic
here.

U.S. imperialism is not going to go away on its own or peacefully; and
it is going to be a (I think THE) main threat to humanity until it is
destroyed. But that destruction will necessarily involve a whole
sequence of "mirings" in this or that battle at home or abroad, AND
every one of those "mirings" will involve immense destruction of human
life. So we are going to have to continue both to hate and to exult in
occasions of "immense destruction of human life."

Does anyone really believe we can get to heaven in a rocking chair? That
question is a folk-version of what Engels had to say about force in
history.

Carrol