Re. Blinders:
Brad misreads the current antiwar message in much the same way that
people have written letters to the country's newspapers attacking
academics for their antiwar stances seem unable to carry two 'apparently
contradictory' thoughts in their heads: (1) the terrorist attack was an
inexcusable-by-any-standards crime against humanity and the perpetrators
ought to be as quickly as possible brought to international justice for
that crime. and (2) the policies of the United States and its
allies/clients in the Middle East have gone a long way toward creating
precisely the climate that spawns terrorist networks (and even more, the
'armies' they can call upon to do their dirty work). Furthermore, these
policies, including the current counterattack, will continue to do so,
thereby endangering future generations of innocent civilians --like
those who worked in the WTC, as well as those who live in the Middle
East. I'm not sure there isn't a kind of short-circuited cognitive
development going on here. It is fatuous to say, in effect, those who
attribute some 'responsibility' to the United States are in effect
absolving the terrorists of their crime. I realize this isn't Brad's
point per se, but it is often heard in the letters-to-the-editor columns
of local papers all over the US.
However, as for Brad's comment, it isn't the case that seeing both of
those realities equates with a "simple solution" to the current crisis
--it clearly doesn't. Brad's point seems to read this as doing so,
given the way he denounces Allen for arguing that "the solution to the
world's problems is a group hug" (which Allen's paragraph clearly does
not argue). In other words, Brad is arguing against a straw man
caricature of "the left" something that occurs regularly on the right.
In his own words, "As usual, this is little more than name-calling and
finger-pointing."
I don't know if he has taken Allen out of context in ridiculing his
Bush-blaming (though I suspect this, too, is the case), but I will argue
that those who blame Bush for all of this mess ARE, in fact, missing the
boat. Brad is correct that it does spread over a far broader range of
history, going back (at least) to the early part of this century when
European colonialists carved up the Middle East. Try READING the Left
on the current struggle; check out zmag.org for a variety of
commentaries from the left, for example. There ought to be room for
more than a caricature of argument on this list.
Ted Morgan
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