[lit-ideas] Re: Who are you supporting in this war?
- From: "Lawrence Helm" <lawrencehelm@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 22 Feb 2006 15:19:21 -0800
Mike,
To say as you do that we are not at war, when we have been attacked over and
over again with all the weapons at the disposal of our enemy, is . . . well
I'll speculate about that later. The major slogan at all Iranian political
rallies long before Bush came to office, was "Death to Israel, Death to
America." Timmerman, whose career as an investigator of all things Iranian
was launched by Democratic Congressman Tom Lantos, lists attack after attack
initiated by the Iranians. Is Timmerman a Right Winger?
Mohammad Mohaddessin wrote Islamic Fundamentalism, the New Global Threat.
He represents the Mohadejin Party which was the main threat to Khomeini's
regime. Khomeini's people executed more than 100,000 Mohadejin's.
Mohaddessin's Mohadejin party now exists in exile. Early descriptions of
the Mohadejin Party describe it as Socialistic. It has also been listed as
a Terrorist organization until they renounced the use of force. Is
Mohaddessin a Right Winger?
Robin Wright wrote In the Name of God, The Khomeini Decade and The Last
Great Revolution, Turmoil and Transformation in Iran. Wright, John
Esposito, and Richard Bullet are often mentioned in the same sentence as
Liberals who agree with Edward Said and think we can reason with the
Islamists as depressed people (following the Marxist paradigm). Is Robin
Wright a Right Winger?
Ilan Berman who wrote Tehran Rising, Iran's Challenge to the United States
is adjunct professor of international law and global security at the
National Defense University. "He also serves as a member of the
reconstituted Committee on the Present Danger and as editor of the Journal
of International Security Affairs. I'm pretty sure that none of the above
are Right Wingers (unless Timmerman soured on the Democratic Party and left
it), but I'm not sure about Berman. I was disappointed that he ruled out a
surgical strike for dealing with Iran's nukes.
Gilles Kepel wrote The Revenge of God, The Resurgence of Islam, Christianity
and Judaism in the Modern World, and Jihad, The Trail of Political Islam.
For crying out loud, Kepel is French. Can anyone French be a Right Winger?
. . . well there was De Gaulle, but he wasn't our sort of Right Winger.
Amir Taheri wrote Holy Terror, Inside the World of Islamic Terrorism.
Taheri is an Iranian Journalist - not presently writing from Iran, of
course. He is very much opposed to the present regime in Iran. What kind
of a winger does that make him?
Youssef Choueiri wrote Islamic Fundamentalism as one of the books in the
Twayne's Themes in Right Wing Politics and Ideology Series. I take it the
Twayne's Themes books are intended to be critical of Right Wing Politics and
Ideology and not advocates of them. Choueiri is very critical of Islamism.
But does he get a wing for that? I don't know?
Andrea Nusse wrote Muslim Palestine, The Ideology of Hamas. She believes
that Hamas can change and become good if the political advantages are worth
it, which is more a Left than a Right Wing position, it seems to me.
Burgat and Dowell wrote The Islamic Movement in North Africa. They
sympathize to a large extent with Islamism, the dirty rotten Left Wingers.
David Horowitz wrote Unholy Alliance, Radical Islam and the American Left.
Horowitz as we all know used to be a Left Winger but quit, and like a
reformed smoker has had a lot to say about it ever since. I suppose you
have to give him a right wing.
Henry Munson Jr wrote Islam and Revolution in the Middle East and Religion
and Power in Morocco. Munson is an anthropologist. I can't tell what wing
to give him.
Clifford Geertz wrote Islam Observed, Religious Development in Morocco and
Indonesia, and After the Fact, Two Countries Four Decades, One
Anthropologist. Geertz is another anthropologist but I know he is on the
Left Wing from his writings in the NYROB.
Jean Bethke Elshtain, wrote Just War Against Terror, the Burden of American
Power in a Violent World. When I read that a couple of years ago I referred
to her as an Ethicist which someone took exception to. I can't recall why.
She is the Laura Spelman Rockefeller Professor of Social and Political
Ethics at the University of Chicago. She does argue that it is ethical to
take up the war against terror, but does that make her a Right Winger?
Mary Anne Weaver wrote A Portait of Egypt, a journey through the world of
Militant Islam. She convinced a lot of Islamists to giver her interviews,
does that make her Right Wing?
Raymond William Baker wrote Islam without Fear, Egypt and the New Islamists.
Baker is respectful and appreciative of these New Islamists. He is what we
would call an "Arabist." That puts him on the Left in my opinion.
Robert Kaplan wrote The Arabists, the Romance of an American Elite. Kaplan
covers our diplomatic corps in the Middle East before the Middle East became
a serious problem for us. I can't tell what Kaplan is.
Thomas Barnett wrote The Pentagon's New Map, War and Peace in the
Twenty-First Century. You have to put this book in the same class as
Fukuyama's The End of History and the Last Man and Huntington's Clash of
Civilization. His theories are interesting. He thinks that by moving
countries into the "includeds" we shall move them out of the problem areas.
He's a cocky guy who is full of himself. I heard him on C-Span before I
bought his book. He says he's a Democrat but he's still in the government.
How is that possible?
George Friedman wrote America's Secret War, Inside the Hidden Worldwide
Struggle Between America and its Enemies. Friedman has founded a commercial
version of the CIA called Stratfor to advise businesses wanting to do
business in the third world. He has a number of former CIA operatives
working for him. He seems to be highly respected. I don't know if he has a
wing.
Richard Miniter wrote Shadow War, the Untold Story of How Bush is Winning
the War on Terror. Miniter was "a member of the award-winning Sunday Times
(London) investigative team whose four-part series traced the secret war
between Clinton and bin Laden. . . . "He has appeared on every major cable
news network . . ." Well, with a title like that he's got to be Right
Wing.
I could go on, I suppose but it is even harder to guess about some of the
older writers like Wilfred Cantwell Smith, G. E. Von Gurnebaum, and P. J.
Vatikiotis, and oh yes I read some books by that famous Left Winger Edward
Said - should have mentioned him. So, you see, your assumption is faulty.
It does make sense however in light of the article I posted entitled
Gramscian Damage. That is, while I attempt to find things out and seek
after truth, you may subscribe to the Gramscian, "there is no truth, only
competing agendas." That would explain why you think I am reading
narrowly when Iknow I am seeking the best authorities. You assume they are
Right Wing because I am not cursing them in print, while I don't really care
what wing they are if they are the best authority.
Also, note that the author of "Gramscian Damage" considers himself a Liberal
and not a Right Winger - no doubt a Liberal after the fashion of Paul Berman
(another author I forgot to mention) who wrote Terror and Liberalism.
I have Selections from the Prison Notebooks by Gramsci, and though I've
picked it up many times, I haven't read much of it. I set it back on the
shelf not because it doesn't match my political agenda, but because I'm not
in the right mood. I
In going back over your note I see you consider the War Against Terror and
the Clash of Civilizations political clap trap; so you would consider at
least Samuel P. Huntington (whom I also forgot to mention) as Right Wing.
Maybe he is. He seems to the right of Fukuyama, at least at the moment. I
won't try to argue you into a belief that we really are at war against the
Islamists. You may be unique in thinking there isn't a war. The usual Left
Wing approach is to admit there is a war but say we the U.S. caused it in
some way. Well sure it started against the colonial powers but we agreed
with Britain and France, didn't we. Didn't we go into Veitnam initially to
reclaim France's colony? Also, that Cold War business is some more
nonsense, don't you think? We claimed we were having a Cold War against
those peace loving Communists just to get at the Middle Eastern Oil. All
those Middle Eastern leaders were just our puppets so they have a right to
attack us, you know, yadda, yadda, yadda, that sort of thing. You are the
only one I know who denies there is a war. Andreas lives in Nazi controlled
San Francisco and you live in a world without war which could be perfect if
there were some (peaceful) means for getting rid of the Right Wingers. I
suppose nuking them is out.
Lawrence
-----Original Message-----
From: lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:lit-ideas-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Mike Geary
Sent: Wednesday, February 22, 2006 12:45 PM
To: lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Who are you supporting in this war?
Dear Lawrence,
Since you coupled me with Andreas in your assault upon our patriotism, I
feel free to respond to the post you addressed to Andreas.
You write: "Andreas, you are another one with nothing good to say about your
government, administration or army."
I assume I must be the other one (or another one at any rate ). In fact,
Lawrence, I have a great deal of very good things to say about our
government and even our army -- not, however, about the current
Administration which, I believe, is undermining all the very good things I
have to say about our government and army. Do you understand the
distinction?
"The thrust of your diatribes, the implications of your assertions, are
clearly anti-American."
No, Lawrence, the thrust of my protests is clearly anti-Bush Administration.
I believe that the Bush Administration is seriously damaging our country --
morally, economically and politically. I accept the fact that you're of a
contrary opinion, I accept that without ascribing nefarious motives to your
beliefs.
"Supporting this is the fact that you don't have equal venom for enemies who
on any objective scale are some of the most heinous tyrants of modern
times."
I honestly don't know what to make of this statement. What are you getting
at? I'm an American. I'm responsible as an American for America's dealings
in the world -- just saying No! (or Yes!) is a form or responsibility
within a democracy. I think our government -- ie, the Bush
Administration -- is disastrously wrong in it's approach to the Middle East.
You don't name our enemies though you label them as "some of the most
heinous tyrants of modern times" -- "on any objective scale" (that's a
joke, isn't it?) -- well, I just have to assume you're talking about the
"Islamicists". To me that's laughable. IED's are their WMD's. Get a grip,
Lawrence. We can win this war overnight if we choose, but we'd lose the
peace forever. At least Bush hasn't gone that far yet.
"We are engaged in a war with a Civilization that has very different
standards, "
No, we're not. We're not at war with anyone but our own paranoia. No one
is at war with us. The idea of some Civilizational War is nothing more than
rightwing claptrap bullshit nonsense murderous trash. We ARE in conflict
with another culture, but only because they see us as threatening their very
way of life (and for good reason), and we see them as threatening our way of
life because we need their oil at a price we can afford -- this isn't about
democracy or freedom or any other idealism, it's about cheap oil. Surely to
God, you can see that. We need to be in control of them. We need that very
badly. Market stability depends on it. Our whole way of life depends on
cheap oil. Surely you're not so naive as to believe that we needed to free
Iraq from Saddam so that they could all breathe free. Please tell me no.
Please, Lawrence, say it ain't so.
"The very fact that you can oppose our war effort during a war is proof that
you live in a democracy. "
Yes, thank God, and hopefully to God the Patriot Act and Bush's NSA
adventures will be turned back as threats to our democracy.
"You and Mike both criticize my reading,"
My only criticism is that you seem to read so narrowly. I've never seen you
quote from anyone with whom you disagree and argue against his/her
arguments. You merely quote people you agree with as if that settles the
argument.
A bumper sticker here in the South reads: "God said so. I believe it.
That settles it." Your sources remind me of that bumper sticker. I
honestly don't mean this critique in a hostile or mean-spirited way. I
truly value your input here. It might aggravate me at times, but that's
good. It might send me screaming back at you at times, and that's probably
not so good, but it is a part of being human and so is probably good. You
can scream back at me. I hope I don't come across as being mean-spirited,
just mean : ) After all, I take my orders from the Islamicists, the most
heinous tyrants of modern times.
Mike Geary
Memphis
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