"Most recently, the membership of the “decent left” is drawn largely from those on the left who have never given up on the appeal of revolutionary violence, and now see George W. Bush as the agent of revolution."
Not quite. Overthrowing a dictatorship and establishing decmoracy is the agenda of the Decent Left. Bosnia, Afghanistan. Iraq. Dictatorship replaced by Democracy. There is no "appeal to revolutionary violence", just the old fashioned liberal notion that sometimes facism needs to be fought. There is no appeal to revolution, rather, an appeal to the ballot box.
And since if these dictatorships had not been confronted they would still be in existance, the left that opposed these actions should do a bit of explaining.
Overthrowing a dictatorship and establishing democracy (sooner of later) is an objective claimed by most revolutionaries, including the Bolsheviks. The crucial thing that separates revolutionaries from others is the willingness to kill large numbers of people in the pursuit of their objectives, and the Iraq war has certainly done that
From JQ -
ReplyDelete"Most recently, the membership of the “decent left” is drawn largely from those on the left who have never given up on the appeal of revolutionary violence, and now see George W. Bush as the agent of revolution."
Not quite. Overthrowing a dictatorship and establishing decmoracy is the agenda of the Decent Left. Bosnia, Afghanistan. Iraq. Dictatorship replaced by Democracy. There is no "appeal to revolutionary violence", just the old fashioned liberal notion that sometimes facism needs to be fought. There is no appeal to revolution, rather, an appeal to the ballot box.
And since if these dictatorships had not been confronted they would still be in existance, the left that opposed these actions should do a bit of explaining.
Overthrowing a dictatorship and establishing democracy (sooner of later) is an objective claimed by most revolutionaries, including the Bolsheviks. The crucial thing that separates revolutionaries from others is the willingness to kill large numbers of people in the pursuit of their objectives, and the Iraq war has certainly done that
ReplyDeleteJQ