Benjamin Geer on Sun, 22 Jul 2007 22:40:55 +0200 (CEST)


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Re: <nettime> We are negative


2007/7/22, Jakob Jakobsen <jakobjakobsen@adr.dk>:

> > Do you actually propose an Iraq type of 'insurgency' in Denmark??
>
> No, we do not, but thanks to the very diverse resistance movement in Iraq
> the worlds only super-power has been humiliated, this will have major
> repercussions for its ability to intervene and shape the current
> geopolitical situation perhaps even making it possible for a global
> anti-capitalist front to emerge and combat neo-liberalism and its current
> war-paradigm. The defeat in Iraq is thus of great importance because it
> makes it evident that it is possibly to fight an overwhelming destructive
> state power.

It proves that this is possible if you don't mind having a civil war
fuelled by murderous sectarian hatred and fought largely by means of
continuous massacres of civilians on all sides, with the participation
of Al-Qaida fighters whose goals include wiping out Shia Islam.
Sunnis and Shias in Iraq used to get along well (and there was a lot
of intermarriage between the two groups); now you risk your life in
Iraq by identifying yourself to a stranger as belonging to one group
or the other.  Even if the occupation forces give up and withdraw
completely (and I think they should, in fact I think they have no
other option), one probable result is a Taliban-like state, a prospect
many Iraqis dread.

Indeed, Al-Qaida has shown (starting on September 11, 2001) that it's
possible to fight the superpower.  Does that mean you can approve of
the way they're doing it, or of their goals?  Is my enemy's enemy
automatically my friend?  That's exactly the sort of talk that helps
world leaders everywhere condemn anti-capitalist movements by
associating them with terrorism.

Ben

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