******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ******************** #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. *****************************************************************
I read Part 1 yesterday (the linked Part 2 has video but no transcript, only comments). I'll be damned if I can find it now, but as I remember Prashad uses the phrase "proxies of the Saudis and Turkey" about 10 times, with no other reference to any of Assad's opponents. On Thu, Feb 18, 2016 at 12:47 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism < marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote: > ******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ******************** > #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. > #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. > ***************************************************************** > > Since I follow Vijay Prashad on Twitter, I became aware of his interview > with Paul Jay on the Real News Network: > > > http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=15697 > > I was intrigued by the subject heading. Is the carnage in Syria really a > product of US empowerment of Saudi Arabia? > > Unlike raving Baathist lunatics like Mike Whitney, Vijay Prashad is a far > more subtle commentator on the region taking great care to give the > appearance that he is opposed to all intervention, either from the USA, > Turkey and Saudi Arabia on one side and Russia and Iran on the other. This > distinguishes him from the Baathist amen corner even though most of the > discussion with Paul Jay had to do with Saudi Arabia's role in a proxy > war--as they put it. > > But what does this really mean? (This is a rhetorical question since I am > used to Vijay seeing Marxmail as a one-way street.) > > There have been, by Vijay's admission, 470,000 deaths in Syria. On one > side you have MIG's, armored helicopters, tanks, heavy artillery, poison > gas, rocket launchers that were in and of themselves insufficient to quell > the rebellion. So now we have Russian bombers and battleships firing cruise > missiles. On the other side, you have had for the most part machine guns > and mortars with anti-tank weapons only entering the picture fairly > recently. Does anybody think that an anti-tank weapon has been used to kill > massive numbers of pro-Assad Syrians? Why would you waste a TOW missile on > a Damascus high-rise when it would be much more useful aimed at a tank? > This is not to speak of the refusal of the bloodthirsty Saudis to refuse > supplying MANPAD's to the rebels. > > I don't know if Vijay Prashad or Paul Jay ever bothered watching a film > like "Return to Homs" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BuiFGECCmRw), > which shows the asymmetrical nature of the war in Syria. Young men hide out > in bombed out buildings looking like those in Stalingrad 1943 poke their > machine guns out of holes in the wall to try to stop tanks. That's what the > war has been about. And here we have a couple of Marxists, progressives, > radicals, anti-imperialists--whatever they want to call > themselves--basically arguing that the carnage in Syria is to be blamed by > Turkey or Saudi Arabia providing machine guns and bullets to people whose > only goal is to get rid of family dynasty that has enriched itself while > the country goes hungry. > > Sad, really. > > _________________________________________________________ > Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm > Set your options at: > http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/acpollack2%40gmail.com > _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
