Jim Devine wrote: > > a bit off the topic: even though the US attemped conquest of Iraq is > definitely a bad thing, maybe it's good for the left that the US is > going to be mired there for a long time.
We can only know the truth or falsity of this after the fact, looking back on the world from the perspective of 2050 or so (if there is still a 'world' then). But if we generalize it a bit probably we can see the possible truth of the specific and the certain truth of the generic here. U.S. imperialism is not going to go away on its own or peacefully; and it is going to be a (I think THE) main threat to humanity until it is destroyed. But that destruction will necessarily involve a whole sequence of "mirings" in this or that battle at home or abroad, AND every one of those "mirings" will involve immense destruction of human life. So we are going to have to continue both to hate and to exult in occasions of "immense destruction of human life." Does anyone really believe we can get to heaven in a rocking chair? That question is a folk-version of what Engels had to say about force in history. Carrol
