On 4/11/21 2:49 PM, Richard Fidler wrote:
The editorial bias of the Desai-Freeman website is clear on their home
page: https://newcoldwar.org/ <https://newcoldwar.org/>
- Richard
From a 2013 blog post.
<https://louisproyect.org/2013/08/26/world-war-three/>
In a thread about Syria on David Osler’s Facebook page (I know about as
much about David Osler as I do about 700 other “friends”), economist
Alan Freeman had this to say:
David, I don’t really know how to begin. The US state is trying to start
World War III by mobilising a Europe-US coalition to retake the ground
lost to an opposition which, by the admission of its own most prominent
defector, commands the support of at most 4 million out of 24 million of
the people of Syria.
Which side are you on?
From what I know of the secular opposition in Syria, it will stand with
Assad against the proposed invasion.
If you want to supply them with weapons, start by defending the Russian
position. What more can be said?
This is war. It is not some kind of game. Take sides.
I only knew Freeman in the past as someone committed to the FROP thesis
and a close collaborator with Andrew Kliman. I generally have shied away
from the debates between these people and Michael Heinrich, but
Freeman’s jaw-dropping display of stupidity has almost convinced me to
support Heinrich simply on the prima facie evidence of being able to think.
Freeman states that based on the testimony of a “prominent defector”, he
views Bashar al-Assad as enjoying the support of 85 percent of all
Syrians. What else would we expect a defector to say? That al-Assad is
hated by most Syrians? Alan Freeman is the editor of a series of books
at Pluto Press, one of Britain’s premier radical publishers. If this
sort of gullibility is being overlooked by Pluto’s chief, I worry about
their future. As someone who has watched defectors over the years, from
Nicaraguan pilots during the contra war to the North Koreans welcomed to
the arms of the South, the rule of thumb is that they are reading
speeches written by their handlers. I find it singularly disconcerting
that a prominent leftist intellectual can publicly defend the word of a
defector. This is not far removed from some of the nuttier things I have
read on the Internet lately, including the claim that Israel nuked Syria.
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group.
View/Reply Online (#7926): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/7926
Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/81888462/21656
-=-=-
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.
-=-=-
Group Owner: [email protected]
Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/8674936/21656/1316126222/xyzzy
[[email protected]]
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
