Soula wrote: > Someone should introduce a new dictum here and I thought why not: there is no > free bombing.
I prefer another one, that socialism can't be imposed with bayonets (a reference to the Soviet conquest of Eastern Europe after WW2). The same dictum applies to democracy and freedom. All of these have to arise organically from society, i.e., backed by and created by the "everyday" or "common" people, not by either the domestic or foreign elites. If the elites impose these, these almost always serves their interests, not those of the people. If imposed from above, the "socialism" is that of a monopoly political party and its state apparatus, the "democracy" is one of plutocrats and their hired politicians, the "freedom" is that of those with money to burn and their bankers, etc. The "Western" war against Col. Q has another problem: it's possible to win a battle with strategic bombing (another kind of "above"), but you can't win the war that way. Some ground troops are needed to fill the vacuum created as strategic bombing destroys the enemy. Otherwise, the targets of the bombings hunker down rather than being destroyed (as with Q, who's likely in a bunker deep underground); their morale can even rise, as it did during the German bombing of England during the Blitz. In this sense, the popular resistance or rebels who are opposing Col. Q play the role of the ground troops. This gives them a potential advantage, even though the firepower is coming from above, from US/NATO. The problem is that the rebels seem to be fractured along class and tribal lines, with no strong organization. This suggests that if and when they prevail against Q, they will be vulnerable to the power of the IMF and the flood of "Western" influence-buyers and peddlers. Libya seems destined to become a dependency of the US and its allies. Still, the rebels seem superior to Q in many ways, as Louis suggests. By the way, I'm sure someone has said this, but I haven't seen it. Isn't handing control of the anti-Q campaign's leadership from the US to NATO a mere formality, since the US has the most power in deciding NATO's operations? -- Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
