I am largely in sympathy with Louis on this. I opposed the Western military intervention in Libya but I was careful to steer clear of anti-Islamist arguments against the intervention. Likewise, I oppose Western military intervention in Syria but I am careful to steer clear of anti-Islamist arguments against Western military intervention. I think Louis is right that the "left anti-Islamism" he describes is of a piece with Hitchens; and I further think that the connection between these two ways of thinking helped start Hitchens down his road away from anti-imperialism. It starts with having a largely instrumentalist view: what's good for the Left? what's good for the secularists? (cf: "what's good for the Jews") - devoid of principles such as: what do the majority of people want? what is in their interests as they are likely to perceive them?
On Mon, Jul 23, 2012 at 1:39 PM, Louis Proyect <[email protected]> wrote: > http://louisproyect.wordpress.com/2012/07/23/libya-syria-and-left-islamophobia/ > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l -- Robert Naiman Policy Director Just Foreign Policy www.justforeignpolicy.org [email protected] _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
