Quote from alfonso:
The evidence you asked for re US support for Saddam's regime during the 80s.
I suppose he means the evidence that confirms that Iraq was mainly a Soviet client, and secondarily a French and German one? That total US military and financial assistance to Iraq was around 1% of what the country received?
I don't remember when I asked for this evidence. I thought - actually, I know - that I was the one who presented it. I thought - actually, I know - that I was also the one who argued, as clearly as I could, that evidence of past direct or indirect US support (even mere support for the peculiar international system that sustains the likes of Saddam) would only reinforce our moral responsibility to act.
"Youth group recruiting pamphlets". LMAO. That's a good one!
I wonder, was that something that you once fell for? (You did say you were once, many years ago, a left wing radical).
I read more than my share. I see no shame in it.
If it makes you feel better to think I'm getting my ideas from "crackpot" sources rather than from employing some basic critical thinking based on the facts then good for you.
I don't consider Mandel, Fanon, et al, or their more contemporary successors or adherents, all to be crackpots. I just think they were and are tragically wrong in important respects.
To me, critical thinking includes a willingness to re-examine one's own presumptions and supposed "facts." To me, continually re-stating the same ideological positions - International Law above all, US foreign policy has been harmful or has been seen as such around the world - without substantively engaging counter-arguments and alternative perspectives does not demonstrate critical thinking.
I really can't be bothered maintaining a discussion where I have to spend half the post refuting your mindless assertions about my character, so I'll leave it here. As I said to hapaboy, have fun with your comic book "goodies" and "baddies" worldview.
I can't be sure what statements of mine Alfonso interprets as having impugned his character. I'll admit, however, that I get angry when individuals repeatedly defame and wish ill upon my country and its citizens. I also get a little annoyed when painstaking attempts to discuss issues in detail are continually misconstrued in seemingly inexplicable ways. I recognize, however, that getting overly exercised about personal slights while discussing the fates of countless individuals worldwide, suggests severe immaturity - or maybe even a lack of character.
