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I'm relieved that you don't seem to have been offended by my frank language. To "intimat[e] that the 9/11 attacks had given America a taste of its own medicine" is not to imply that the 9/11 attackers were freedom fighters, however. I don't think anyone any reasonable person would call a group freedom fighters unless they were defending their own soil against foreign invaders. (Even Reagan called the resistance that the CIA was backing in Afghanistan "freedom fighters" because they were fighting against the Soviets, not because they were involved in some kind of ideological struggle for "freedom" in the sense of liberal democracy etc. [Oops! My bad. Reagan called the Contras "freedom fighters" as well.]) On the other hand, there is the saying "One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter."

Since you intend to read Ali's article, here are two other articles available for free at the NLR Web site which give a representative view of how the Left views things:

Perry Anderson, editorial: Jottings on the Conjuncture. This is mostly about the present geopolitical situation. Underlying this account is the view that neoliberalism is a specifically American project, a view which I think is quite correct.

Susan Watkins, editorial: Shifting Sands. This is a review of responses to the current economic crisis and the degree to which it has made people reconsider neoliberalism. In short, it has not, and what everyone is calling for is regulation, something which Watkins observes "is in fact a hard-line liberal economic concept".

Incidentally, Watkins, who has been the editor of the NLR since 2003, is the wife of Tariq Ali. (I only learnt that after I read this piece of hers in the current issue.) Perry Anderson was the editor directly before her.

A bomb, H bomb, Minuteman / The names get more attractive / The decisions are made by NATO / The press call it British opinion -- The Three Johns

by Alexander on Mon Feb 22nd, 2010 at 07:46:53 PM EST
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