Why the left turnabout on Iraqi sanctions?

From: matus@matus1976.com
Date: Sat May 17 2003 - 10:57:25 MDT

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    I must say I am surprised, albiet very pleasently, to see an article like
    this on Anti-War.com Columnist Justin Raimondo blasts the now pro-sanction
    Leftists for the absurdity of their position.

    Michael Dickey

    Why the left turnabout on Iraqi sanctions?
    ----------
    Antiwar.com
    by Justin Raimondo
       "Remember how the sanctions were the equivalent of 'genocide'
       committed by the Evil American Imperialists against the Oppressed
       Peoples of Iraq? Well, that was then, according to Rahul Mahajan,
       ... but this is now ..." (5/14/03)

    from - http://www.antiwar.com/justin/j051403.html

    -Excerpts-

    "Power politics, it seems, is a bit more complex than the "America, bad,
    everybody else, good" doctrine of the Third World Left."

    "What this boils down to is: who gets all that Iraqi oil? Rahul wants the UN
    to get it...The war, it turns out, was mostly a scheme so that" the United
    States will be able to use Iraq's money to pay off mostly American
    corporations." And that's not fair! Why not let some of the other nations –
    who, after all, just stood around and watched as the U.S. beat up the
    schoolyard weakling – in on picking the victim's pockets? Why, those greedy
    American imperialists! "

    "First we are told that the evil U.S. is intent on building "permanent
    bases," and then we are lectured that the Americans have an "obligation" to
    rebuild an entire nation – yet how, exactly, will that be done without
    setting up permanent American bases? "

    "There are apparently no limits to the illogic induced by anti-Americanism,
    a delusionary doctrine in which Washington is – and must be – the root of
    all evil"

    "The United Nations is itself an agent of foreign domination over subject
    peoples; look at Bosnia and Kosovo, where the ethnic cleansing of Serbs and
    the eradication of all political rights was ratified by UN overlords."

    "the United States is by its very nature a potentially liberating force in
    the world. The idea that no good could possibly come of this war is
    obviously wrong. But it is not far off the mark, either, and needs only to
    be amended: Nothing good for the U.S. can come of this war. All the
    benefits, such as they are, will be reaped in Iraq"

    -End Excerpts-



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