******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ******************** #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. *****************************************************************
glad you're doing that research, Louis. Also use the search or index fields at http://www.europe-solidaire.org/ , merip.org and internationalviewpoint.org On Mon, Feb 16, 2015 at 6:59 PM, Louis Proyect via Marxism < marxism@lists.csbs.utah.edu> wrote: > ******************** POSTING RULES & NOTES ******************** > #1 YOU MUST clip all extraneous text when replying to a message. > #2 This mail-list, like most, is publicly & permanently archived. > #3 Subscribe and post under an alias if #2 is a concern. > ***************************************************************** > > On 2/16/15 6:44 PM, A.R. G via Marxism wrote: > >> But what is the alternative narrative. How do we analyze what is currently >> taking place in Syria, especially amid such fractured resistance, the >> corruption of so many of the Syrian rebels, the rise of ISIS, so on and so >> forth? >> >> Basically, when I look at Syria...what the hell am I looking at, exactly? >> >> These are honest questions, I'm not trying to provoke. >> > > I don't think these sorts of questions can be answered in email. That is > one of the reasons I became so irate with Jim Creegan over assessing Syriza > in a couple of hundred words on a listserv. It is simply impossible to give > them the attention they deserve. > > I strongly suspect that Syria is lost, not so much to Baathist rule but to > chaos and nihilism despite the best efforts of both the Kurds in Kobane and > the brigades of the FSA that have somehow remained functional. > > You can even see Gilbert Achcar expressing himself in barely concealed > despair: > > http://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/article6716540.ece > > "The lack of progressive leadership is the key reason why various forces > of Islamic fundamentalism are able to cash in on the popular anger in the > region. In order to understand this historically, one just needs to look > back at the surge of fundamentalism that started in 1970s. In most > Muslim-majority countries, Islamic fundamentalism had been marginalised in > the 1960s when left-wing nationalism was on the rise, as represented above > all by Nasser. It is only when this went into decline starting from the > 1970s that we saw the beginning of the rise of Islamic fundamentalist > forces." > > In my view the most important thing right now is for Marxists to develop > an analysis of why things turned out so badly in Libya and now in Syria. > This means relegating the usual geopolitical chess game bullshit to the > sidelines more than ever. > > I am desperately trying to find the time to analyze what happened in Libya > based on NY Times articles written from the time of Qaddafi's killing. > Plus, the new book on Libya that was reviewed here: > > http://www.nybooks.com/articles/archives/2015/feb/19/libya-against-itself/ > > "Libya in its current shape is a recent, fragile construct, originating in > Italy’s invasion of 1911, exactly a century before the Arab Spring. It has > been fracturing and reuniting ever since. Unable to overcome the Arab > Bedouin tribes in the east, Italy’s first wave of colonizers sanctioned the > creation of an autonomous Emirate of Cyrenaica. In 1929 Benito Mussolini > tried again, and succeeded by imprisoning tens of thousands of Bedouins in > concentration camps, where half of them died. After World War II, the > British backed the revival of the Cyrenaican emirate replete with a king, > Idris I. But the discovery of oil, whose fields and pipelines straddled > boundaries, drew Libya’s disparate provinces into ever closer union. In > 1951, Cyrenaica established a federation with the Fezzan region in the > south, hitherto under French hegemony, and Tripolitania in the northwest, > also under the British. King Idris added a green and a red band below and > above his black flag with a white crescent. And in 1963, under King Idris, > Libya abolished the federation and declared itself a single unified state." > > This is the sort of material we should be engaged with, not the same > stupid talking points about Africom over and over and over. > > > > _________________________________________________________ > Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm > Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/ > options/marxism/acpollack2%40gmail.com > _________________________________________________________ Full posting guidelines at: http://www.marxmail.org/sub.htm Set your options at: http://lists.csbs.utah.edu/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
