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At 8:16 PM -0500 1/7/10, Louis Proyect wrote: > >Shawn Redden wrote: > >>[I wonder if he believes, too, that the US and Saudi Arabia were >>amping up operations in Yemen last year because they anticipated a >>guy with fireworks in his pants will be escorted onto a US bound >>flight on 25 December 2009?] > >I know that you might find this hard to believe, but I never worry about >such matters. Oh, sure you do, Louis... you just have a different way of "worrying". I remember a while back you posting some Alexander Cockburn screed against anyone who questions the 'al qaeda' fairy tale. You write blog posts about it. You've stovepiped crappy articles full of nothing but invective for people who question the 'war on terror' narrative. You use Chavez's views about 'al qaeda' (of all things...) to qualify your support for him. You actually go out of your way to talk about it. When asked a question about the goofy-assed charade that has received billions of dolllars of coverage in recent days you bob'n'weave, pivoting to an 'historical' digression of moderate relevance written by another person. And that's fine. Lame, but fine. What gets me is that you do so with such hubris: >My focus is on the things that are knowable, like the >underlying socio-economic dynamics as my favorite blogger [Richard >Seymour] just addressed: > >>"The roots of the current crisis of the Yemeni state are to be found in >>its construction from a polity divided between British imperial rule, >>and Ottoman rule" .... Seymour and I differ on this: I would say the "roots" of the current fighting in the region go directly to the geostrategic significance of the Bab al-Mandeb. But that's not really the point of the question I asked, was it? I asked whether you thought was a connection between the US military operations afoot in the region (dating back months and years) and the underwear patsy? You didn't answer that. I remember taking note upon learning that the current Joint Chiefs of Staff was an Admiral. Lucky for them: http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2010/01/03/kean-unsuccessful-bomber-probably-did-us-a-favor/ >Too bad this sort of thing doesn't interest you. It is after all the >spirit in which this listserv was created, not grassy knolls. I really wish you'd cut this condescending shit off, Louis, that persists only because I don't believe the fairy tales you do. Before my school's winter break, to supplement our curriculum's materials about the Abbasid Caliphate, Zheng He, and Ibn Batuta, I gave my kids some readings concerning the chokepoints of the region - the Straights of Hormuz and Malacca, as well as the Bab al-Mandeb. A couple had to do with Yemen and the covert war already underway. Could you identify the Bab al-Mandeb on a map before winter break, Louis? Finally, while I'm happy to debate the 'Oswald did it' hypothesis you no-doubt support concerning the Kennedy assassination, I'm not sure why this is the place for that discussion. Let's wait until the Tet Offensive comes up - then we could debate both of them together!! Solidarity, Shawn ________________________________________________ Send list submissions to: Marxism@lists.econ.utah.edu Set your options at: http://lists.econ.utah.edu/mailman/options/marxism/archive%40mail-archive.com
