In wars, when the fighting ends, the reckoning begins - among the vanquished, that is. Exuberant when the shooting starts, confident in victory, war weariness sets in as infrastructure is devastated, production ceases, basic services collapse, and the masses succumb to cold, hunger, homelessness, disease, and predatory criminal gangs.
The masses then turn their postwar fury onto their once revered leaders who are blamed for bringing on the catastrophic defeat. If and when a ceasefire is finally declared in Palestine and Lebanon, it won’t surprise me if Hamas, Hezbollah, and the Iranian religious authorities are held accountable for the carnage (which should in the first instance be directed against the Israeli genocidaires and their US enablers) while the more secular workers and professionals who have been long sidelined by these regimes become emboldened. If this pattern holds, the question will then become whether postwar disenchantment with these regimes will express itself in the revival of the movements of the anti-imperialist secular left which preceded the Islamic turn in the region, or will express itself in a movement seeking a rapprochement with the US and Israel around a program of so-called liberal Western values. Where reconstruction money will come from to rebuild the devastated economies will also be a foremost consideration for most of the population, as will the reaction of the masses in neighbouring states - resignation or resistance? - to a humiliating defeat felt by all the region’s peoples. This is the pessimistic scenario, and as Micheal notes, I wouldn’t take it to a Palestine solidarity demo which I expect will be more subdued this week. I hope instead the Israelis again get bogged down in Lebanon, are unable to fully subdue Hamas, and are forced by their overstretched economy and a post-election US administration into a withdrawal and ceasefire which falls short of their brutal war aims. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Groups.io Links: You receive all messages sent to this group. View/Reply Online (#32651): https://groups.io/g/marxmail/message/32651 Mute This Topic: https://groups.io/mt/108750088/21656 -=-=- 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. #4 Do not exceed five posts a day. -=-=- Group Owner: marxmail+ow...@groups.io Unsubscribe: https://groups.io/g/marxmail/leave/13617172/21656/1316126222/xyzzy [arch...@mail-archive.com] -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
