> > Will you at least *think* about what the sources of the Junta's power
>> were, and how nationalist-militarist iconography reinforces them?
>
>Not only I think about them, I have written lots on the issue, and
>that monster you hate, nationalist-militaristic iconography, had to
>do with them only in the flaccid minds of Buenos Aires petty
>bourgeois intelectuals who feared bombings of the city if the just
>war over our occupied territories would go ahead.
I think this is--as a result of the reference to the Argentine
Junta's attempt to conquer the Malvinas Islands, and unintentionally
on Nestor's part--game and set to me
Nationalist militarism is truly a powerful and insidious poison.
When most of us outside of Argentina look at the Junta's early 1980s
war to conquer the Malvinas Islands, we see it as analogous to
Indonesia's occupation of East Timor: not a "just war" but a most
unjust war.
Why? Because:
--Governments derive their just powers from the consent of the
governed, not because some predecessor government had a historical
connection with the territory. And the people living on the islands
did not consent to be subjected to the Argentinian Junta.
--Governments have no business annexing regions inhabited by people
who speak a different language. And the people living on the islands
did not speak the same language as spoken in Argentina.
--Governments that throw people out of helicopters into the South
Atlantic have no business ruling anybody, let along waging war to
increase the number of people they rule.
So why in God's name would anyone think that a war to conquer the
Malvinas Islands for the Argentinian Junta was a just war? The answer
is that nobody does--save those whose minds have been so poisoned
that they believe that the power interests of the Argentinian State
(without inquiry into the way that state power is exercised, or by
whom) must trump all other considerations.
So as I said back at the beginning of this: it's much better to have
a square filled with banners from supermarkets competing to sell you
better food cheaper than one filled with statues teaching that dulce
et decorum pro patria mori...
Brad DeLong
