On Thu, April 17, 2014 1:50 pm, Louis Proyect wrote: > My one and only aim in writing about Syria is to > challenge the consensus on the left that the FSA has anything in common > with the Nicaraguan contras.
'Consensus' seems a bit strong. For one thing, in order for the analogy to really work, one would have to posit that the Assad government has something in common with the Sandinistas. A claim few would make. I imagine that people who refer to the FSA as 'contras' are really making a more limited point, to wit that the various anti-Assad groups are largely of foreign manufacture, ginned up with a view to destabilizing the existing government. This take on the matter, I admit, seems quite plausible to me, when stated in those terms; it seems idle to essentialize about just how much the FSA is or is not 'like' the Nicaraguan contras. _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
