Tariq Ali: Archetype of the Dead Left
This is so unintentionally hilarious I can't let it pass without comment.Ali: "Given the massive increase in support for the new version of the Taliban that is the result of the war and occupation, any government has to include their representatives."
Facts: Asked who they would rather have ruling their country, 82 per cent of Afghan poll respondents [pdf] said "the current government," while four per cent preferred the Taliban - up from three per cent three years ago. This is Ali's "massive increase" in support for the Taliban, for which we are admonished to blame the "war and occupation." (UPDATE: Even in the "Taliban heartland" of Kandahar where the "war and occupation" is especially fierce, polling data consistently shows support for the Taliban unchanged at 15-20 per cent, and even there, "support" is merely expressed as an opinion about who the local "authority figure" is. )
Necessary context: "Just as American officers found Vichy French colonial administrators and officers in 1943, American war makers today are discovering the congeniality of the 'good Taliban' in Afghanistan and Pakistan. . ." And Tariq Ali, being the reactionary auld bore that he really is, quite predictably makes the same discovery and pleads for an accommodation of the "new version of the Taliban."
Zombie catechism: Was Hamas to blame for provoking the recent Israeli military operation in Gaza? "The Western refusal to recognize Hamas was directly responsible for the Israeli assault on Gaza." Always blame the west, and where necessary, compound your gibberish with outright lies: "Trudeau was an independent-minded leader, not a stooge of the neighbouring country. The Count (as we called Ignatieff) supported the war in Iraq, defended torture and aligned himself in a dog-like coital lock with the Bush-Cheney gang." Ignatieff on torture: Those of us who oppose torture under any circumstances should admit that ours is an unpopular policy that may make us more vulnerable to terrorism.
For a natural history of this fascinating lie and the conspiracy theorists who make use of it, see here.
On Ali and his apologetics for the Taliban and Hezbollah, read Imtiaz Baloch. On why Ali is intellectually incapable of recognizing real imperialism when it's staring him right in the face, read Naeem Khan Wardag' s 'Tariq Ali, Pashtun Nationalism and Taliban.' On Ali's stunted political maturity, Principia Dialectica sums up Ali as "a socialist who defends barbarism."
On the undead zombies who persist in slobbering on Ali's slippers: "The Left is dead—and whatever undead elements of it continue to stagger among us deserve to be put down before they demoralize and stupefy a new generation. . ."
(Any such zombies or allied trolls from the Ali fan club who show up here in comments will be deleted without exception.)
posted by Terry Glavin at 12:01 PM
16 Comments:
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I love it Terry, great stuff!
I'm afraid I've found myself on the wrong side of the local Socialist Wanker's Party rep for taking exception to his bombarding my email box with crap from Ali.
I just can't understand why this twit gets so much press in the UK.
Related: http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2009/934/op13.htm
Great essay there, Graeme. You'd think Hamzawy had been reading Peter Ryley.
I especially liked this bit:
"As for anyone who dared suppose that Hamas had not considered the potential loss of civilian life and material destruction or suggest that the movement's rhetoric during the war reflected this and gave the Gazans no choice but to be lumped together as the "people of the resistance", he will be branded as a collaborator and Israeli apologist, deliberately confusing the executioner with the victim simply because he has suggested that Hamas may have been in some way responsible for the death and destruction in Gaza."
Yep, I know what that's like.
P.S. Graeme: You should post that over at DSTPFW.
Bloch writes, "He did not utter one word against Saudi Arabia, an apartheid state where racism and repression are state policy."
Interesting. I'm ignorant. How is Saudi Arabia an apartheid state?
I meant to write Baloch.
"How is Saudi Arabia an apartheid state?"
Half the human race, I would have thought.
Admittedly, it's not a phrase or an issue I've read very often in the news. Terry, do you have any links you could recommend that talk about Saudi Arabia that are more erudite than say wikipedia, where I could read more?
I guess you could always go to Human Rights Watch or Amnesty International and look what they have to say.
Or:
"Women in Saudi Arabia are less represented in political, social, economic and scientific fields than women in any other Arab or Muslim country. Women were barred from participating in the only municipal elections in the history of the Saudi state in 2005. They are prohibited from studying certain subjects in schools, such as chemistry and biology. They may not legally drive and must obtain “permission” from a male “guardian” to travel within or outside the country. Women must ride in the back of public buses, even when the buses are empty. Saudi girls are not allowed to play sports in schools, which, by Saudi health official admission, is causing health problems and staggering expenses. All marriages are arranged by male relatives. If a Saudi woman divorces her husband, she loses custody of her children over age six. Women have little or no freedom to effectively prosecute sexual abuse cases, being required to produce four witnesses. In court, a woman’s testimony is equivalent to half that of a man’s. . ."
And so on:
http://www.cdhr.info/Campaigns/WomensRights
But this isn't news to you, surely.
I've only recently returned from Palestine, and when people use the word apartheid there, it certainly isn't in reference to Saudi Arabia. Obviously, women's rights are far less than ideal there, I just didn't realize how bad it was in Saudi.
ok this is late, but for what it's worth:
Saudi Arabia is not an apartheid state due to women's issues only. It also segregates muslims from non-muslims on at least some of its highways, and allows Muslims only into Mecca. And then there's the little matter that it simply doesn't allow Jews into the Kingdom at all. A few years ago, they actually had the stupidity to post it as one of four criteria resulting in refusal of entry: that got bad press in the USA, so they removed the offending section from the web site, but the policy remains unchanged. Now THAT'S apartheid. And, of course, the gender apartheid already noted here.
A proper clarification, that.
I'd go further to note that more than half the population is denied citizenship rights of any sort because they are "foreign" workers. More than half.
The Saudis didn't abolish slavery until 1962, and as current circumstances show, it is still a slave state in most respects.
But of course it is Israel that is the racist, apartheid state.
Bad Israel! No soup for you!
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Tariq Ali fans seem to include an extraordinary number of David Icke fans, I've noticed.
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