a word on the last two posts

it seems clear that israel is attempting to eliminate what little political, economic, cultural, and educational independence that exists in the gaza strip. this is not merely a war against hamas, an organization, ironically enough, that israel helped create to oppose fatah, but rather, a comprehensive assault against the already humble ability of gaza to function as an independent entity. the war flows from the previous sanctions, just as american destruction in iraq flows from the sanctions that were used to kill hundreds of thousands in that country. both the u.s and israel have a shared understanding of the kind of political and economic structures that they will allow to exist. hence, both countries support the continued blockade of left wing cuba, and both supported the brutal right wing dictatorship in guatemala. they did so for political and economic reasons. it is important to keep this in mind, as the world currently lines up along religious lines. what we need to do is combat the u.s war machine, and its client in israel, in a radical political and economic way that is culturally and religious inclusive, but does not seek to make those areas a fundamental aspect of the struggle. within the arab and muslim world, we need another sukarno of indonesia, another nasser of egypt, another mossadegh of iran, another abdul karim kassem of iraq. (for more on these men, and the ideas and policies they represented and tried to act upon before running into the obligatory brutal american reaction, see william blum's essentials, "rogue state" and "killing hope.") we need a new rise of secular, socialist, nationalism. yes, the u.s acted to destroy the secular nationalists of an earlier day, including the men i just mentioned, and helped to create the bin ladens to take their place, but perhaps we, the people of the u.s, along with others, can help to foster an atmosphere where such men and women of secular and radical perspective can once again arise. some do exist now, but like us in america, they are far removed from power. i recommend the writings of tariq ali, ali abunimah, ramzy baroud, and mustafa barghouti to give a sense of the kinds of people and ideas who could lead the middle east in a new direction, if they were able to obtain state power and not be militarily opposed by the american war machine, big ifs indeed. the alternative appears to be mass suicide.