Who's Right?

So am I of the left or right? Well, neither actually. The two terms have never really represented my political views, and elsewhere since the end of the cold war and even more so after the apolitical nineties, they have also lost their power to define most viewpoints. But there are swathes of opinions and activists out there who still stand proud under these respective banners, and there are others who claim no particular political perspective but for arguments sake fall into the left/right axiom. Nick Cohen's book What's Left? argues that Left/liberal/socialist/(it has many guises) thought has lost its way, ditch its principles, has been recently very wrong on certain issues, and without doubt needs reform. The core of his criticism lies in the Iraq war, and he argues that those who marched against war in February 2003 were misguidedly keeping a genocidal totalitarian dictator in power, something the left would surely be against more than anything else (historically). Post invasion, the left has put their desire to be vindicated over Iraqis desires for democracy, freedom from Bathist/Al-Qaeda terror, and successful re-construction. Beyond the Middle East, Cohen also critiques Chomsky, Said, incomprehensible academic scribblers, 1992-5 Conservative government Bosnia policy, George Galloway, Michael Moore, Virginia Woolf, WW2 Communist appeasers and others.

One chapter examines the heart of the Liberal-Left's inconsistency and weakness - the appeasement of Hitler in the 1930s. The root cause (an unfair Treaty of Versailles) was to blame; communists saw the real enemy as Churchill and his wartime Labour colleagues; the Soviet invasion of Finland (post non-aggression pact) was defended by Hobsbawm (Birkbeck's current president) amongst others. Cohen is exceptional in drawing solid comparisons between the war years and now, and also provides an enjoyable historical narrative to this troubling episode.

Now Nick Cohen is of the Left, is a consistent critic of Tony Blair, and unlike other Left-Right trangressives (Hitchens/Aaronovitch) presents his arguments in more reasoned terms than the usual descent into self-righteousness that this argument normally succombs to. And as reading this book, I found his arguments very convincing. Why should a totalitarian and homicidal regime be left in power, why do the SWP or others care little of who their Islamist allies are (and their bigoted right wing views), why do people care more about whether something was illegal under such and such international law or whether intelligence was caveated or not - when innocent civilians are being blown to pieces on a daily basis. Try this. Next time you listen to a debate on Iraq (if you don't turn off), listen out for the number of times that the blame for the violence is laid directly (where 90% of it is) at Bathists, Al-Qaeda, Sadrists and every other criminal roaming the land. Being right is more important than an innocent civilians life. Sadly after a while I've realised that the left have been deceptive as the right on this whole catastrophe. And as with other examples in the book, neither side has a monopoly on integrity.

Cohen's arguments do not convincingly counter the pacifist view that opposes all violence, nor do they incorporate the overwhelming view that Bush, Rumsfeld, etc inspired no faith in a nation building or democratic ethos prior, and rather that it seemed purely driven by vendetta. And Tony was jumping on the bandwagon. Hindsight has proven some of those arguments right and wrong, but at the time it was hard to trust such intentions. Islamism poses a far greater threat to the west than Bathism ever did, see also Sam Harris, but the overwhelming irony is that we have forced two enemies to unite. These arguments can and will continue. As I have never been of either left/right slant, this book was enjoyable and enlightening, so I am now going find someone who is one or the other (preferably left) and see if it has the same effect. Sadly I am not optimistic.

http://www.amazon.co.uk/End-Faith-Religion-Terror-Future/dp/0743268091/ref=sr_1_2/203-8393331-7887958?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1176671475&sr=1-2

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euston_manifesto

http://www.prospect.org/print/V12/18/berman-p.html

http://www.iraqmemory.org/EN/index.asp

http://www.prospect-magazine.co.uk/article_details.php?id=8339