[Marxism] The Sunni-Trotski Pact | Stop Me Before I Vote Again

[Louis Proyect]

http://stopmebeforeivoteagain.org/2014/01/the-sunni-trotski-pact/

This is an attack on me by subscriber Michael J. Smith that I only 
learned about through a link that was automatically generated by 
Wordpress. There's also an approving comment under Smith's article by 
James Holstun, a University of Buffalo professor who unsubbed from 
Marxmail about six months ago for reasons I can't exactly remember. 
Probably over Vivek Chibber, but maybe over my Syria articles. Who can 
keep track? I consider Smith a lightweight politically if not a coward 
but will answer him with the care than he deserves. I also invite him to 
debate me here on Marxmail rather than to talk about me behind my back. 
Generally, when I want to challenge someone politically on my blog, I 
offer the person being challenged the courtesy of knowing so. Another 
reason I am answering him here is that you can only make a comment on 
his blog after registering. That is something that has zero interest for me.

Smith:
Louis appears to be on the verge of a conversion to Sunnism.

Me:
I wrote forcefully on behalf of the Sikhs. Does that mean I am going to 
convert to Sikhism as well?

Smith:
Does even the GWH (Great Wet Hen, Smith's name for me) believe that a 
pipsqueak operation like this gives us a window into the deepest 
counsels of Netanyahu et al.?

Me: This is a reference to a Debkafile article that like dozens of 
others alludes to the convergence between American interests and 
Iran/Syria. This obviously chagrins people like Smith who cannot 
conceive of the USA operating on Metternichian principles. As Michael 
Karadjis pointed out on his blog today, the evidence is overwhelming 
that Israel considers Bashar al-Assad to be a lesser evil to the rebels, 
particularly those based on political Islam. This is a tough pill to 
swallow for the Baathist left. Maybe they should stick it in the middle 
of some strawberry Jello to make it go down easier.

Smith:
And this, I think, is the reason why Israel’s amen corner in the US is 
so wildly enthusiastic about the Sunni reptile-funded Syrian insurgency. 
Not to mention the Hipster Insurgency in Iran itself, a few years back.

Me: The "Hipster Insurgency" is a reference to the Green Movement in 
Iran that was fed up with life under an unelected supreme Islamic 
council. In other words, the same kind of people who surround Smith on 
the Upper West Side, including him. The sneering attitude toward people 
as "hipsters" who object to the revolutionary guards beating up students 
for holding views at odd with the state and torturing bus drivers trying 
to form a union really summarizes the creepiness of the "axis of good" 
left. They enjoy their personal freedom, like the right to start a blog 
that opposes voting for the Democratic Party or the right to drink wine 
with their dinner, but when people in Tehran fight for the same rights, 
they are written off as "hipsters".

Smith:
All this seems like Politics 101 to me — an improvisatory muddle, 
reeling from crisis to crisis. States collude and simultaneously 
contend. To update an old observation, states have neither friends nor 
enemies — only frenemies.

The Hen doesn’t think this way, though. For him, as far as I can tell, 
it’s all a question of trivial lemmata derived from deep essences.

Me: I have no idea what a "lemmata" is but I have made the point about 
friends and enemies via Kissinger a dozen times. Probably that's where 
Smith picked it up from.

I should add that over the years, I have grown inured to Smith's Latin 
droppings. He of course is entitled to show off his fancy education. It 
is too bad he doesn't use it to write a serious defense of the Baathist 
state and the Islamic Republic, which is really what drove him to write 
this sophomoric drivel.