Tony,

I can appreciate your skittishness here, but I don't believe it's fair
to say that the antiwar.com people do not want an independent antiwar
movement.  I think that to a large extent that the existence (and
success) of the antiwar.com site demonstrates their desire for a wider
political framework for the antiwar movement, other than the typical
leftist-sectarian approach that has so often characterized it in the
past.  Yes, I think for folks of a more rightist/conservative political
tendency, such an approach is a turnoff.  And in fairness, borrowing
from personal experience, I can say that they could at least as easily
turn your charge back against the Left that these organizations are not
interested in an independent antiwar movement at all, but in building
support for their revolutionary cause, and the peace movement and its
popular peace and justice issues are just so much window dressing.  I've
seen it again and again.
Or tell me, which Left group that you know of is making a solid
investment in a non-sectarian antiwar movement? Most Left groups I know
of today are too busy competing for one another's members and detracting
from one another's political positions to do anything that selfless.
Does this make the Libertarians "reliable?"  The fact that it's
antiwar.com and not antiwar.org or .net tells us something right there.
OK, they have own agenda, but for my money, they still demonstrate to
the Left a better model of non-sectarian information gathering and
dissemination than the Left has shown itself capable of.  They do not
discriminate politically when it comes to good antiwar articles, and you
know this yourself because you have been published there.
OK, so maybe the sound of a "Libertarian-socialist" merger  does not
fall trippingly off the tongue ideologically, but the urgent question,
IMHO, is whether the Left and the libertarian and anti-interventionist
right can bloc successfully to elect candidates, and maybe even a
president, who will genuinely oppose American interventionism, and roll
back our imperialistic policies.  Stranger combinations have happened
politically, and politics still makes strange bedfellows. The Left
cannot, at this time,  go it alone electorallyto stop these brutal
policies.  We need help.  I believe the Libertarians are sincere in
their antiwar sentiment.
        So I'm with the other Leftie who said "I'll take allies where I can get
them."  To the question he was asked:  "what do you hope to gain?,"  I
would reply: about 4,000 Iraqi lives per month, and if we're really
lucky, a smaller tax bite from reduced defense spending.  Short-term
goals admittedly, but from the standpoint of those 4,000 Iraqis, well
worth the trouble.  Let's do what we can politically, and take care of
the "impossible" later!

Peace,
Ken

-----Original Message-----
From: Tony Abdo [mailto:[log in to unmask]]
Sent: Friday, January 28, 2000 1:01 PM
To: The philosophy, work & influences of Noam Chomsky
Cc: [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask]; [log in to unmask];
[log in to unmask]
Subject: Pat Buchanan


William,  I don't find Buchanan to be an ally.     The editorial for Pat
that I posted comes from the Libertarian ..antiwar.com ..site.      I
don't think that they are a RELIABLE ally either.      They are a good
source of info and propaganda against the US war machine, but they are
not going to go beyond being a propaganda support effort for the
electoral activities of The Libertaran Party and it's semi-allies,  like
Pat Buchanan.

Neither Pat nor antiwar.com,  are going to build demonstrations against
the war in the streets.     They did nothing to actively encourage
people to protest in Seattle, and they are doing nothng to actively
build the demonstrations that will occur at the Demo and Repub Party
Conventions.

It's because they do not want an  INDEPENDENT ALLIANCE against war to be
built.     They want an ideological support committee to be built for
Far Right candidates running for office.

The structure is similar to liberal organizations that talk liberal,
but then do no work beyond lobbying Democratic Party hacks, hidden away
in the halls and smokey offices.      A pretty unsuccessful srategy,
that through the years has brought setback, not advance.

Best wishes, Tony