Interesting email exchange between Labour junior minister Mike O’Brien and veteran Stopper Tariq Ali over progress in Afghanistan.
Worth noting that Tariq Ali states: The aim of the war and occupation was to capture and kill Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar and shackle al-Qaida. The secondary aim, he says, was the removal of the Taliban.
Well, obviously, but I don’t remember him saying that on the anti-war demonstrations – what was the problem then?
Throughout the whole exchange the ‘revolutionary marxist’ Tariq Ali sounds like a cynical old bloke constantly muttering ‘It’ll never work out”.
In contrast a government minister comes over as someone committed to radical change and international solidarity.
Sure Afghanistan is not a ‘social democratic paradise’ as Ali says and there are deep problems still, but for some reason I always have a problem with criticism of post-liberation progress that comes from the sneering mouths of those who opposed the act of liberation in the first place.
