I was about to excerpt something from Stephen Gowans’ latest and relate it to the comments exchange following this article by Mark Hand. I notice Gowans’ entire article has now been posted there.
Read, read. Head over there right now. I upset someone by saying I feel betrayed when influential intellectuals like Howard Zinn tell people to go on and vote for John Kerry. If you feel the same I’d ask you to consider this bit from Gowans’ article:
What’s more, it’s not as if the alternative is saying anything to make you believe he would be better. Let’s run down the list of things Kerry thinks are pretty cool. Targeted assassinations. Israeli ethnic cleansing. Denying Palestinians a right to return to their homes. The building of illegal settlements in occupied territory. Territorial expansion through military conquest. A bigger army. Military supremacy. The unilateral use of force. The pre-emptive use of force. The continued occupations of Afghanistan and Iraq. The bold, muscular exercise of US power.
Why would I vote for that?