How To Debate a Neocon
Stan Goff is a Special Forces veteran following in a long tradition of US soldiers who have seen the inside of US capitalism’s violence and rejected its moral and intellectual presuppositions through a comprehensive and active critique (see Smedley Butler for more on this tradition). Goff has produced several books (his latest focus on gender and misogyny in the US culture and the military will appear this year), many articles (read his vision of a new hegemony), and a new blog and focuses his activism on organizing for peace and radical politics within the US military. In his recent article on “Debating a Neocon†, this past master of combat arms exposes the sham of rightist ideology with a flick of the wrist and notes: “it is truly remarkable how easily KO’ed these neocons are once you step outside the tight little ring of the Republicrats. They’ve got maybe three combinations, and they are slow as a cow. Everything inside has been ritual combat, so they do very badly when someone actually intends to hit them.†HIT THIS RIGHTIST SCUM, HARD!!! Advising intelligent and vigorous resistance, “this burned-out commie vet†suggests that we “keep battering away because these people are weaker than they seem, even if they DO have state power. (I’m ready for my IRS audit, sir.) And quit accepting their premises, or you’ll never end up with anything except their conclusions.†Goff, who lived the frontlines of US imperialism, reminds us all that capitalism is inseparable from militarism and violence at the world scale, regardless of the nation-state.
February 27th, 2005 at 2:45 pm
This is an amazing article. I have never heard of Stan Goff before. I felt really bad about Bush (barely) winning re-election, but Goff’s point about Bush being a “bull in a China-shop” gives me some heart. Although I do think Bush losing would have sent an important message that torture and war have real consequences, maybe Kerry’s loss will both show that Democrats can’t just be Republican imitators (Kerry never brought up the torture and he wanted send MORE troops to Iraq), and that Bush is so reckless that he will galvanize opposition. Goff is an excellent writer.
March 6th, 2005 at 9:59 am
This just confirmed my experience – that supporters of the War in Iraq and the Bush administration’s policies cannot debate intelligently – because there is no cogent, rational arguement for any of it. Consequently, Americans have fallen prey to emotional appeals to their patriotism, religiousity (I refuse to say morals), and most of all fear. We need to harken back the “Age of Enlightenment”, because what we have now is dusk going on midnight.
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