THERE ARE two related topics taken up in this issue of the ISR. First, the claim by the Bush administration—widely applauded even by liberal critics of U.S. foreign policy—that recent developments in Lebanon and elsewhere are living proof of U.S. “democracy” promotion; second, simultaneous attacks on democratic freedoms at home.
In Bush-world, everything is turned on its head. According to the Bush administration, Lebanon cannot have “free elections” under military occupation whereas Iraq can. Regimes that need changing are targeted for their lack of freedoms, whereas repressive regimes allied to the U.S. are praised for their “contribution” to the “war on terror” even when that contribution involves eliminating democratic rights. In the U.S., attacks on professors and their academic freedom is presented as its opposite. An assault on the right of free speech is justified as a means to ensure professors don’t “impose” their views on students. In all these cases, rhetoric and reality diverge dramatically.
We are pleased to run a number of articles that take up these questions. Tariq Ali’s interview with David Barsamian looks at how colonial powers have always used the language of liberation to justify conquest and occupation.
Lance Selfa takes an in-depth look at Bush’s claims to be spreading democracy, and notes that “a review of the most prominent cases of U.S.-sponsored ‘democratization’ in the region shows that rhetoric and reality don’t match up.”
Edward S. Herman, in an exclusive ISR interview, reminds us how the U.S. has historically organized what he calls “demonstration elections” in countries it occupies, offering the appearance, but not the substance, of democracy.
Amy and David Goodman, in a new introduction to the Arabic edition of Exception to the Rulers shows how “Journalists that report inconvenient truths about the U.S. occupation—such as broadcasting unsanitized footage of war, or reporting from besieged Iraqi cities like Fallujah—have become targets of censorship, banning, or worse.”
Elaine C. Hagopian traces the roots of the demonization of Arabs, and later, Muslims, to U.S./Israeli aims to secure control of the Middle East against the rise of Arab nationalism, and later, the political Islam that they in part helped to foster.
Elizabeth Terzakis’s article, “The New McCarthyism,” traces both the rise of attacks on Arab and Muslim professors in the U.S. today, and the spread of those attacks to other leftist critics of the Bush administration’s policies. She also looks at the organized response by activists that is beginning to emerge against these attacks.
Finally, Justin Akers’ “The Battle over Military Recruitment” outlines the crisis in the military, how the military is invading our schools to boost its numbers, and the growing new movement against these efforts.
There are a number of other important articles in this issue. Claudio Katz takes a bird’s-eye view of new political and economic developments in Latin America—in particular the formation of new center-left governments in Brazil and Argentina—and draws lessons for the Left. Tom Lewis’s report on new struggles in Bolivia highlights the ongoing social struggles that continue to rock that country.
We are also reprinting here William Keach’s introduction to a new edition of Leon Trotsky’s classic, Literature and Revolution. Keach reminds us how a commitment to fundamental revolutionary change provides the most fruitful vantage point for understanding both the historical role, and the beauty, of art.
