Remember how such a left doesn’t exist, has never existed, and is only part of the fetid imaginations of people like me? Ralph Nader was on O’Reilly tonight and he sure seemed like an anti-war left-winger to me – even now. Here’s a section of his response as to what he’d have done after September 11:
“Now onto your question, what I would have done after September 11 is invoked the doctrine of hot pursuit under international law, to go after and apprehend the backers of the attackers. Number two, I would have focused on the domestic front by going after the wartime profiteers, going after the autocratic ideologues, who think that this is a time to restrict our freedom of speech and dissent. And going after the corporate greed hounds, who are swarming over Capitol Hill for bailouts, subsidies, giveaways, tax loopholes and limited liability.”
Notice that Nader’s real energy is in Number 2. Notice also that the “autocratic ideologues” he wants to target are not al Qaeda or the Taliban, crushing basic human rights, torturing people for their religion, suppressing women, impoverishing their country. No, the real “autocratic ideologues” are Americans! Nader wouldn’t bomb, wouldn’t invade, and would probably do nothing. He even reiterates Noam Chomsky’s debunked claim that the war has created more misery, and starvation than was happening beforehand:
” Yes, but you see, there’s tremendous suffering going on. And I know it’s not like the suffering of our people, because we’re always more sensitive to our people. But far more civilians are dying, refugees, disease, death, you know, freezing to death, starvation, kids. I mean, these are real human beings.”
Nader’s view of Bush? He’s too dumb to be a good president:
“See, what we weren’t smart enough in doing is pitting the Taliban survival against the al Qaeda. You see? That’s what we weren’t smart enough to do, because we had a West Texas sheriff in the White House saying we’re going to get them. We’re going to smoke them out.”
No, there’s no anti-war left in this country. Just a figment of the right-wing press.
The Dish 