Ward Churchill demonstrates the left is not always compassionate

Considering myself to be a thoughtful, well reasoned member of the the leftist tradition, I am compelled to comment on the the post 9/11 essay by University of Colorado Professor Ward Churchill.

For a little background click HERE or HERE and his recent response to the current backlash HERE.

If you don't feeling like browsing the above links, the following is the primary offender and deals with the attacks on the World Trade Center (WTC) and Pentagon:

Let’s get a grip here, shall we? True enough, they were civilians of a sort. But innocent? Gimme a break. They formed a technocratic corps at the very heart of America’s global financial empire — the “mighty engine of profit” to which the military dimension of U.S. policy has always been enslaved — and they did so both willingly and knowingly. Recourse to “ignorance” — a derivative, after all, of the word “ignore” — counts as less than an excuse among this relatively well-educated elite. To the extent that any of them were unaware of the costs and consequences to others of what they were involved in — and in many cases excelling at — it was because of their absolute refusal to see. More likely, it was because they were too busy braying, incessantly and self-importantly, into their cell phones, arranging power lunches and stock transactions, each of which translated, conveniently out of sight, mind and smelling distance, into the starved and rotting flesh of infants. If there was a better, more effective, or in fact any other way of visiting some penalty befitting their participation upon the little Eichmanns inhabiting the sterile sanctuary of the twin towers, I’d really be interested in hearing about it.

There are so many problems with his statements and while I support his freedom, academic and otherwise, to promote his opinion, I think that he does more damage to his cause and credibility than good by spewing such hatred. Understanding his critique of capitalism and the effects of our corporate dominated economy on foreign policy, categorically pronouncing the work-a-day employees of the WTC as culpable and somehow deserving a fiery death is reckless and bordering on insanity.

Little Eichmanns? That is just nutty. If to be engaged in capitalism is to be like Eichmann, then most of the population is guilty. Bad label and even worse logic. Yes, the WTC was a great symbol of capitalism but to consider a reasonable combat target (that is if you accept his premise that the 9/11 attackers were engaged in combat, rather than terrorism) is to offer a preference of one type of violence over another - economic "violence" being viewed as evil, while the downing of the towers as justifiable and a form of payback.

The current geo-political dynamic is littered with possibilities in terms of reasonable criticism of economic, political and social interaction. Senselessly attacking the victims of 9/11 is neither scholarly nor representative of those on the left. Bad form Churchill.



technorati tag: Ward Churchill