Actually I don’t think I said they were *all* Stalinists either, but there is no denying that the International Brigades were organised and run by the Comintern (ie Stalin) and that the vast majority of members were Stalinists. The rest presumably were sufficiently impressionable that the Stalinists thought they would become Stalinists.

Jon – ““Communist controlled” is different from being them all being Stalinists, So Much For Subtlety, as was your charge.”

I don’t recall using the word “all”. If you want to argue over one or two members who weren’t I am happy to concede it. But that does not change the fact of what and who they were.

“Your problem is that you described them as all nasty Stalinists. This is simply not true. One of the main opponents of Franco were the Communists at that time, and some good meaning folk fought under the Communists, not knowing the whole deal. Does not make them Stalinists.”

Sorry but “good meaning” folk had a wealth of political parties to choose from. They could have fought with the Anarchists or the Trotskyites. Those that chose the International Brigades knew precisely what they were signing up for. Which sort of invalidates the assumption of their good intentions.

eddie – “Orwell tried to join the International Brigades but was rejected by Harry Pollitt, secretary of the CPGB, at the time.”

Sorry but are you trying to support my argument or refute it? Fine. The Secretary of the CPGB had a veto over British membership of the International Brigades. As I said, they were Stalinists. Orwell was rejected not because he was not on the Left, but because he was not a Stalinist and a member of the Party. Getting this jon?

“The POUM was a Trotskyist outfit, hence its being purged later, by Stalinist officals, not by the International Brigades.”

Sorry but why do you think that? POUM and the Anarchists went down fighting. Stalinist officials do not fight militias. They need their own police force to do that – which Orwell documented – as well as their own armed militia. Which is what the International Brigade was.

“Remember this was before the Moscow show trials and the purges and not long after the Webbs and GBS had returned from Russia saying it was a worker’s paradise.”

As if there had been no murders in Russia before the Show Trials! You mean good leftists can approve of the murder of hostages by Trotsky but not Stalin’s murder of Party members?

“Many of those who joined the International Brigades were not CP members and they joined out of an ideological hatred of fascism.”

And yet you admit Orwell was not allowed to join precisely because the CPGB vetoed him. How many were not CP members?

“Your statement that IB members were Stalnists IS a calumny.”

Actually it is simply the truth.

I’d like to rent out your crystal ball one of these days. It’s still wishful thinking jon, nothing more. and it’s pathetic.

You’re right about Orwell in Spain though. What you don’t say is that he would have supported of the effort against the Taliban, not wished for its failure.

Benji dear, your preferred brand of Walt & Mearsheimerian ‘realism’ is not synonymous with the field of international relations. If I were you, I’d blame whichever paleocon or anti-imperialist sympathizing professor of yours that convinced you otherwise.

US failure in Afghanistan is inevitable

No Benji, it isn’t inevitable, however your saying that US failure is inevitable is inevitable.

Matthews, shockingly, was speaking in earnest.

I saw if not resentment, skepticism. I didn’t see a lot of warmth in that crowd out there, uh, the president chose to address tonight. And I think that is interesting. He went to maybe the enemy camp tonight to make his case.

Yet another pearl of instant wisdom from Mr. Matthews. At least he didn’t suggest that the West Point cadets stage a military coup, as Limbaugh hilariously did. I still haven’t stopped chuckling.

“However, something more profound resonated in the main hall of Salamanca University on 12 October 1936 when General Millán Astray y Terreros, leader of the Spanish Foreign Legion yelled ‘Down with Intelligence! Long live death!’ (Viva la muerte!). He was responding to the declaration he had just heard by the famous humanist philosopher Miguel de Unamuno that ‘At times to be silent is to lie. You will win because you have enough brute force. But you will not convince. For to convince you need to persuade. And in order to persuade you would need what you lack: Reason and Right.’ After Astray’s defiant risposte the ageing philosopher was driven from the university at gun-point and died of a heart attack a week later.
The General’s cult of death was more than mere rhetoric. He had taken it upon himself to turn his troops into fanatics who had left their secular lives and commitments behind them in order to devote themselves utterly to the cause of Spain. When he learnt that some of his men still had savings in bank accounts he railed: ‘The legionary must only think of today, not of the past, which is, even more so than for others, dead. Not of tomorrow because, by enrolling he knows he has placed his own signature on his death certificate. We live today. We fight today. We die today. To die: this is your duty. […] Legionaries, go and take out your savings. You have all the time you need to spend them because I am giving you leave till two o’clock. I am sure that by tomorrow none of you will still have savings books. Legionaries! Long live Spain! Long live Franco! Long live death!”

R Griffin, “Shattering crystals”: the role of “dream time” in extreme right-wing political violence, Terrorism and Political Violence (March 2003)

It’s the economy, stupid. This aint no open-ended commitment anymore. That was the message of Obama’s speech. I would love for debt-ridden, economically crippled guardians to guarantee girls education indefinitely. But the world does not work like that.

Yeah, yeah, turn the record over. Afghanistan now, if flawed, is nonetheless some magnitudes better than the environment which obtained before. Improvement has been, and will be, incremental. If girls can go to school..or even compete in the equivalent of X-Factor, it’s been for the better, in spite of what the ‘Jons’ of this world think is right and plainly hope in their febrile little hearts will come about.

I imagine some part of you glees when a bodybag comes back or a marketplace is bombed. Reptile.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/afghan-star/4od#2931802

But Afghanistan now, if flawed is nonetheless some magnitudes better than the environment which obtained before. ImprIf girls can go to school or even compete in the equivalent of X-Factor, it’s been for the better, in spite of what the Jons of this world think is for the best and hope in their hearts will come about.