oy vay

… re: the slippery slip of advocating the use of violence against violence.

There’s much that I like about Howie Hawkins’ perspective and his long-standing activist work. I have critiques, but the issues around those critiques make for interesting debates.

But

Influenced by contacts with Ukrainian leftists, he started cheerleading for maximal active resistance against Russia’s incursion. Going down and down and down that slope he now says he’s in favor of the US supplying cluster bombs to the Ukrainians. Rationale: “To buy them time while waiting for the US to ramp up its production of standard munitions so as to send more of those.”

There is thinking re: eventually there will be negotiations and meanwhile we (“we”) must keep the pressure on in order to get the Russians to the table and be in the best possible position when they come to the table.

And meanwhile the dynamic is escalation and meanwhile the destruction is horrific and meanwhile the sacrifice of young Ukrainian lives is shameful and meanwhile things could tip over into a nuclear conflagration.

Howie somehow got onto the wrong slope.