While we at Dkos concern ourselves with positioning the Democratic Party leftwards, portrayed (no link necessary, I presume) the traditional media as the "hard left of the Democratic Party",
real leftists in the larger world beyond Dem politics have spoken out in a letter to the Editor. Among the signers are Chomsky, Zinn, and Arundahti Roy.
The letter concerns (alleged) war crimes in Lebanon. The conclusion of the letter, it's final paragraph, contains a statement that will, without doubt, be construed as treasonous by the Wingers. That may blowback on us here at dKos as the wingers confuse dKos and Leftists, so I think it's worthy of discussing and figuring out where we stand when the shit comes at us.
The whole letter, short and to the point, is here, and part of it is over the fold, with a poll.
The US-backed Israeli assault on Lebanon has left the country numb, smouldering and angry. The massacre in Qana and the loss of life is not simply "disproportionate". It is, according to existing international laws, a war crime.
The deliberate and systematic destruction of Lebanon's social infrastructure by the Israeli air force was also a war crime, designed to reduce that country to the status of an Israeli-US protectorate. The attempt has backfired. In Lebanon itself, 87% of the population now support Hizbullah's resistance, including 80% of Christian and Druze and 89% of Sunni Muslims, while 8% believe the US supports Lebanon. But these actions will not be tried by any court set up by the "international community" since the US and its allies that commit or are complicit in these appalling crimes will not permit it.
It has now become clear that the assault on Lebanon to wipe out Hizbullah had been prepared long before. Israel's crimes had been given a green light by the US and its loyal British ally, despite the opposition to Blair in his own country.
We offer our solidarity and support to the victims of this brutality and to those who mount a resistance against it. For our part, we will use all the means at our disposal to expose the complicity of our governments in these crimes. There will be no peace in the Middle East while the occupations of Palestine and Iraq and the temporarily "paused" bombings of Lebanon continue.
Tariq Ali
Noam Chomsky
Eduardo Galeano
Howard Zinn
Ken Loach
John Berger
Arundhati Roy