What’s up with the extreme left?
Today I participated in the "Swedish version of Crossfire", Korseld. Fredrik Malm (leader of the Liberal youth) and I asked the questions, and the historian/left-wing debater Åsa Linderborg defended her bizarre political position: the “resistance” in Iraq (blowing up American soldiers as well as Iraqi children) is legitimate. And the best thing would be if the US left Iraq, which quite probably could lead to a civil war. And the “resistance” in Iraq (Baathists, al-Quaida, and others) is by definition as legitimate as the Norwegian resistance against Nazi-occupation…
Needles to say, the discussion was quite heated, but I think that Fredrik and I asked some tough questions, and Åsa got a lot of time to try to explain her positions. I also think/hope that I managed to stay pretty calm, and I have to say I feel quite comfortable in my general position: the invasion was wrong, but now we have to do the best of the situation and strengthen the imperfect but now existing democratic process (and I feel very proud of Swedish Social Democratic Student’s and Kurdish Students in Sweden’s project to start a youth center in Kirkuk). But honestly I cannot understand Åsa Lindeborg’s positions, even the Iraqi Communist party is "accepting" the US presence now and wants to move on and try to build up the country. What is the alternative? You can watch the show here [YES, the link is working now!]
Needles to say, the discussion was quite heated, but I think that Fredrik and I asked some tough questions, and Åsa got a lot of time to try to explain her positions. I also think/hope that I managed to stay pretty calm, and I have to say I feel quite comfortable in my general position: the invasion was wrong, but now we have to do the best of the situation and strengthen the imperfect but now existing democratic process (and I feel very proud of Swedish Social Democratic Student’s and Kurdish Students in Sweden’s project to start a youth center in Kirkuk). But honestly I cannot understand Åsa Lindeborg’s positions, even the Iraqi Communist party is "accepting" the US presence now and wants to move on and try to build up the country. What is the alternative? You can watch the show here [YES, the link is working now!]
posted by Eric Sundström at 7:09 pm
4 Comments:
Her positions aren't really that difficult to understand: she's nuts!
That's what I tried to say in a round-about way. As you Jonas have underlined before, it is a mystery how she is allowed to publish her opinions in a Social Democratic newspaper (Aftonbladet) on a regular basis. The left needs sound voices to fight the neo-rigth, and not people defending Al-Quaida.
The link to "Korseld" is now working. It´s on: http://svt.se/svt/jsp/Crosslink.jsp?d=12186&a=177827&queryArt53141=korseld&searchDepartmentArt53141=null&doneSearch=true&pageArt53141=0&sd=10 and it starts after about 30 seconds. You did a good job Eric, clear and bright as usual. And Åsa really scares me...
Joakim: "Resistance is when a group or individual fight against an occupation, without harming civilians or in anyway include them as tagets". That was a good summary of what it is all about. And I agree on your point about an international tribunal.
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