The American Left Isn't Identifying With, Right?

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I don't think that the American left or really maybe left anywhere has figured out what to do after that moment. The humanity of Iraqis and Afghans and Pakistanis and Somalis and Yemenis who have been caught in this vortex of violence was just something that couldn't really emerge, right? Because it's, there was no political movement there to identify with. But I also think whatever the real left is, which in this country is very small, they also do not know how to grapple with the problem of what they see as this religious threat.

Featuring Nadia Abu El-Haj on Combat Trauma: Imaginaries of War and Citizenship in Post-9/11 America. How the civil-military divide makes troops into super citizens and what it means that agents of state violence are turning to the grammar of identity politics—and more. The second in a two-part interview. Support The Dig at Patreon.com/TheDig Subscribe to New Left Review newleftreview.org/subscriptions/new Buy My Country is the World: Staughton Lynd’s Writings, Speeches, and Statements Against the Vietnam War haymarketbooks.org/books/1956-my-country-is-the-world