Sunday, December 7, 2008

Bill Ayers and 'tactical idiocy'

Having done my own thorough fisking of Bill Ayers' dishonest self-justification, I tip my hat to Hilzoy:
They say they did it to end the war in Vietnam. But how, exactly, that was supposed to happen is a total mystery. It's the Underpants Gnome theory of political activism:
Phase 1: Set a bunch of bombs.
Phase 2: ???
Phase 3: The war ends!
That level of tactical idiocy is one thing when you're collecting underpants. It's quite another when you're setting bombs.
I dare say that's one of the most eloquent and concise summaries of the '60s radical trip I've ever read. And it's worth noting that, while Ayers postures for history by framing his terrorism in terms of opposition to the war, (a) Nixon began withdrawing U.S. troops from Vietnam before Ayers and his comrades started setting off bombs, and (b) Ayers and his comrades weren't merely trying to end the war, they were self-styled communist revolutionaries whose aim was to bring about a Marxist-Leninist regime in America.

1 comment:

  1. Note well.

    The crimes and killings continued AFTER the war.

    Didn't some of their friends kill an armed guard as late as the 1980s?

    Yes, yes, yes they did.

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