Thirteenth Note to “Essence of Guerrilla Warfare”

An ethical and moral struggle between freedom and repression, but is it black and white? When we zoom into certain case studies, we find that it is all a grey area rather than black and white. For instance, when we zoom into Afghanistan, we find that up until 1978, Afghanistan was ruled by both a liberal monarchy and a liberal republic. But in 1978, Moscow supported a communist military coup which overthrew the liberal republic. But rather than stand by, Washington decided that it would support bloodthirsty Islamist rebels who tore the country apart. Washington also supported dictators in Cuba and Chile and the Congo and Egypt and a number of other places. Israel, for instance – which is an American ally – seeks to force its pacifist orthodoxy into military conscription, and there are always skirmishes in Israel that flare up when this issue of orthodox conscription arises in Israel. Not to mention the conduct of Israel’s war in Gaza recently. An ethical and moral struggle between freedom and repression, but it’s not black and white. Far from it.