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Quote by Norman Geras

“Such impulses have displayed themselves very widely across left and liberal opinion in recent months. Why? For some, because what the US government and its allies do, whatever they do, has to be opposed—and opposed however thuggish and benighted the forces which this threatens to put your anti-war critic into close company with. For some, because of an uncontrollable animus towards George Bush and his administration. For some, because of a one-eyed perspective on international legality and its relation to issues of international justice and morality. Whatever the case or the combination, it has produced a calamitous compromise of the core values of socialism, or liberalism or both, on the part of thousands of people who claim attachment to them. You have to go back to the apologias for, and fellow-travelling with, the crimes of Stalinism to find as shameful a moral failure of liberal and left opinion as in the wrong-headed—and too often, in the circumstances, sickeningly smug—opposition to the freeing of the Iraqi people from one of the foulest regimes on the planet.”

Quote by Norman Geras

Work

A Matter of Principle: Humanitarian Arguments for War in Iraq

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Author

Norman Geras
Norman Geras

Norman Geras was a prominent political commentator and writer. Known for his insightful analysis of political and social issues, Geras made significant contributions to the political debates of the Cold War and post-Cold War eras. His career included teaching positions at several universities in the UK and the US, as well as publishing articles in various publications such as The New Statesman, The Observer, and The London Review of Books. Geras' influence has been generally positive, though his views sometimes sparked controversy. more

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