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Well, if you're speaking up against "the left" then you might want to drop the Mark Twain quotes. Mr. Clemens was very much from the left. The American invasion of the Philippines at the turn of the century caused him to ultimately become the vice president of the American Anti-Imperialist League (an anti-war group opposed to the morally bankrupt war being prosecuted by the U.S), and he also supported the overthrow of the Csars in Russia. Now, I certainly won't argue that what came after the Csars were better, but one could definitely argue that the Csars did not deserve to rule Russia with the way that they (and most royalty) casually allowed many of their people to starve over the years!

I am a big fan of Mr Twain and always found it best to quote the people I am writing about.

Unfortunately the international left never really paid much attention to the ideas of great thinkers like Mark Twain and George Bernard Shaw.

I'd even quote Lenin if it has to be done.

You will learn from the articles I am working on that "left" and "anti-imperialism" have very little to do with each other. You will also learn how the left used the term "anti-imperialism" to describe whatever policies they wanted to defend.

I never said I even disagree with the revolution in Russia (which at the beginning not a socialist revolution at all). I won't even claim that I have a particular problem with Lenin.

But none of that has anything to do with speak up up against the left. And I personally have never been considered "left-wing" for supporting the overthrow of Saddam in Iraq.

In fact one of my major problems with the left is that they never fulfilled and usually actively worked against the idealism of the early socialists.

Show me a left-winger today who supports Mark Twain's politics, and I show you a man I'd vote for in an instant. But where do you find a pro-Zionist, anti-income-tax (Twain was a Georgist) and REAL anti-imperialist left-winger today?

Oh boy, where to start. First off, go back to school and learn about the American-Philippine war.

It was largely a war of opportunity in which the States claimed they were liberating the Philippines from the Spanish, but really they were in it for their own gain. Just like how they "liberated" Cuba from Spain when the homespun Cuban revolutionaries were on the verge of victory over the spanish anyway.

If Samuel Clemens were alive today, I can guarantee you he would be against the Iraq war. If you don't believe that, go read his works on American Imperialism.

Please prove to me that "the left" worked against early socialists. Samuel Clemens, again, was from the left AND an anti-imperialist by his own admission.

I didn't say anything about that war. How could I possible have managed to have contradicted what you think you know about it?

So?

I did.

But I don't believe that the goal of the Iraq war ever was to annex Iraq. And I doubt that Samuel Clemens would have been stupid enough to think that.

I will prove, over a series of article, what I said: that the left didn't fullfill and usually actively works against the ideals of the early socialists.

I didn't say that "the left" worked "against early socialists". That seems to be a non-sensical statement.

Yes. And I didn't doubt that. Nevertheless I believe that the left today have abandoned his ideals and actively oppose them.

If Russia today were ruled by a despot who opposes the west and oppresses his people, the left would not call for his overthrowal, they would cheer him and call on the US administration to improve ties with the Russia.

Great quotes there, especially from Clemens/Twain and Churchill... only I would avoid quoting the Watergate "plumber" G Gordon Liddy.

Most of those quotes have to do with government in general. Perhaps your articles should be about the problems in allowing governments to become too big/powerful, or find quotes that are specific to communism.

Are you talking about the Spanish-American war where Spain lost and we took Puerto Rico, Philippines, Guam paying Spain 20 Million dollars then at the end of WWII we allowed the Philippines to vote for independence and gave it to them on July 4th 1946 or 48 I can't remember off the top of my head. I think you forget that the Philippines was a colony of Spain for 350 years so it was called the Philippine- American war by anit war people in America in order to hide the fact that it was just one area we were fighting the Spanish. I still have property in the Philippines, off the coast of Cebu. It was a wedding present from my Wife's grandmother 30 years ago. Yes, my wife is a Filipina or was, she got her American citizenship in 2001. The US still holds Guam and Puerto Rico from that war. Both were given the chance for independence and both chose to remain part of America. If America was imperialist I think we would not have allowed them to vote. You can't say we rigged the vote as one voted for independence and we kept our word. America is not an imperialist nation, and never has been.

Paladin- go back to school my good man. If you actually do a bit of reading, you'll find that after "liberating" the Philippines from the Spanish, American troops then ended up fighting against Philipino insurgents for more than 10 years.

If you do your homework, you'll find that the first Philippine republic declared war on the United States on June 2, 1899.

Also, the United States didn't even negotiate with the Philipino's, they negotiated with the Spanish. That's pretty damn imperial to me.

And yes, the benevolent United States allowed the Philippines to become a democracy in 1946, after almost half a century of declaring that these backward people just weren't ready for it yet. Nevermind that Aguinaldo had started a democratic government that was defeated and dissolved by the American's almost half a century earlier.

"I have read carefully the Treaty of Paris, and I have seen that we do not intend to free, but to subjugate the people of the Philippines. We have gone there to conquer, not to redeem. It should, it seems to me, be our pleasure and duty to make those people free, and let them deal with their own domestic questions in their own way. And so I am an anti-imperialist. I am opposed to having the eagle put its talons on any other land"

Mark Twain, Oct 15, 1900

Wow, is that like when we won the war in Iraq and are fighting the people loyal to the former government? Sorry this is a pet peve with me. it is Filipino or Filipina when speaking of the people and Philippines when speaking of the nation. Not to make a dig just a correction to help with my OCD.

That is because the rightful owner of the land was Spain. You don't negotiate with Guam you negotiate with America. Its that silly international law thing.

You mean like the liberals of today saying that backwards people in Iraq and Afghanistan can't handle democorcy so we should not try? Same argument, same beliefs, different time. During WWII the Filipino people were loyal to America, we had promissed them thier freedom if they wanted it, and we gave it to them. We then spend billions protecting the nation of the Philippines to insure no other nation would mess with them till they could stand on thier own two feet. We are still protecting them today.