Pat wrote, in her follow-up to a post I admired so much I've filed it for future reference:
I guess Boucher and Nation run the risk of possibly having their audience see the tactics of say the IRA as legitimate political actions, no less legitimate than Blake's.
Well, some did, you know.
In the original:
(A big aside here: This move, for any of you American lefties out there, seems to echo the old Communist Party USA's late 1930's and early 1940's "popular front against fascism" in which the American Communists -- who were the only real organized force actively fighting white racism on the streets as well as in the courts -- actively supported American National interests during the war and even adopted patriotic rhetoric.
Suppose you could also cite the Suffragettes, most of whom abandoned their "war" on the British government to support the war against Germany and her allies. But not all (eg Sylvia Pankhurst, who is often portrayed as more "pure" in her commitments).
Er... somehow this brings me to Animals, not a subject I think of very often without brute force from Una... I've always been rather puzzled by Justin's remark about the Galactic war: "That war was a terrible, terrible mistake." Mistake by whom? It doesn't sound as if Justin means "only an immense cockup could have left us in such danger" - I think it's the policy he's criticising. Was there a faction which favoured surrender to the Andromedans, or thought there was a genuine possibility of a negotiated settlement? Blake and co never even contemplate an option other than fighting back against the alien invasion.
Harriet