] As one watches protest marches, antiwar advertising and ] local arts events, one has to wonder whether the left has ] really weighed the moral issues posed by the horrors of ] Saddam's regime -- weighed life by life the repression of ] the 24 million Iraqis who live in a ruthless police ] state, not to mention the thousands or tens of thousands ] who have been imprisoned without trial, tortured, exiled ] or killed. It sometimes seems that the left is so averse ] to war, especially war waged by America, that it is ] prepared to turn a blind eye to even the most ghastly ] realities. Perhaps it is because the left no longer sees ] these realities that its antiwar arguments tend to ] justify continuation of the status quo. ] ] That, too, is a form of paralysis. But it is emblematic ] of an evolution in leftist values that has occurred so ] gradually over a period of decades that the profound ] nature of the shift is often not noticed. Today, the ] political counterculture and the antiwar movement in the ] West often seem to be one and the same. Instead of ] fighting fascists or other genocidal tyrants as it might ] have during the Spanish Civil War or World War II or even ] during the Central American conflicts of the 1980s, the ] modern left fights war; because the United States is the ] world's most significant military agent, and because it ] has so often used military power to support ] anti-democratic governments, the left understandably fights the ]United States. Such opposition to war is reflexive, and too often ]outweighs its outrage on behalf of the oppressed. Its capacity for ]the kind of muscular empathy that leads to action has atrophied, ]leaving only the possibility of reaction, of opposition. The ]antiwar left does not mount massive protests against China, ]Pakistan or Egypt. Millions do not pour into the streets on behalf ]of the student-led democracy movement in Iran. And Saddam Hussein ]and Osama bin Laden are not angrily compared to Hitler -- that ]treatment is more often reserved for George W. Bush. Salon.com | See no evil |