Kane Hall packed for Tariq Ali speech

Kane Hall overflowed with people Friday night, a mostly older crowd waiting to hear Tariq Ali. The Pakistani political commentator and world historian spoke about political and cultural encounters between the West and the rest of the world.

The lecture, titled "Resistance and Empire," focused on the U.S. actions in Iraq and the role of dissent in modern politics. It was followed by a signing of Ali's most recent book, Bush in Babylon: The Recolonisation of Iraq.

Speaking without notes, Ali -- an avid war protestor -- delivered a passionate appeal to the crowd to continually exercise the right of dissent.

"I urge you don't give up, even through bad times. You are citizens of the world's only empire," Ali said. "I came from a long way across the water to tell you that we are with you."

Ali further stated that dissent is important to the future of the world and country, and must be understood in order to grow.

"The way capitalist politics is functioning," Ali told the BBC, "is increasingly authoritarian, designed not to wipe out, perhaps, but completely to marginalize dissenting voices."

Ali also criticized the administration of President George W. Bush, sarcastically calling Bush a "great-thinker president" and comparing him to Steve McQueen in the movie The Great Escape. After the resulting laughter subsided, Ali grew serious as he analyzed U.S. involvement in Iraq.

According to Ali, U.S. occupation of Iraq is creating a strong anti-U.S. sentiment in that country, bolstering more support for Saddam Hussein. The only way for a dictatorship to be successfully toppled, he said, is by its own people.

"The solution is to get out quick," Ali said, to wild applause. "The longer [the United States] stays, the more difficult it will get. More Americans and Iraqis will die unnecessarily."

Although the majority of his lecture addressed Iraq and dissent, Ali also discussed the continuing occupation of Palestine by Israel, as well as political resistance in Latin America and the oligarchy in Venezuela.

The lecture was presented by the Simpson Center for the Humanities and the Jackson School of International Studies at the UW.

Ali is the editor of the New Left Review, contributor to The Guardian and the London Review of Books, and the author of a dozen books, novels, plays and screenplays.