Tariq Ali has risen from the grave like the politically undead to utter a pronouncement on the slaughter of civilians in Syria. Well not quite. In a criticism of the Kurdish alliance with the US coalition, he ends with this sentence: “Russia is in Syria to protect its own interests & military bases. However, sitting here in London I must bow before the judgement of progressive forces in the region as to the supremely exceptional circumstances forcing them to accept Russian support to stem the tide of absolute darkness, unimaginable bloodbaths as well as Israeli, US & Turkish jackboots. The exceptional circumstances of fighting the Nazis comes to mind.” Does a man so confused, so compromised & corrupt, so dead wrong about who represents progressive & who fascist in Syria get to keep his éminence grise status rather than get consigned to irrelevance? Isn’t that carrying sycophancy too damn far?