|
|||||||||
Posted October 13, 2001
Complaint
[Regarding Justin Raimondo's column of October, 5, "Ku Klux Coulter":]
As usual loudmouth Raimondo shoots his mouth off before thinking. Wahhabi Muslims are a minority in Iraq, an a minuscule group in Syria, and nonexistent in Iran. My article specifically said Saudi Arabia and Wahhabism are more of a threat than Iran or Libya. Millions of Muslims agree with me about Wahhabism.
As
if it matters. Nobody cares what Raimondo writes
now.
Justin Raimondo replies:
Oh
please, give us all a break, and quit the hypocrisy.
First off, if no one is listening to me, why
bother whining? Secondly, your
piece in the Weekly Standard was
interesting, as I acknowledge in today’s column,
but seriously flawed because it was basically
written as agitprop for the Muslim fundamentalist
regime of President Alija Izetbegovic of Bosnia.
You wrote:
"Many strategists in Western capitals ask where we will find Muslims prepared to stand by the West. One tested Muslim statesman who is widely respected, even idolized, in the Islamic world is the wartime president of Bosnia-Herzegovina, Alija Izetbegovic. A learned and pious Muslim who was imprisoned for his faith by Tito’s Communist regime, Izetbegovic led the fight for the survival of Bosnian Islam. He is an authentic warrior in a legitimate jihad."
A legitimate jihad? Oh, I get it: you mean NATO’s war to dismember Yugoslavia and hand the region over to the Kosovo “Liberation” Army -- which subsequently ethnically cleansed Kosovo of Serbs and set about conquering Macedonia. As for the “learned and pious” Izetbegovic: under his regime, Bosnia became a haven for Islamic extremists worldwide, and Osama bin Laden’s operatives were welcomed with open arms. Indeed, one of the hijackers had a Bosnian passport: the Los Angeles Times recently reported that "Terrorists Use Bosnia as a Base and Sanctuary," and just this past week a Bin Laden operative was arrested in Zenica. Chris Deliso has also reported extensively on the Bosnian-fundamentalist-Bin Laden connection, one that has been maintained and nurtured by Izetbegovic and his government for many years. Who do you’re think you’re kidding with your song-&-dance about Izetbegovic the "moderate"? Are we talking about the same Alija Izetbegovic who authored a little booklet called The Islamic Declaration, which bluntly stated that "there can be neither peace nor coexistence between the Islamic faith and non-Islamic social and political institutions"? Another gem from his magnum opus: "The Islamic movement must and can, take over political power as soon as it is morally and numerically so strong that it can not only destroy the existing non-Islamic power, but also to build up a new Islamic one." His model for Bosnia was Pakistan (before the US-supported military coup). Yeah, I’ll just bet they "idolize" him in the Islamic world -- while Izetbegovic may not be a Wahabi, he and Mullah Omar seem to have a lot in common.
It’s amazing, really, how many ex-Trotskyists turn up in the pages of the Weekly Standard. Although I suppose they pay better than Workers Vanguard. From a holy war against capitalism to a more “legitimate” jihad against the Christian Serbs, one thing you can say about Stephen Schwartz: he has always been in the vanguard of the misguided.
Schwartz has come a long way since his days as "Comrade Sandalio" – publisher and editor of The Alarm, "left-communist" organ of the Fomento Obrero Revolucionario Organizing Committee in the United States (FOCUS). (Follow that last link for a complete – and hilarious -- synopsis of Schwartz’s checkered past.) Now he writes for The Spectator and the Weekly Standard – but he’s still a flake. In 1987, Schwartz was arrested for scribbling graffiti on a wall in San Francisco’s North Beach district. As the San Francisco Examiner [May 6, 1987] amusingly described the incident:
"When "New Age Rightist" Stephen Schwartz discovered graffiti calling him "the philosophical whore of North Beach," the former Trotskyite turned red with rage. He uncapped his felt-tipped pen and was printing a reply to the scurrilous scribblings when he was busted by Mayor Feinstein's anti-graffiti police squad on a charge of malicious mischief, defacing the wall of a Vallejo Street construction site. Schwartz...has demanded a trial to exonerate his exercise of free speech.
"’I was just going to answer that I was not the philosophical whore of North Beach,’ said Schwartz, 37."
As Bette Davis put it in Whatever Happened to Baby Jane: "But ya are, Blanche, ya are!"
Chinese Power
[Regarding Sascha Matuszak's column of October 9, "Afghanistan and Chinese Power":]
Dear Ms. Matuszak,
I
don't know what planet you are living on, but
when you said the following I almost fell off
my chair:
"China's stance has not changed since 9/11:
1)
against any and all forms of terrorism
2) against the killing of innocents
3) in support of a strong UN role..."
I can understand #3, because the Communists want to use their influence and vote in the UN to do their bidding.
And I might accept #1, but the Communists are terrorists themselves. They terrorize their own people. The Communist Chinese have killed 30-60 million of the Chinese people and over 1 million Tibetans.
But #2 is totally absurd. As I mentioned before, the Communist Chinese have killed over 30 million people. According to Harry Wu, they have thousands of slave labor camps right now with millions of Chinese enslaved there to make the cheap goods that are sold in America and elsewhere.
How can you say that Communist China's stance is against the killing of innocents?
Maybe you have been in Communist China too long.
Sascha Matuszak replies:
I meant their stance concerning the war in Afghanistan. I have been in Communist China too long -- I am starting to walk around with a chip on my shoulder and an ugly gleam in my eye. Everything I do is subject to governmental scrutiny -- and I am considered an"honored guest." Of course I am aware of the tyranny of the CCP. But, again, the article dealt with Afghanistan, not the Cultural Revolution or the famines of the '50s or the persecution of any and everybody or the 2000+ executions in the past few months etc.
By the way, Sascha is a fella's name. As in Mr. Matuszak.
Ground Zero
Scott McConnell is an excellent writer. His arguments are very well thought out, courageous, rational and logical.
Power By Default
[Regarding Sascha Matuszak's column of October 9, "Afghanistan and Chinese Power":]
I agree that China could very well end up a major power after this whole Central Asian fiasco is over, but perhaps not quite the way you describe. (I dislike the word "superpower." It sounds like "supermodel." Both words are impossible to define.)
I
think China could end up being very important
simply by doing what it has always done best:
staying out of international politics and regional
conflicts that do not involve it directly. China
is in about the same position politically the
United States was in before World Wars I and
II. It is mainly concerned with it's own backyard,
and appears to prefer to keep it that way.
If this Afghanistan adventure turns into a much much wider conflict, which it seems it is almost certain to do, it could prove to be just as expensive and devastating to the "powers that be" as the two world wars were to Europe, the Middle East and Russia. If China can manage not to be drawn in, at least until the very end, it may end up the most powerful in the region by default -- the same way the US inherited all her current oil rights after World War II from a decimated British Empire.
This strategy can work for countries other than China. Imagine a post World War III world dominated by, say, China, Japan, and Brazil.
Sascha Matuszak replies:
I agree that China will gain the most by doing what it seems they prefer to do concerning international politics: keeping to themselves and issuing the most cautious of statements.
I think what may happen is a showdown between the US and the PRC in Central Asia. I can't imagine the US allowing China to control the region and I also cannot imagine a US so severely weakened by the Taliban (and friends) that China can just slip in.
Present China and pre-World War II USA are comparable (isolationist -- growing nationalism) but the PRC is nowhere near as strong or stable as the US was -- so we'll see.
Refreshing and Invigorating
I discovered Antiwar.com by chance on Sept. 12 during a desperate Internet search to find someone else in the English-speaking world willing to take a stand against the retributionist insanity prevailing in Washington. During the past month, the broad spectrum of responsible, first-rate journalism that Antiwar.com carries has proven a valuable window on the world, and the solid anti-War Party stance of its commentators has been refreshing and invigorating (whether one agrees with their politics or not). Many of the articles (and your URL) have been forwarded to my friends and provoked thought and discussion that might not have occurred otherwise.
Please, please keep the site going. For us expats it's a godsend.
Antiwar Forum
Where
is your message board/forum?
~ Luc
The "Backtalk" editor replies:
Here: http://clubs.yahoo.com/clubs/antiwarcom.