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Posted November 9, 2001
Our 'Civilized' Population
[Regarding Alan Bock's column of November 7, "Defending Peacetime"]
Thank you for the thoughtful column, as educational as usual with your column. I would like to note the parallels between what you said today and the address, made during the height of the Russo-Japanese War in 1906, by William James to an antiwar audience.
I haven't got the text all ready to attach to this email, but the address is contained in the recently-published Library of America edition of James's works. Both of you note that war is thrilling for a large part of our "civilized" population, and that antiwar activists would be kidding themselves to ignore this. James goes on to prescribe suggestions for actions by antiwar activists in the light of this phenomenon.
Opium
I wonder why we aren't bombing opium poppy fields if this is Afghanistan's main economic avenue?
Eric Garris replies:
Because over 80% of the Afghan opium fields are controlled by the Northern Alliance (our allies).
Armageddon
[Regarding Justin Raimondo's column of November 2, "Anthrax on My Mind":]
Nicely done. I think the end of his article points to the need to examine the dispensationalist beliefs about Armageddon in wake of anthrax attacks in more detail.
It is pretty frightening how many people in this group believe that if supporting Israel will help bring about Armageddon and the Rapture, then you are doing God's will.... They also believe that they are called to always support Israel or else receive a curse from God....
They are looking forward to the Rapture with feverish intensity. They can't wait. And because of this, I don't think they will wait and will encourage whatever policies in the US to promote the final war rather than prevent it.
Working Perfectly
...I
am
a
ordinary
young
man
(24
years
old)
of
China.
After
looking
at
the
the
website
produced
by
all
of
you,
I
want
to
express
my
regards
to
you
from
the
bottom
of
my
heart.
I
want
to
say
all
of
you
are
working
perfectly.
I
believe
that
many
people
would
learn
a
lot
from
what
they
saw
on
Antiwar.com.
And
this
website
can
bring
people
of
different
ethnic
groups
or
different
areas
not
only
communication
with
each
other
...
but,
more
important,
tolerance
of
each
other.
My
favorite
column
is
"An
American
In
China".
7 Percent?
Since I find myself one of the 7(?) percent against this war, I have been asked to explain what I would do instead. ...Here are a few of my thoughts:
-
Pull our U.S. troops out of Saudi Arabia -- remove the source of the irritation for many Arabs and reduce the burden on taxpayers. The US maintains about 20,000 servicemen in Saudi Arabia. If 20,000 Chinese soldiers were in the US, how many Americans would accept this?
-
The US should back out of Iraq. ...Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis have died as a result of food and medicine shortages as a result of U.N. sanctions.
-
Quit supporting Israel.... If Israel is going to attack Palestinians, then it and not the US should be blamed for their choices.
-
Next, I would peacefully acquire Osama Bin Laden using ... proof, if such proof exists, to convince the Afghanistan government to extradite him. If the Afghanistan government refuses to give him up after being provided information, I would put more pressure on the Afghanistan government through other peaceful means, including other nations and appeal to the UN if necessary. If all options have been tried unsuccessfully, then limited, specific force should be applied.
'Keeping It Real'
I hope you continue to shed light on the events that we are not able to see from our televisions, radio or newspaper. I just hate the fact that the government wants our dollars but doesn't want to give us the information we really need. The warmongers in this country appear to be blind to all the real issues of this war. You guys are really keeping it real and for all those that want the war, go fight it yourself. I don't see the point of supporting a war that won't solve anything.
Cowards
Mr. Bock's piece ["Defending Peacetime," November 7] is quite eloquent and accurate in exposing the cowards who delight in the deaths of people they don't know and aren't related to. ...I suspect, however, that this "new war" will be something really "new" to them. This time around it is almost certain that casualties will include not only family and friends of the war-hawks, but many of them as well. Perhaps this is what is required to achieve "real" civilization by opening the eyes of the foolish and the greedy who profit from war.
~ Jacob S.