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Posted November 24, 2001

Vets

[Regarding Justin Raimondo's column of November 19, "Death and the Wall Street Journal":]

  1. Well done, Justin.

  2. "Blood and Guts" (the real one) said that no ##?!# ever won a war by dying for his country, you win the war by making the other #!!!# go out and die for his country. It's possible that Mr. Boot misunderstood General Patton's meaning.

  3. Rather than irony, I would say Mr. Varney used "soft sell" against Mr. Boot. I often wonder if a good strategy for pro-lifers would be to say, "Well, you know, killing babies really isn't very nice."

  4. Trauma might partially excuse Ms. Rabinowitz, but not Boot. After all, he wants dead Americans.

  5. There's a chapter in The Ball and the Cross (by GK Chesterton, for my money it's his best book) where the duelists meet someone like Mr. Boot.

  6. The Wall Street Journal is anti-immigration, I believe. So maybe they hired Boot as a strong statement against immigration.

~ Jim M.

Freedoms

Mr. Harry Browne, congratulations on an excellently-written article [of November 20] "I Love America." I am a 75-year-old former World War II U.S. Marine Corps combat machine gunner who fought the Japanese, in the Pacific, for 2 1/2 years, to preserve our Constitution, Bill Of Rights, and freedoms within those beloved documents.

You are absolutely right, the warmongers among us have abrogated their responsibilities as American citizens, and handed over to Bush, through loss of our freedoms, the right to determine the course of these deplorable attacks against noncombatants. What is very disconcerting to me is that the America people, with their rush to patriotism and revenge do not realize that Bush doesn't really care about Osama. All of this "war" jingo is a smoke screen for the real reason for "Get Osama dead or alive," and that is -- oil.

Bush, his father, Cheney, Rice, and the oil conglomerate are willing to put on, for Americans, the charade of defeating Terrorism when what they really want is the oil pipeline, so they can all get richer and more powerful. One final thought: if Osama, (assuming he perpetrated Sept. 11, and the jury, in my opinion, is still out on that one) is a terrorist because he killed innocent people, what is Bush, with his collateral damage? Is he too a terrorist? Continue your good reporting.

~ Albert M.

Vets

[Regarding Justin Raimondo's column of November 19, "Death and the Wall Street Journal":]

Raimondo is quite right to lambaste those idiots at the Wall Street Journal. But this is utter nonsense:

"Boot wants to see 'blood and guts' and won't be satisfied with anything less. Now, one might expect to see this coming out of some grizzled old General, a vet who's seen hand-to-hand combat, in any case someone with military experience."

I've got nearly two years of combat experience and I'm damned if I ever want to see another casualty! And I don't know of anyone who has been in combat who does. We are peaceful people -- I can take an insult better than most, and better I suspect, than Justin himself! Because I know where violence leads. I'm good at it, still have the talent, and get sick when I think about it.

Trust me Justin -- vets come in many flavors, just like everyone else. But I've yet to meet one who thought friendly casualties are a good idea. We leave that sort of insanity to the mainstream press!

~ Michael Peirce

Out Now

[Regarding "Get Our Boys Out Now," the column of November 19, by "Emmanuel Goldstein":]

What I find ironic regarding the title of your November 19, 2001 article is this: I don't think you could get them to come out. It seems clear to me from all I have seen and heard regarding our armed forces, that they want to be there. Good luck.

~ Samantha V.

Kicks

[Regarding Justin Raimondo's column of November 19, "Death and the Wall Street Journal":]

I sense the same eagerness for getting into action here in Denmark. Some of the political parties were eager (this is election time) to declare their willingness to send heavily armed Danish soldiers to Afghanistan. I think that once you have gotten some heightened level of adrenaline, you simply must have some kicks.

~ Jorgen C.

Indiana Fan

Thanks for your columns, Justin; they are an education for me. I voted for Pat and live in Indiana.

~ John R.

Moral Superiority of the Japanese

Love ... [Justin Raimondo's] column.

Regarding your interesting columns in August on Japan, good stuff.

Just one word of caution, I definitely do critique Japanese politics through the lens of US imperialism. But that doesn't excuse the fact that people in Tokyo drive like selfish morons, or that they spit on the street and drive and behave very selfishly in public (atomized by capitalism and selfish consumerism). But, yes, street crime of other sorts is vastly less than in the US, and that is welcome. But let's disabuse ourselves of any sort of moral superiority of the Japanese -- that is total bullsh*t.

Also let's not forget that Japanese corporations are among the world's most rapacious and environmentally destructive....

Having said all that, yes, the Japanese are just people, as are Americans. Let's all just get along!

~ Richard B. Wilcox, Japan

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