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Posted November 27, 2001
Bubbling Up
For those who, like myself, appreciated [Scott McConnell's column of October 30] ... "The Strategic Withdrawal Option," I would like to draw your attention to an editorial posted on Salon.com. The editorial is by Michael Smith and has the title "A born again isolationist." Its view is strikingly similar to the one in "Option." Clearly the idea of a strategic and thoughtful isolationism is bubbling up around the web. Can we take advantage of this?
A Messianic Vehicle for Lofty Aspirations
[Regarding Justin Raimondo's column of November 21, "A Grade-B War Movie":]
...Here in Texas, a conservative bastion, us nasty old liberals at the ACLU and Middle Eastern community groups have been the only folks active on these civil liberties issues....
If
. . . anybody . . . knows Texas conservatives who want
to help us fight off the expansion of state and local
wiretapping authority and the reinstatement of a homegrown
COINTELPRO under the auspices of ex-CIA agent and Lt.
Governor candidate David Dewhurst's political steamroller,
the "Texas Homeland Security Task Force," we
need all the help we can get.
...I think your antiwar page is brilliant, as are for
the most part Mr. Raimondo's missives. I find that . .
. I agree frequently with the libertarian and far right....
Indeed, as disgusted as I am with the Democrats on criminal
justice issues and the Drug War, it would not be hard
for me to convert to libertarianism were it not for two
issues: a) anti-immigration and anti-foreign aid positions
such as Eagle Forum's, and b) an inability to recognize
that free markets aren't universally applicable, that
"market failure" occurs because certain goods
like roads, electricity, health care, etc. are "public
goods," in the Keynesian term, that are not equitably
produced relying solely on market forces. If it were possible
to overcome these two barriers, I think that Rothbard-style
libertarians and liberal civil libertarians have a lot
in common. Indeed, there is fodder there for a politic
that redefines left and right entirely and renders meaningless
many of the old distinctions. Antiwar.com is an excellent
attempt to develop a messianic vehicle for such lofty
aspirations -- left and right opposition to war. I applaud
you and your work.
~ Scott Henson, ACLU of Texas Police Accountability Project
Against War
It's disgraceful for U.S. Government to now ask other nations to donate money for the repair of the annihilated Afghanistan. The US Government did it and they are responsible for the reconstruction of this poor country.
The
US Government has been cheating its people
as well as the world. Just think how many
civilians they have killed since World
War II ended!
The US Government is producing hatred
and making more enemies, even within the
United States. Hatred is a fatal weapon
that can even kill the good nature of
a human being, not to mention physical
bodies....
I hope more articles written to unveil
the hypocrisy of this government! We are
all against war; any kind of war with
any excuses!
~ D.L., China
Full Support
I can not belive that you really support terrorism and wish to see it continue everywhere. You say we should all do nothing but sit back and let these terrorist mureder us by the thousands. i think that you and your kind are sick and in desperate need of mental therepy. If theere are no severe consequences for these terrorist they will feel and rightly so that their murdorous behavior is acceptable , and tolarble. and will continue to murder more of innocent people just trying to live our lives. i fully support all gov'ts tyhat have joined the U.S.A in bringing those consequences to these criminals. So please get some help.
Ramadan
I've appreciated the presence of Antiwar.com these past weeks.
I'm writing to send you the reference to a website, I thought you might be interested to know that there's a movement among Christian, Jewish, and other Americans to "act in the spirit of Ramadan" and fast during Ramadan as a gesture of solidarity. I haven't seen any mention of this action in the media at all, but I thought it deserved to be known.
Disenfranchised
You make sense but you will never be in a position to make any difference. That is unfortunate and you are probably a true American but true Americans lose and that is not a cop out either -- it is an unfortunate fact. We are disenfranchised.
Destabilization
The primary task of a government is to defend its citizens. The government our leaders currently control can only do two things successfully. First, it can exponentially improve the sieve-like border. Second, it can ease foreign hatred by cutting hypocritical and diabolical political affiliations.
So far, our current regime is doing neither. What it is doing will cause further destabilization of security; it is reactively enacting more unconstitutional laws, implementing more bureaucracy, and stripping our freedoms one by one. In the burgeoning cosmopolitan and technologically driven world we live in, government actions have less and less effectiveness. If one considers the ease in which the terrorists destroyed thousands of lives and billions in property, one must also consider the nearly infinite other ways similar acts can occur. Government can try, but it will not eradicate terrorism.
What it can do is keep our beautiful country sovereign, get out of foreign disputes originating centuries ago, and let its citizens be free to creatively stamp out whatever angst remains between our borders. These ideas are not unique: They are what our country was founded on.
~ Kevin G.