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Posted December 5, 2001
Capitalism
[Regarding Justin Raimondo's column of November 30, "The Oil Factor":]
In theory capitalism doesn't cause war? Haha. Yeah, true, and in theory Nazism may be a good form of daycare. I find it quite tiresome why you bother to defend capitalism at all since most of your columns and other postings on Antiwar.com show what an unreformably abominable system capitalism truly is.
And hey, it ain't fair to criticize Noam, since you offer no quote from him I strongly defend the fact that he has no such simplistic understanding of capitalism and the ruling class. Hear all his talks at www.alternativeradio.org.
Justin Raimondo replies:
I defend laissez-faire capitalism, not the state capitalism in force around the world. Furthermore, I would remind you, given your hyperbolic comparison of capitalism to Nazism, that the Nazi party in Germany was known as the National Socialist German Workers Party, and was explicitly anti-capitalism. For more on the blood kinship of these two branches of socialism, "scientific" Marxism and its "blood and soil" variant, see Friedrich Hayek's The Road to Serfdom and Socialism by Ludwig von Mises.
Pictures
First off, a heartfelt thank-you for this very precious service you provide through Antiwar.com.
My question was regarding pictures; it is currently very difficult to find pictures of events in Afghanistan that don't involve some type of American military hardware showing it's stuff. Do you know where I can find a pictorial archive of events during the war? Do you archive this material as well as the links to news and op-ed sources? If not, have you considered doing so?
Eric Garris replies:
We
do archive the articles. The previous weeks' links can
be found by clicking 
and 
at the bottom of our main page.
Most of the interesting photos are from the wire services (AP, Reuters, etc.). Most newspapers and outlets only archive photos for a matter of days or weeks because that is all they have paid the wire services for. For example, Yahoo and Excite have news photo sites that are quite extensive, but the photos only go back for a few weeks. Yahoo's site includes some advanced search capabilities. There are some additional limited resources on a number of newspapers and media outlets, but usually not very extensive. There are extensive government photo libraries available from the Department of Defense and virtually every other government department.
Republic Day
[Regarding Nebojsa Malic's column of November 29, "Republic Day":]
In this latest report on Yugoslavia, Mr. Malic talks about Tito expelling Serbs from Kosovo, and giving it to the Albanians. As a Serb from that region I have to say the following:
Most Serbs just sold their land for money and moved up north. Giving the Albanians the blame for this is not fair. For the last 50 years Serbs have chosen wrong leaders. Serbia should stop dealing with Russia and develop into the country our ancestors meant it to be – a democratic land, without these people that ruled for the last 50 years. Shortly said, we did it ourselves!
Nebojsa Malic replies:
If you read "Republic Day" carefully, you will see that I never accused Tito of "expelling Serbs" but merely "giving Albanians control of Kosovo," as the Yugoslav Communist Party intended since its Dresden Congress in 1928. Many Serbs did sell what property they were allowed to keep to the immigrating Albanians, but Serb refugees – who fled Kosovo during the German-Albanian occupation – were forbidden by the Communists to return. To say that the Serbs "chose the wrong leaders" in the past 50 years (what about before?), or to suggest that the right solution would simply be to "elect better men" is too simplistic, too naive. Furthermore, democracy itself might be a problem, rather than a solution.
Protest
It would be inspiring if you could report on any activity to protest war if there is any ... London? Paris? Canada? Heard on a talk show soon after 9/11 that some students somewhere did dare question what was going on – but it was just mentioned in passing. Seems like forums would be a good idea to organize somewhere – just raising issues and inviting debate – educational forums on the history of the region, what interests might be served by this war, how wars historically-speaking have been sold, Mennonite Church of the Brethren, McPherson, Kansas did organize just such a debate....
The "Backtalk" editor replies:
Antiwar.com
has linked to reports about some of the
larger or more interesting protests, and
will continue to do so. By clicking the
icon on the main page, you can learn about
protests and forums before they occur.
Interesting column about the real reasons for the US attack on Afghanistan.
Just would like to point out to you that the known oil reserves in the entire Caspian basin are not very big at all. Yes there is a large reserve of natural gas; however, not a very big reserve of oil.
Here is a link to a number of web sites that ... show the true reserves of oil and gas in the entire world. The Caspian contains a drop in the bucket compared to Saudi, Iraqi and Iranian oil reserves. Also, the known oil reserves of the world will be depleted in around a hundred years. Southeast Asia including China will be using more and more oil and gas over the next few decades. The US is also going to be using more and more oil and gas and so will the rest of the world.
Divide and Conquer
I see quite a bit of frustration in the opinion columns in this website regarding U.S. policy towards Israel. One gets the impression that the USA is being led by the nose by this ungrateful little state which, despite massive aid, frequently defies the will of the US and even attacks it, all supposedly because of the all-powerful Jewish Lobby. Isn't it true however that the original idea of Zionism back in the 1890s was to establish Israel as a Jewish colony to serve the interests of one or another of the Empires of Britain, Germany or Russia? And it's function as part of that empire would be to keep the natives (Arabs) in line? Certainly that was the idea of British colonial advocates of a Jewish state right on into the 1940s. I think Israel serves as a buffer and a destabalising force in the middle east for American imperialism, and occasional White House criticism is mainly for domestic propaganda. ("We're not imperialists.") The Holocaust is used as justification for this arrangement. I believe this fits into the old policy of divide and conquer, and if the US elites ever decided they didn't need Israel any more, they wouldn't give a poop about the Jewish lobby.
The Profile
How can any American argue against questioning, detention, indeed, incarceration of anyone who fits the now much-publicized profile? ...If you are or look Arab, if you are from or look like you are from an Arab or Islamic country, if you are or look to be male – and, then, that "age" factor demands we include all youths....
...We'll grab those Egyptian students over at Emory University. Then, there's that small number of grad students at Georgia State who clearly look Egyptian, or Moroccan, or – might be Sicilian, Italian, or even Slovene, Basque, or even Black Irish. But, so what?: They fit the "Profile!"
Knowing that the most-populous Muslim country is Indonesia and that there are Islamic militia there as well as in the Philippines ('course, according to China, we cannot, absolutely cannot trust those Uighurs), we need to ... demand that Ashcroft expand that "Profile" to include anyone of, ah, let's call it "oriental cast or hue." Then, there's that critical "male" component. We must fight the strict-constructionist in ourselves and understand that expansion of "male" is warranted. Testosterone-using female Olympiad athletes are at the top of our list, particularly ... those soccer players at USC. Next, let's reconsider that age factor – really, now, patriots: Who is too young?
~ Bill B.