Posted March 22, 2002

Action and Prayer

Some will probably giggle or roll their eyes at atheist Justin Raimondo's call on God to restore peace, dismissing it as a melodramatic gesture. Others might grit their teeth, thinking that such a surprising passage is nothing more than a necessary soliloquy near the climax of the tragedy of humanity, a plea to a God who doesn't exist. I have spent the last half hour reading that passage and meditating on it. Raimondo, you are right to pray for God's intervention, and I commend you for your heroic efforts on the ground. Action and prayer: we need both! Remember that seemingly inevitable wars have been averted in the past, and let us work towards and pray for such an unthinkable peace today.

~ James A., Los Angeles

Comments Regarding God

As usual, I found Justin's column to be most insightful and interesting.

However, his comments regarding God seemed a bit bizarre. Certainly, I can understand his frustration regarding the low priority that the antiwar message is receiving. Still, I'm not sure that being quasi-offensive about God is helping to get his message out. Far be it from me to suggest that his belief in God (or lack thereof) is an issue. It just seems less likely that his column will be listened to by "God-fearing" folks if he takes pot shots at their beliefs.

On another note, I think that Justin misunderstands God's role in our lives. And, before you jump to conclusions, I'm not a card-carrying Christian -- far from it. God does exist, but not as the keeper of man. I'm quite certain that God has no opinion when it comes to how we deal with foreign policy. God is not angry at us for our choices. We are the ones making the choices here. It's God's job to continue providing us the ability to make choices -- whether we think they are "good" or "bad" is not the issue.

Imperialism is definitely a course we are steadily progressing on. Change will not come about solely through lecturing and bell-ringing. Certainly, those actions may be a catalyst for change -- as people made aware of the issues may choose to change their behavior. Our societal problems are not caused by a nefarious "they." They is us. Change will only come about in our society as each of us takes personal responsibility for the situation as it now stands. Once such responsibility is owned, we are empowered to make the choices necessary to secure lasting peace and prosperity. Peace is a personal thing -- not a policy decision. World peace will only come as we reach inner peace individually.

Our country is the most powerful in the world. We continually advance ourselves at the expense of "lesser" nations. This is the root of our perceived need for imperialism. We choose to enforce our will militarily because to treat other countries with fairness and compassion would undermine our very existence as a superpower. Yet, it is only through our willingness to give up "superpower" status that true international security will be reached. We should strive to help the world's people, not exploit them. We should seek understanding with our brothers in "lesser" nations. We should reach out to them and embrace them. We should apologize for our past behavior and make amends, before it's too late. Our yoke will not last forever. Sooner or later, the world's people will rise up against us.

I've recently donated $150 to your cause. I hope that you'll be around for a long while still. Don't give up hope. Thanks for being an excellent bell-ringer!

~ Steve P., Texas

World War

I keep seeing references (including Justin's today [March 20]) to World War IV. When the hell was World War III? Did I sleep through it? Looking forward to your response if you get a chance.

~ David W.

Wag the Dog

In the movie Wag the Dog the "producers," namely Dustin Hoffman and Robert DeNiro, decide to spice up their little phony war in Albania by introducing an American "hero," namely a serial rapist played by Woody Harrelson, picked out to play a role as a POW who fights his way to freedom to build support for the war and for the scandal-tarred President who ordered it.

Now we have a situation, in our war against terrorism, where the lines of fantasy and reality intersect and blur with each other to create this: a U.S. F-16 pilot, Scott Speicher, supposedly killed during Gulf War, now being reclassified from KIA to POW in Iraq after an 11 year period.

After trying and failing to convince the public that Iraq was behind the Sept. 11 attack and the anthrax scare and is in cahoots with Osama bin-Laden, what better way to start a war than with a little hostage crisis. Who could resist bombing the bejesus out of Iraq when they are holding an American POW.

This won't be like Vietnam, we won't leave our boys behind right? This is so blatantly obvious a pretext to war, it makes one want to gag. Everyone knows the US is going to go to war with Iraq, everyone knows it's a done deal, why does the Empire have to dream up Hollywood scenarios to do it always does, run roughshod over the American public and the Constitution?

~ Sean Scallon, Wisconsin

Ghastly Screech

The ellipse is mine in the following quote from a Buckley letter promoting The National Review, and of course alters WFB's meaning some. Even so, said altered phrase may reflect an unconscious impulse from days when the man still had a soul, and is obviously more accurate than what he actually wrote. It reads: "At National Review, we...emit a ghastly one-note screech of dreary noise, endlessly agreeing with [our]selves and repeating the same information, drenched in the same orthodox opinions, over and over again."

Meantime, much appreciate Raimondo's near-heroic energy, but especially his take on Tolkien, and the recently expressed hopes that history has a God after all, and a jealous One.

~ Guido S.

Beacon

First off, great work, your site has been an inspiration. I've always . . . been disgusted by the ridiculous foreign policy of our country, but I didn't find your site until shortly after 9-11. Your website immediately became a beacon of hope, a source I could trust, to tell it like it is, from as many viewpoints as possible. I hope you thrive and continue to grow, and you may (or may not) be interested to know that I've started an anti-war sleeper cell of my own, right here at www.scumm.net/brokefolk. Used to be a vehicle for my punk rock music, now it's a vehicle for my political ranting (and links, frequently updated).

Politically, I was an active Nader raider (guess that makes me a leftist), hate the two major political parties, protested at the DNC, dislike commies but hate anarchists even more (f*ckin' agitators, man). Your Libertarian ideas really resonate with me, though I'm sure we disagree on plenty about how this country should be run, a common dilemma brings us together.

I was just a dumb kid when the first Gulf war broke out, I remember taking pleasure in the news stories of how inept Saddam's army was, how superior our army was -- I take little pleasure in damage reports in Afghanistan nowadays.

I knew a bit about our involvement in Kosovo & Serbia, at least, why we were really there (oil!), but your site's been great for further educating me on that "humanitarian intervention." The one writer you have, who covers the Balkans, is excellent -- I have a Serbian-American friend who was amazed how much I knew about what's happening back home.

...I know you get plenty of hate-mail from them hot-heads out there -- f*ck 'em -- but what you're doing is good for all of humanity (even those sh*theads), don't forget that.

~ Ad Damn