Posted March 23, 2002

Unbelievably Good

I've written you before, criticizing . . . [Justin Raimondo's] work. Today, I have to tell you that your piece, "What Are We Fighting For?" is an awesome display of writing skill and truth. Sometimes, your stuff is unbelievably good. This article definitely belongs in that category. Your references at the end to God were very powerful, especially your Golden Calf analogy. If I may say so, please keep familiarizing yourself with the Bible. "You are not far from the Kingdom of God." That is not a dig, Justin, just an observation. Once again, congratulations for your amazing dedication to your craft. You perform it so well. The more I read your work, the more I tend to believe you're as good a journalist as there is today.

~ John M.

Zimbabwe Election

I would like to applaud John Laughland for enlightening us on the issue of election observers. Like he pointed out in his article, election observers from Norway and the Commonwealth came to Zimbabwe with a partisan view of events taking place in our country. It was 'the opposition should win the elections, or else they are not free and fair'. Indeed, this seemed to be the official view of the British government, if utterances by Tony Blair before the election are anything to go by. When the EU pulled out their election observers following the controversial booting out of their head of mission by the Zimbabwe government (I am not sorry for Schori), they funded the SADC observer mission who later produced an adverse report on the election process.

Most foreign governments are not recognising the election of President Mugabe to serve another term on the basis of reports from observers! But the people of this country made their choice, not the preferred choice of the West.

Christopher Montgomery, in his article "Zimbabwe: Whose Problem Is It Anyway?" . . . [wrote:]

"I started by saying that the coming into being of modern African states is the core sin in all this -- decolonisation, whatever one makes of colonization, is the great liberal crime against humanity of the twentieth century."

With due respect, I think this is an insult on the intelligence and integrity of the people of Zimbabwe and other former colonies of Europe.

Rep. Ron Paul asks a very poignant question: Why are we meddling in the Ukraine? Indeed, why is the West meddling everywhere else?

~ Munjira Mutambwa, Zimbabwe

Christopher Montgomery replies:

It's an insult to the men who, in ever country, without exception, have governed post-colonial Africa. A bigger bunch of squalid thugs you couldn't hope to meet. I'm sorry if this seems an indictment of the people of Africa -- it's not, they've had precious little to do with governing Africa since independence -- but I really can't say I'm proud that we foisted all the 'wonderful' institutions of Western statehood on that lucky continent, and then left them in the hands of men like Robert Mugabe.

Vardarska

[Regarding Christopher Deliso's guest column of March 21, "Macedonia a nation of ingrates":]

In my response I will refer to "Macedonia" as Vardarska which was the original name of the region in the Kingdom of Yugoslavia before Tito and his Communist bureaucracy decided to rename it. (Since you use the term "Macedonia" so much, can you . . . tell me if there is a meaning for this word in any Slavic language?)

The Vardarska bureaucracy and their cause was the beloved one of the NGOs, "crisis groups" and the rest from 1991-2001. There were countless praisings in the American newspapers about the peaceful secession of Vardarska from Yugoslavia and its wonderful treatment of the minorities (contrary to the disgusting Serbs). Also there was a smear campaign against Greece (mostly paid by the Philanthropist who makes money from his donations): that [Greece] was threatening the poor Vardarscans and did not recognize their stolen national identity and name (Greece was called the "bully of the Balkans" by the British Spectator.) But nobody can make a fair deal with the mafia or the devil (or the Empire, which is probably both). Unfortunately for the Vardarscans, the Albanians hired better politicians in Washington, better PR firms, and, after using Vardarska to affirm their position in Kosovo and stub Yugoslavia, they finally turned against it. I will cry neither for the communist bureaucracy of Vardarsca nor for its "national identity". But I will cry for the people who suffer and are forced to lose their homes and lives for the stupidity of their leaders. The people of Vardarsca have common blood with Serbs, Bulgarians and Greeks and they should ally with them. Instead they tried to be loyal servants of the Empire but the Albanians scored better. (Experience does matter.)

~ Elias Polatidis Serres, Macedonia, Greece

Draft Dobbs

On March 20, the Lou Dobbs show on CNN featured an interview with Charles Moskos, an advocate of a renewed draft. I've emailed CNN asking when they planned to feature an opponent of another draft on the Dobbs show.

I think CNN should hear from more people and organizations asking for fairness and editorial balance, not to mention journalistic integrity.

Therefore, I hope you will email CNN and then pass the word on to your friends and allies.

~ Murray Polner

Natural State of Mankind

"Nobody Does It Better." Remember that old Carly Simon song? Well, that applies to you guys. While I find spies and geopolitics to be fine, light-hearted entertainment as James Bond movies, I am much less enthusiastic about those things in the real world. So I am responding to your appeal for support with a modest contribution of my own. Along with Joseph Sobran and Lew Rockwell, Justin Raimando is one of the few columnists I read religiously -- not because he validates my own views, but because he has something important and different to say. If I want to know what the Establishment wants me to think, I can pick from a smorgasbord of buffoons parroting the Official Line. If I want to know what is true and what to believe, I rely on places like Antiwar.com. Please keep up the good work. We who still believe that peace, not war, is the natural state of mankind need you now more than ever.

~ David Bardallis, Midland, Michigan

A Jungian Point of View

Let me begin by saying that as a Canadian how much I love the American people. Many Americans are my personal friends and I consider them among the most generous, funny and giving people that I've come across. Witnessing the American government's overreaching hubris and empire expansionism is a very painful experience for me and the resulting picture is as ugly as a mental patient during a psychotic episode. Why is it that everyone else in the world can see America's dark shadow so easily but not America herself? Let's examine this question from a Jungian point of view.

There is a part of America's collective unconscious that has a frequent and sometimes disturbing effect on her ego. This is a collection of inferiorities known as the shadow. The shadow is emotional and somewhat possessive in nature and thus becomes the part of America's psyche most vulnerable to external or foreign control. The media plays on this fact by issuing buzzword disinformation and filtered images and dispensing them 24/7 like so much toilet paper. On this lower level of personality with its uncontrolled emotions she more or less behaves like a primitive who is not only the passive victim of her affects but also singularly incapable of moral judgments. No matter how obvious it may be to the neutral observer that much of the so-called "terrorist enemy" is a matter of projections, there is little hope that the subject will perceive this herself. It is tragic to see how blatantly America's interventionist policies bungle her own life and the lives of others, yet America is totally incapable of seeing how much the whole tragedy originates in herself, and how she continually feeds it and keeps it going. Not consciously of course because it is the unconscious factor which spins the illusions that veil her world and what is being spun is a cocoon, which in the end will completely envelope her. America must become conscious of . . . the dark aspects of her personality. She must confront her shadow because without doing so the planet is in grave danger.

~ Kenneth Williams