Posted September 2, 2002

A Classic Justin Prediction

"Can anyone doubt that 'a quarrel among faraway peoples about whom we know nothing' in that tumultuous region will suddenly involve 'vital' US 'national interests'?" - From Dubya Dubya Dubya Dot Warmonger Dot Com

A most excellent prediction, Justin. Is the fact that the attack actually hit a lot closer to home responsible for the surprising lack of probing the obvious?

The enemy image quickly loses its usefulness once the enemy is captured. Unless, of course, you think it is in the interest of the United States to actually capture Bin Laden. Would it be too left wing to believe that Al Qaeda was allowed to escape? Fact remains that, as soon as the US controlled Afghanistan (pipeline territory), the effort to capture Al Qaeda dwindled down to a minimal interest.

I don't blame puppet Bush. The guy can hardly read. But I do hold that the biggest criminal to ever serve in the White House is Darth Cheney. You think that's a heart beating in his chest? Can't you see the dark wheels turning? "Damn the elder Bush. The Iraq myth needs some fresh blood. My kingdom for another terrorist attack..."

~ A. Nagel

The Empire Cometh!

I read your articles every morning, whether to inform myself or to depress myself I still do not know, but it is heartening to hear voices say what I have been telling my students for the past 20 years: the Empire cometh!. It is now here and I don't feel any better for being proven right. Your efforts have, rightly I believe, concentrated in the latest onslaught against a culture which is different from that of the Empire, because this is the perception of all clear-thinking individuals. Yet it would prove just as important to notice what is happening in South America, where lackey governments are falling heads over heels to do the Empire's bidding. Including the proposed "diplomatic immunity" requested by the Bush administration for its troops. It seems incredible that, after all the hullabaloo raised by Carter and his Institute, this worthy has not loudly condemned such an initiative (if he has, his voice did not carry this far). People should remember what happened in places like Vietnam and Cambodia before accepting such initiatives. If your site started reporting on what happens here, things which CNN would not report, maybe a closer look would be paid to what our satraps, sorry, rulers do at the behest of the Empire.

Please keep up the reporting, it is probably the only way in which these "administrative excesses" can get reported.

~ Leonard Hussey, Lima, Peru.

Assistant webmaster/editor Jeremy Sapienza replies:

This isn't the first request for more Latin American coverage. Since it is one of my main duties to find news in the morning and the evenings, I'll try my best to comb through some of the Latin American papers more often than I usually do. If there are readers south of the border that have any suggestions for English language, Latin American news sites that have good coverage, please send me URLs!

Those Bulgar Macedonians

[In response to A Bulgar's letter of August 29]:

Debate about the Macedonian national identity may sound like fun now, for both Greeks and Bulgarians. Meanwhile, Macedonia is being butchered by the Empire and its Albanian proteges. What will happen when Albanians lay claim to northern Epirus ("Chameria"), or when a "Turkish Liberation Army" lays claim to parts of Bulgaria? And don't think it can't happen because of all the favors either country has done to the Empire. Macedonia was a vassal too, but that did its people little good. Instead of squabbling over who Alexander the Great was (as if it matters, 2400 years later!), everyone would be much better off trying to defend themselves from Imperial depredations.

~ Nebojsa Malic

Welcome to the Fascist Future

President Bush's advisors claim he can attack Iraq under authority granted by either of two active congressional resolutions. Many in Congress believe Bush needs congressional approval to attack Iraq. Congress should immediately vote to rescind the two questionable resolutions and replace them with a single joint resolution clearly stating Congress's power. If Bush vetoes that replacement resolution, then Americans can brace themselves for an attempt by Bush to establish a fascist state.

~ Joseph Boyett

Lies and Bullying in Gulf War I

It would be helpful if the media would revisit the events leading up to the First Gulf War especially when we keep hearing about the elder George Bush's talents in assembling a broad coalition for his invasion of Iraq. The truth is that many of those "supporting" his war were bribed or threatened to gain their "support." Syria, though on the State Department's list of terrorist states, was give a billion dollars; Egypt had their ten billion dollar indebtedness to us forgiven; others like Germany and Japan who attempted to avoid involvement, citing the neutrality provisions we had placed into their constitutions after the end of World War 2, were threatened to be restricted from the lucrative U.S. market if they did not at least contribute money to defray the costs of Mr. Bush's high-tech massacre. Others joined in merely because they knew they would be penalized if they did not. The strangest contribution from one of this group was when Norway dispatched an ice-breaking ship to the Persian Gulf. Many of the crew members were reported to have suffered heat stroke. And there was no attempt to hide the methods the Bush gang used as when Secretary of State, James Baker, told Yemen – which did not support the war – "this will be the most expensive vote you have ever cast."

Support for the war essentially followed the way things are done in Washington by using bribery and threats to gain support. And when each day we now hear more and more accusations against Saddam perhaps we should also remember the infamous "Incubator hoax" which a PR firm created to get the nations war juices gurgling.

~ World War 2 Vet

Hitchens in Hell

It is wrong to cast Christopher Hitchens into the Circle of Hell reserved for the Neocons. He is being knee-jerk and admitting it. Besides we should all be for regime change in Iraq, just not one brought about through the expansion of empire and the destruction of international law, and countless lives.

Hitchens recent superb article in Vanity Fair on anti-Semitism hardly shows him to be a neocon. (BTW, is the antiwar party labelling someone a "neocon" the rhetorical inverse of the neocons labelling dissenters anti-Semites?)

~ MH

Previous Backtalk