Posted September 20, 2002

The U.S. is the Federation

Regarding Vijay Venkataraman's letter, it's pretty obvious to me that the US is the Federation. Think about it. The Federation is dominated by Earth, and its capital is in San Francisco. Starfleet is commanded by humans vastly out of proportion to their numbers, and its roughly a dozen capital ships (sound familiar?) are named from Anglo-American naval history. And of course, Kirk, Picard, or whoever, is always giving an idealistic Kennedy liberal speech about how they "come in peace," right before they blast the sh*t out of everybody.

What better symbol than the Federation for a hyper-power that lectures the rest of the world about "peace and freedom," and its own status as "the indispensable nation," all the while funding right-wing despots and training death squads.

~ Kevin Carson

Poised at the Borders

Great job you guys are doing. Liked Justin's article this morning [September 16] laying out the chips where they belong.

I hope Iraq decides to let the inspectors in and then we can't attack at least for that reason. We are already poised at the borders with the oil trucks right behind.

~ Bill F.

Politics or Bullying?

I do not oppose war -- at least not to the same extent as many of you seem to. I do, however, believe that war without legitimate reason is ... one of the most ignorant things humankind has ever introduced to this planet.

...All know very well that Bush, Sr. failed in Iraq, and I think baby Bush feels it's his duty to pick up where his father left off and actually get somewhere this time. I hope he too fails, just so the nation as a whole will know what family name not to trust next time elections roll around.

But, on a less political level, I would like to know just what it is that makes Bush -- and most of the media, for that matter -- believe that Hussein has no right to supposedly construct 'weapons of mass destruction,' as well as what opiate has driven them to think so lowly of Hussein that he might to use them against an all-powerful nation such as the USA. Russia builds nuclear weapons. China builds nuclear weapons. ... Why does Bush not threaten to invade them unless they remove them? I know for a fact that he understands the risk in that -- invasion of a minuscule, third-world nation like Iraq has very little risk; after all, what could Hussein do to the US? Even if he managed to get jets out of Iraq, he'd never manage a successful strike against the USA -- he is almost defenseless. Russia, on the other hand is a well developed, militaristic nation who'd give the USA a good whooping should we attempt to invade them. Same for China and any EU nation.

So, I ask, is it politics, or school-yard bullying? ...

~ Bill Daily II

Not Too Late

Thank you so much for the heads-up ["House Iraq Hearings – Only War Party Allowed to Testify"].

Antiwar.com and you, Justin, do such a great job of keeping us all equipped in the pilgrimage to peace.

Keep it up. It's not too late for peace!

~ Tomm B.

Discussions

Why do we listen to all this "discussion" about if we go kill some more when it is going to happen regardless what anybody else's opinion happens to be. Trying to make it legitimate is a farce. I work with teens and hear stories passed on from their teachers how evil Saddam is and must be eliminated. Everything is laid out in black and white to them with no discussions allowed. Welcome to "1984."

~ S. Almquist

Ashamed

As I watched events unfold this last week, and today, my stomach kept turning over. How these persons, who refused to fight when they were eligible, can send young men out to die for the oil companies is a something beyond my ken.

For some reason one (H. L. Mencken) quote kept going through my mind, "Every decent man is ashamed of the country in which he lives."

~ Phil Schediwy, Apple Valley, California

The Logic of the Fourth Amendment

"The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

Thus did the authors of the United States Constitution essay to protect the citizen against unwarranted intrusion by officers of the state. As a protection against contemporary abuses, the fourth amendment is in tatters. Years of incremental abuse by lying police and indifferent judges have stripped the citizen of a fundamental right without which we have no republic worth the name.

But the logic of the fourth amendment is unassailable, and it deserves to be applied to the case of Iraq. Is there probable cause to believe that the government of Iraq is concealing programs and facilities for research into, and development and production of "weapons of mass destruction"? The doubting few point to the testimony of Scott Ritter, the reports of the International Atomic Energy Agency and other competent bodies, and the immense destruction wrought by the Gulf War followed by 11 years of sanctions. The poll majorities, the neo-con foundations, the windsock media, and the people without principle who head national governments believe that such weapons do exist in fact or in Saddam Hussein's dreams. Very well, call those fears "probable cause." But pay attention to the remaining words of the sentence: "...particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized."

UNSCOM conceived of its task as unending. It wished to rummage through every enclosed space in Iraq, and when the Iraqis protested, UNSCOM whined about Saddam Hussein's treacherous obstinacy. It was guided by the flawed principle enunciated this year by Donald Rumsfeld: "The absence of evidence is not evidence of absence," meaning that UNSCOM's failure to find that secret cache of sarin or that armed atomic bomb could mean only that they were someplace else.

Under a reasonable and fair system of inspections, UNMOVIC would describe the place to be searched -- the place being something less than the total area of Iraq -- and it would list those items which would be seized if found. The authors of the fourth amendment drew some inspiration from the Romans. Cicero writes of precautions taken to prevent the planting of evidence. Iraq deserves as much consideration.

Let the inspectors declare what must be inspected and what they expect to find, and then let them inspect. But let the hands of the inspectors be clean; theirs must be a mission of inquiry and not of trolling for military intelligence. It's only fair.

~ Alan Bickley, Wisconsin

Editor's note:

The current issue of Smart Money magazine includes a profile of Backtalk editor Sam Koritz. Titled "Peter Lynch, Watch Out," it appears in the print edition only, and is not available online.