Posted December 31, 2002

Alive and Kicking

Regarding "The Unresolved Problem of the United Nations" by Joseph Stromberg:

As Justin gets an occasional quote in The New American, I am sure you are aware the John Birch Society is still out there alive and kicking. Here is one one of those "old" billboards up in downtown Greensboro, NC for this year's election (and UN birthday party).

~ Jim Capo

Joseph Stromberg replies:

Thanks. There used to be one of those signs on the way to LaBelle, Florida. I drove by it often.

War Games

Regarding "Christmas Carnage" by Justin Raimondo:

I was 12 when World War II ended. I lived in Long Beach, California, just a block from the beach. Most of our fathers, brothers and uncles were in uniform. Many of the house windows up and down the streets sported the red or gold star banners indicating a son or husband serving in the armed forces; or in the case of the gold star, KIA. The point is, we lived and breathed the war. Games centered about war; our (boy's) toys all had to do with killing. The comics, we read, the movies we viewed, the adult conversation we listened to all concerned the war. Yet, the war ended, we grew into our teens, and so far as I know, none of us turned into monsters for having gone through this passage of arms.

Games and toys that looked like the one you show in your column appear similar to the ones we played with as kids. As for this toy command post looking eerily like a Western styled home, you are correct. But my own explanation for this is different than yours. I would think that whoever designed the CP hadn't a clue how houses outside the US really look. He was most likely more interested in having it recognizable as a home to the American kiddies, than for any other effect.

~ Neil R. Huff

Regarding "By Way of Deception" by Justin Raimondo:

Perhaps Raimondo is being a bit hasty in speaking of the Israeli art student scandal in the past tense.

My ladyfriend works at the Northridge Fashion Center in the San Fernando Valley, California. (This mall made the news in 1994, when the parking structure collapsed during the earthquake.) I visit the place often.

In front of the Sears department store, one encounters two kiosks. One of them sells the "Zoom Copter" toy mentioned in Carl Cameron's famous report. The other sells paintings: Bad paintings, committee work, mostly shoddy copies of Van Gogh and Thomas Kinkaide. (Much as I despise everything Kinkaide stands for, seeing awful copies of his work forces me to admit, grudgingly, that he is something of a craftsman.)

I struck up conversations with the young people manning both booths. They are all Israeli.

The girl hawking art seemed nice. I doubt that those kids are working legally – of course, there are a lot of illegal workers in Los Angeles. The males are more arrogant. I must confess that I get a little peeved when foreign workers of any stripe adopt an "I'm-better-than-you" attitude. Still, they are young, and, obviously, they aren't spying on the Northridge Fashion Center. So what are they doing?

I presume that the department store gig is simply a way for ... [them] to make some money while waiting for an assignment. The Zoom Copter, which sells for $20, is made in China. I would not be surprised if the "art" comes from the same place. (Paintings of this sort are usually painted on an assembly-line basis in Third World countries.)

Why would Israeli spies concentrate on these two products? I can only presume that the Israelis did some sort of business with China – arms, most likely – and that somewhere along the way, someone doing business for or from Israel scooped up a ton of those damned Chinese helicopter toys for pennies. Once this crappy merchandise landed in their laps, it became a matter of figuring out how to use the stuff for their benefit.

At any rate, the kids manning those booths will, in all likelihood, never 'fess up if their activities outside the mall are less than innocent. If anyone wants to talk to one of the famous/infamous "Israeli art students" – well, you now know where to find 'em, any day of the week.

~ Martin Cannon

Hindu Fundamentalists

Regarding "Hindu Fascists' Dream Of Killing India's Pluralism Can Still Be Defeated":

This is a very good article by Dr. Shaik Ubaid. It is necessary for us to become aware of Hindu fundamentalist elements, who are preaching hatred, racism and imposing their fascist doctrine on the minorities of India. In India, minorities are finding increasingly difficult to practice their religion, whether it is Christianity, Islam or Buddhism. No more can people choose a religion on their own, their right to choose religion is being curtailed by these fascist elements who threaten or kill them if they choose a religion other than Hinduism and some provincial governments are also enacting legislation to ban conversions to other religions.

There is a blatant disregard for basic human rights for minorities in India. The most surprising thing is that the world governments are turning a blind eye to these activities of Hindu fundamentalists and are not banning organizations belonging to these Hindu fundamentalist groups who are raising funds in North America in the name of charity but funneling them towards using it against minority communities' repression in India.

~ Hakeem Baig, Toronto, Canada

Turkey's Past

Regarding "Forget Iraq: The Real Battle Is In Turkey" by Heather Wokusch:

Your article (and any future ones on this topic) should include mention of Turkey's brutal 1974 invasion of the northern one-third of Cyprus, its expulsion of 200,000 Greek Cypriots from that area, and its continued occupation of a self-proclaimed "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" zone there in defiance of a UN resolution. Yes, that's right, a UN resolution, you know, the sort of thing that, if violated elsewhere, might actually attract attention in this double-standard laden world of ours.

Other issues that a courageous enough web columnist could mention include Turkey's heavy-handed attempts to deny responsibility for earlier genocide, its current blockade of tiny Armenia, and its decades-long harassment against its few remaining Christians, including its continued shutdown of the Orthodox Christian Ecumenical Patriarchate's theological school.

~ John Sakelaris

Heather Wokusch replies:

Turkey's past is indeed checkered, and one can also address US complicity (via weapons sales etc.) in issues such as Turkish attacks on its Kurdish population. The present article though was focused on the options Turkey now faces – choices leading either to facing and then cleaning up human rights issues via the demands of EU accession, or alternatively brushing them aside in the pursuit of satisfying a US-led war against Iraq/takeover of Caspian oil. Turkey is at a crossroads, and significantly many countries in the region are in a similar position. The issue highlighted in the article is, in light of the past, whether these countries will go for short-term profit or long-term societal improvement. This in no way is meant to diminish responsibility for the past, but rather to focus on current choices which will define the future.

US Troops in Israel

In the last month the press has been full of articles analyzing the movement of US troops in the Gulf region and the Middle and Far East as well as the the impact of such a presence for the states that “invite” it and for a possible war against Iraq. But it seems to go unnoticed that there is one more state where the US is building a military presence of several hundred or, following other sources, one thousand soldiers: it is Israel.

Those troops will install and maintain antimissile devices, and it says explicitly that they are to remain in Israel for the whole duration of the conflict (that is, a war of aggression against Iraq), and it is easy to imagine how elastic this definition may prove and how easily other reasons may be found.

US military presence is not commonly associated with friendliness, good relations, sovereignty etc. (is the Israeli army too stupid to handle military equipment? Does it need more than just some instructors?) ...

Considering the project that the New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman proposed, in complete harmony with the Saudi peace plan, in his article “The Hard Truth," which contained the deployment of US/NATO-troops at the Israeli-Palestine border of 1967, the current development should be of some interest to journalists, political analysts and activists alike.

This plan seems to have gained momentum, after months of relative silence following its first public ventilation between January and April 2002 (Solana, Schröder, Clinton) with the security conference in Herzliya of December 5, 2002, and is being supported not only by EU politicians, US ex-ambassadors and ex-presidents, but also by a growing part of the Israeli establishment (see: "Disaster in the making," Jerusalem Post). ...

So what emerges here and what would be a most worthy object of serious analysis and even political activism, is the open blackmail exerted by the United States not only on Iraq but also (in complicity with the EU) on Israel; the forced acceptation of a “protection” against attacks that only the United States has the power to provoke or even to bring about in a more direct way. ...

The above Jerusalem Post article reports the European proposal to transfer troops from Macedonia to Israel; ... this shows the continuity of fascist expansionism in the Balkans and in Israel. The strategy is always similar: the instigation of civil wars and terrorism to create the situation that will allow imperialist NATO occupation and the building of Mafiosi fascist colonial protectorates. ...

~ Roberto Mantovani, Duesseldorf, Germany

Foreign Policy

• "It's really not a number I'm terribly interested in."
  -General Colin Powell, when asked about the number of Iraqi people who were slaughtered by Americans in the 1991 "Desert Storm" terror campaign (200,000 people!).

• "I will never apologize for the United States of America – I don't care what the facts are."
  -President George Bush 1988. Bush was demonstrating his patriotism by excusing an act of cold-blooded mass-murder by the U.S. Navy. On July 3, 1988 the US Navy warship Vincennes shot down an Iranian commercial airliner. All 290 civilian people in the aircraft were killed. The plane was on a routine flight in a commercial corridor in Iranian airspace. The targeting of it by the US Navy was blatantly illegal. That it was grossly immoral is also obvious. Except to a patriot.

• "If they turn on the radars we're going to blow up their goddamn SAMs (surface-to-air missiles). They know we own their country. We own their airspace... We dictate the way they live and talk. And that's what's great about America right now. It's a good thing, especially when there's a lot of oil out there we need."
  US Brig. General William Looney (interview, Washington Post, August 30, 1999), referring, in reality, to the brutal mass-murder of hundreds of civilian Iraqi men, women and children during 10,000 sorties by American/British war criminals in the first eight months of 1999.

• "We must become the owners, or at any rate the controllers at the source, of at least a proportion of the oil which we require."
  - British Royal Commission, agreeing with Winston Churchill's policy towards Iraq, 1913

~ CE

Bumper Stickers

I was driving around the sometimes packed roads of Denver today and spent a lot of time looking at bumper stickers while stuck in post-holiday shopping traffic. It occurred to me that you really should sell Antiwar.com bumper stickers. It'd help raise (admittedly only a little) money for the site's budget as well as get the message out.

~ Nicholas D.

Defender of Truth

Just a little note to say how much your site is valued and appreciated. I cannot recall how I came across it. I think it was referred to me by a friend. Well I have sent thirty of my best friends – all of us students (Muslim and Christian) in different countries: USA, UK, Malaysia, Sudan and Germany – at least ten articles each, some received twenty to make sure they know what they were missing. Most are now regular readers. I love your articles. I am surprised Justin Raimondo has not been assassinated for his views/writings. May Allah protect him. He is a defender of truth, which is rare in political writers.

~ Ala Osman

Friendly Soldiers

An interesting idea for Iraq to ponder for preventing Anglo-American violence, is for the Iraqis to ask, say Russia, Germany, and France to send thousands of friendly soldiers to establish bases there, such as the US maintains in Europe and Asia. The presence of these American allies, who are also not belligerent towards Baghdad , would certainly prevent the US from attacking Iraq, and also, it would keep an eye on Saddam.

~ Richard Odorfer