Posted March 28, 2003

Photo

I'm not quite sure what to say about that photo on your site today. Oh, dear God, can we actually be doing these things to these poor people? Would that the entire world could see it, even though it cuts deep into my very being for me to have to look at it.

You deserve the thanks of anyone left with any decency for publishing that photo, horrendous as it is to look at. I hope all those out there mouthing that tiresome cliché"support our troops" will look at this photo to see just what "our troops" are up to over there.

Keep up what you are doing.

~ D. Guenzel

I am sure that you will be criticized for putting the image of that poor little girl on your Web page, but I think it is something that should be on the front page of every US paper, and sent to every one of our elected representatives.

~ John Baker

Why I Quit My Church

I quit my church because the Jesus about whom they preach is contradicting with my understanding of Christ of forgiveness, love and compassion. Jesus is not for unjustified war. Jesus is not for innocent bloodshed and revenge. To me this war unwanted, unjustified, illegal and immoral – a war which is innocent bloodshed, revenge, murders, human catastrophe. Read the Bible whoever supports this war and see what the Bible talks about.

Book of James 5:1-5

JAS 5:
1 Now listen, you rich people, weep and wail because of the misery that is coming upon you. ... You have condemned and murdered innocent men, who were not opposing you.

RO 12:
14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse.
15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn.
16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.

RO 12:
17 Do not repay anyone evil for evil. Be careful to do what is right in the eyes of everybody.
18 If it is possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.
19 Do not take revenge, my friends, but leave room for God's wrath, for it is written: "It is mine to avenge; I will repay," says the Lord.
20 On the contrary: "If your enemy is hungry, feed him; if he is thirsty, give him something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals on his head."

RO 12:
21 Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good.

~ MK

Eric Garris Replies

Do you see the pictures of smart dolphins, who are fighting for the USA? I have only one wish: bring those smart dolphins home, and those soldiers. They are all the creatures of God.

~ Love Love

Managing Editor Eric Garris replies:

Yes, they have sea lions over there too. I hope they all come home soon.

Today I cannot access the Al-Jazeera English language website. Error is temporarily unavailable. No problems last week – can't remember if I tried earlier this week. Conspiracy or Internet hiccup? Heard anything?

~ M. Coady

Eric Garris replies:

Unfortunately, it is conspiracy. Someone hacked into their web host registrar and wiped out their DNS info for the world. It will take days to get them back up.

I just visited your website and found it to be a very interesting viewpoint. I enjoyed reading the various viewpoint articles posted on your site. I consider myself a strong conservative but I thought some of the pieces were well written and made strong points. I want to suggest that its through well written pieces such as the articles you have posted that will strengthen your mission. I think Phillip Gold's article hits the nail on the head that tactics such as blocking traffic, hindering business, etc. does nothing but turn people off from your goals. I look forward to reading more viewpoint articles. Thank You.

~ Dan P.

Eric Garris replies:

As a matter of fact, our editorial board just picked the Gold piece as our spotlight for tomorrow. We have run some similar pieces recently.

Thank you for your kind words.

Lay Off the Troops!

I agree with most of what you guys say politically but lay off the troops. These poor guys are fighting for their lives because of a bullsh*t political agenda but that's not their fault. When you question their actions on the battlefield without walking in their shoes, you sound idiotic. Keep pounding the government but have some pity for those poor bastards fighting. They don't wanna be there either! Thanks!

~ KS

Regarding "This Isn't About You" by Justin Raimondo:

As disclosure, let me first mention that I am a conservative and get most of my news from the usual right-wing websites and press (although I do read articles from the usual left-wing press, usually to glean the point of view of the opposition and point out the bias.) It was with great pleasure that I stumbled upon your articles when searching for a picture of one of the direct-actioners and ended up on one of your editorials about the "peace" protests. I was also surprised to see that it was dated October, 2001. Presciently, you anticipated the sentiments I have read from several commentators of the reasonable left, who have published pieces recently. Your account was dead on.

Over the past few days, out of a morbid curiosity, I have visited one of the hard line left websites to see their take on the war (democraticunderground.com – I'm sure you are aware of it). I was truly "shocked and awed" by the sentiments expressed: news of American casualties were greeted with glee as they reinforced the posters' opinions – if they are even worthy of being called that – that Bush was an illegitimate President and should be impeached as a result of the war; this despite, as you stated in another editorial, the casualties have been minimal and in terms of military strategy, this war has been a relative success. Another common sentiment: the only source of news to be trusted is Al-Jazeera and every report favorable to the US war effort was right-wing propaganda. I could go on and on about the intellectual (and moral) depravity but I'm sure you know this already.

Anyway, I chose to write you because it was so refreshing to see reasonable dissent. After exploring the hyperbole and simplicity of the Stalinist agit-prop, "peace" movement, it gave me some faith that there were actually reasonable views from the left (if you would still accept the nomenclature). I have always enjoyed Hitchens although, admittedly, he has become increasingly conservative with respect to the war so this isn't too much of a stretch. Another great liberal (perhaps slightly Libertarian) is Camille Paglia; she too sees through the hypocrisy and shallowness of the hard left.

I think you raise excellent points in your editorials, especially about our postwar actions, and the country should have a reasoned debate about the matter. I only hope that your points don't get drowned out by the shrieking harpies of the American Marxism movement. Sadly, I think this will happen anyway. The unfortunate problem is that that their actions only further cement the views of the right (in which I wholeheartedly believe, but there is some room for persuasion), and, I have noticed, have forced them to reduce some more high-minded thought into reactionary sloganeering.

Lastly, I really enjoyed your assessment of the protesters as narcissistic. I have been saying this for a while now and your commentary was spot on. I have kind of a loony theory on the roots of this which you may enjoy – it is an explanation by way of Freudianism and Marxism. Briefly, I think the 60's countercultural movement played into the hands of the disaffected youth of the time by providing them with a political ideology with which to express their resentment toward being told "no" by their parents during their youth. It taught them that they were "oppressed" by the class system; they were essentially subjugated by the power wielded by their parents and sought to revolt against the class system. Admittedly, this is just a theory and difficult to prove objectively, but that is the nature of Freudianism.

~ James F., Boston, Massachusetts

San Francisco is a Joke

Those damn people make they people of the U.S. look like asses! The morale of the troops in Iraq is very low, and any protest isn't making them any happier. We need to support them in every way possible, show them what they are fighting for. The troops are fighting for the very freedom that allows them to make asses of all of us.

~ Chad Wollam

Right and Wrong

TH: I appreciate what you [Antiwar.com] are trying to do but you are not going to convince anyone with your tactics. I think to be successful in convincing people to believe in what you are saying you must present both sides of the story, that way people look at your side and the other side and make the decision based on the fact that you are more right or more wrong in your conclusions.

Student Coordinator Mike Ewens: When we link to news, we do our best to present the facts. Of course beyond the news links, our commentary and editorials have a bias, but we do have an agenda: ending the march to Empire and stopping the State and its unjust wars. There are plenty of pro-war sites on the web (i.e. all the major networks and newspapers) so I think that introducing their agenda to our site would be meaningless.

TH: The issue of war is much more complicated than right and wrong so it must be treated as such.

Mike Ewens: What is more complicated than right and wrong? First, we must define right and wrong and then accurately apply the concepts to reality. This is a huge task in of itself! Perhaps you are asking for a more pragmatic approach to analyzing the situation in Iraq. Unfortunately, a consistent rule for action – like the decision whether or not to go to war – demands principles, something that pragmatism avoids.

TH: ...We all know that people die in war, but we also know that under the current administration of Iraq many people still die. Is the amount of people lost to remove the leadership of Iraq more than the cost of people lost under the leadership of Iraq?

ME: Apparently, you have the power to balance the value of various individual's lives against each other. This utilitarian approach attempts to justify immoral means for supposed moral ends. What if you were the individual "chosen" to be sacrificed by a smart bomb for the end of freeing future generations? Collectivizing all the citizens of Iraq as "victims" and then declaring that killing a few thousand of them is justified because it makes the rest of the population no longer "victims" is, in my opinion, as immoral an act as those that Saddam has done to the Iraqi people. Overall, I have no right to weigh what people are worth more and less. Merely using a count of the dead and the alive as a gauge of right and wrong is a gross offense to humanity.

Thanks for your email. I hope that I have clarified some things.

Judging from all the intertwined corporate/government connections within the Bush government (Bush/Enron, Cheney/Halliburton, Rice/Standard Oil, Richard Perle, Prince of Darkness , etc.) I think that it safe to say that our government's policies are influenced and compromised to a certain extent by some of these linkages. The recent article by Seymour Hersh, "Who Lied to Whom?", in the New Yorker Magazine, clearly points out that Bush is being manipulated to some extent and is now caught up in events that are beyond his control.

While the prior president, Clinton, was a shady character, his methods were rather unsophisticated and resulted in things like bag men dropping of cash gifts and gross sex in the oval office. These characters that surround Bush are the consummate insiders and know how the wheels of power turn.

Bush, to me, appears to be a deer caught in the headlights. He is very naive and is in way over his head with the sharks that cruise the waters in and around D.C. Evil holds the reins for the moment and only time will reveal where we are headed.

~ KW

Stop the War!

I am a Muslim woman living in South Africa. My heart goes out to the people of Iraq. My heart cries out to see that the Arab States are not helping our brothers and sisters in Islam. As Muslims, we should always be there to help other Muslims in times of need. It is clear that Bush, who is a war mongrel, is only interested in the oil wealth of Iraq. His actions are only destroying the innocent lives of the people in Iraq. What will the leaders of the Arab States do when they have to face Allah on the day of Judgment? Will he respond by saying that they did not help the people of Iraq because of the material gains they were receiving.

The government of the Arab States should realise that the life of this world is temporary. Its gains will not last forever and it will have no portion in the hereafter. Bush thinks that he is “helping” the people of Iraq by destroying the nation of Iraq into “shock and awe”. Instead, we should realise that Allah Tala sees all that we do. A leaf will not fall without the will of Allah Tala. The keys of life and death and the mysteries of everything around us are in Allah Tala’s hands. Our duty as true Muslims is to seek the path of goodness and righteousness. As Muslims we should stand firm in justice and fiercely condemn this war on Iraq. We should place our faith in Allah, as Allah’s protection is continuous and his plan is always to lead us from the depths of darkness into the clearest light.

Let us not be without a cause and misled by the devil when the people of Iraq are suffering. Let this be an opportunity for Islam to show the world that we are united and strongly oppose the war on Iraq. Let us not be misled by worldly friends. By supporting disbelievers, our values as Muslims will disappear like dust flying about in the wind. We should strive to strengthen our Imaan and not let Islam be wiped out of this world. Allah’s signs are all around for us to see. We must not be blinded. ...

Worldly men put their trust in worldly things. Righteous men put their trust only in Allah Tala. Lets not be fooled by the lies we are told that the war is only going to liberate the people of Iraq. The war only places more suffering on the people of Iraq. They are already suffering from the sanctions that have been imposed on them for the past ten years. It is time to stand up and be counted as the ones who oppose the war. Surely Allah Tala is with those who help and work in his cause. You must think this is just another madwoman who has written this letter, but there must be a drop of Imaan in your heart and goes out to the innocent Muslim people of Iraq. I appeal to you to be united in the cause of being against the war. Place your trust completely in Allah, for Allah is Most Gracious and Most Merciful.

~ M. Gaffar

Mayor of DC

At this point it would be fun to point out that George Bush is to DC what Saddam is to Baghdad. Sure Bush can fly in and out of military bases and get supportive crowds. I wonder how well he would be received at any event that is NOT invitation only. And with any form of planned visit, ESPECIALLY on the West Coast the protesters will come. Don't look for Bush to go on any trips soon.

~ Chris Denchfield, Woodinville, Washington

Regarding "Reality Discredits the Chickenhawks" by Alan Bock:

I just read your article "Eye on the Empire". Fantastic work as usual. I agree with you about the folks at FOX. When the bombs first started falling it looked like they were all going to start high-fiving each other. You said you could not catch BBC TV. Well you may want to visit this link: http://tv4all.com/portal.htm.

At this link you can watch BBC, Al-Jazeera and just about any other TV station in the world you want. I hope you find it helpful!

~ John Patricio

You are not better than any other warmonger when saying "any American killed is a tragedy" (in this context aggressors) and not mentioning that Iraqi children killed (by those very same aggressors) are not tragedies.

At the end coup de grace: "I would like this war to be short, sweet and decisive, with an American victory at the end." – exactly what all Washington warmongers say.

~ Predrag Ostojic

To be honest, I don't think anyone really thought this was going to be a cakewalk. Most of the military officials and members of the administration I spoke with all insisted it would be a tough fight. However, they were equally insistent that we would win. It is important to remember that most members of the media have little or no experience covering real military encounters. Therefore they tend to make instant decisions about battlefield success and exaggerate victories or setbacks. Things are never as good or as bad as the media makes it look. Additionally, it might be useful to put this into some perspective. So far our casualties constitute 0.0075% of total forces engaged. That is a remarkable figure considering the number of enemy troops engaged and the sheer amount of munitions flying through the air. It is also worth noting that we could end this war in 48 hours by unleashing the full force of our military. What you have seen is shock-and-awe-lite. We have gone relatively easy because we don't want to kill people unnecessarily. This may be a no brainer, but I think you and others in the antiwar community should give our leaders and troops the credit they deserve for acting in the most humanitarian way possible.

~ Lt. Col Beckham, 101st airborne

Regarding "Suing in England, Vacationing in France: the Misplaced Patriotism of Richard Perle" by Christopher Deliso:

A tremendously gutsy article by Chris Deliso. Anyone with an open mind must be terrified by the neo-cons strangle hold on the Bush administration as well as the media. Has anyone noticed but CNN, Dan Rather, Tom Brokaw etc. have finally found a war they can at least stomach. This war is turning point in world history and unless our side gets the truth out there will be no turning back. Thank you for your courage!

~ John Ingham

Christopher Deliso replies:

Thank you, John, for your kind words.

Yes, we should be scared of the neocon nightmare. However, I believe it will blow up in their faces, eventually. When the American people start asking why their sons and daughters are being killed and captured, in a botched invasion of a foreign country that never attacked us, the blame will be put right where it belongs – on the neocons. Although it probably won't happen, trials for treason would be nice. You are right, the world is changing and there already is no turning back. Hopefully the "clean break" we are in for will not be about making the world safe for Israel – but about ending the deluded dreams of America as an empire once and for all.

Deliso's article should be put up on street corners and in all public place on 11 x17" paper stock. Maybe then America will wake up. Great job Chris. The pen is indeed mightier than the sword.

~ Corkey Crincoli, Jersey Shore

Christopher Deliso replies:

Thanks, buddy. I really appreciate the support of readers like you.

Regarding "Almost Spot On: The British Critique of American Newspapers" by Christopher Deliso:

A thought-provoking article, without a doubt. But just as you characterize the ‘dart’ thrown by the Brits as landing a little to the left, perhaps your dart has fallen a little to the right. Perhaps not unexpectedly, in this age of illusion, where you can’t see the smoke for the mirrors. Michael Moore had it just about right, at the Oscars, when he talked of a fictitious president, riding on the back of a fictitious election result. Over here in the UK, we thought we had elected a socialist Prime Minister, but in the light of recent events, we find we have in fact as conservative a leader as Mrs Thatcher herself was.

Matthew Engel, whose article you analyse, however, does not speak for The Guardian. You are right to say that the Guardian and other Brit newspapers have their own agenda, but when it comes down to it, Engel is merely one of many paid correspondents. Mr Richard Perle often writes for the same newspaper, though he can hardly be characterized as in any way ‘liberal’, as I expect you’d agree. Still, it is true that Engel is more truly representative of general Guardian thought.

If Engel intended to criticize your media for being not liberal enough, having read many of his articles (though not this one, unfortunately), I think this might have been inadvertent. Criticism I have heard over here has rather settled on the seeming inability of the American media (in general) to closely question those giving out the spin (for that is what most of it is). Also, the higher the officialdom, the more the tendency to ‘fawn’. Just because you are ‘Mr President’, why shouldn’t you have to field tough questions on a myriad of plainly illogical and contradictory statements?

You are also, too blithely assuming that our Press generally does not support the War. Much, if not most of it, does indeed support the War and the Prime Minister. Although there was much opposition from the people (by way of demonstrations and in statements in the polls), much of the press seemed quite prepared to swallow anything that the Labour spin machine threw at them, even before many of the people suddenly changed their minds when War became an inevitability.

This reply has turned out a little longer than I expected. As I alluded at the outset, I thought your article got very much to the heart of the matter of reporting by the media, and helped me to understand other aspects of American thinking. In return, I hope that I have, at least in part, returned the complement.

~ Edward Sandeman

Christopher Deliso replies:

Yes, good sir, you have – thanks. You are right that I did not give enough attention to pro-war media sentiment in Britain. However, back when I wrote this article, I believed the antiwar side was a bit stronger. Now, it seems that like the general population, the papers are rallying behind Blair – even as his decision seems more and more of a disaster. Thanks for the support and thoughtful criticism – be well.

STOP THE WAR MACHINE

If we want to stop the war machine, why don't we STOP THE WAR MACHINE? Here we are in an area ringed with military installations and all we do is disrupt traffic! If we can get 100,000 people into the streets of San Francisco, surely we could get 5-10,000 outside the gates of the Travis Air Force Base in Fairfield, or the Concord Naval Weapons Depot, or dozens picketing at every recruitment center in the Bay area. Why have our erstwhile leaders not called for this? Isn't there some group out there which enjoys more support than I do (my wife sometimes agrees with me) that could put out the call?

~ Ken M.

Regarding "Iraqi Pandora" by Justin Raimondo:

As a 'Nam combat vet, I love your site and your perception that we have no damn business doing this, politically or militarily. Having been shot at, I'm slightly less optimistic than you apparently are about at least one aspect seemingly reflected in your comment:

"Relentlessly advancing to Baghdad, the US is going straight for the Iraq strongman's throat. Saddam Hussein is history. His regime is finished. The only question is: what will postwar Iraq look like?"

The Russians attacked Grozny with 30 or 40 thousand troops. They threw everything at the Chechens holding the place, apparently including some kind of fuel-air explosive bombs they registered on seisomographs all over the place. The 1200 fairly raggedy-ass rebels nevertheless inflicted thousands of casualties on the Russians. Forty-odd years earlier, the Russians threw a million men at Berlin against some worn-out regulars and a bunch of kids and old men. One of every ten was killed and two or three of the remaining nine was wounded.

Why, exactly , do you think taking Baghdad is a given? You could be right, of course, but I have my doubts.

Keep up the good work.

~ Ken Johnson

So what really got into Novak? Refused to mouth the absurdities fed by the VRWC and saw the "war" as bad economic strategy? Keene of course, is typical of the seemingly reasonable liars – those who admit there are two sides to the issue at all – and I say "seemingly" because there really aren't two sides that make sense.

Their side is peddling misinformation, disinformation, and plain damned lies about wmds as a distraction to keep the debate away from getting into why it is necessary in their view to steal oil. In fact, it seems necessary for them to refuse to discuss oil at all in any context, as if such an allusion is nothing more than a cynical attempt to calumniate the warmongers.

Why did Hitler invade Poland? He gave a stupid explanation to whomever, but the end result was that he took over the coal mines and the steel mills, and with their wealth made Germany economically well after a long financial sickness. It had nothing to do with "living space" and everything to do with rape of Poland's wealth. There may have been a precious few conquests for living space or security, but nearly all other conquests in the history of the world not based on religion have been about WEALTH. They have something we want; what is it?

With Iraq the answer is so obvious as to make it silly to discuss and absurd to avoid. Iraq has only one thing worth dying for, and if they didn't have oil we wouldn't go near them.

~ Sam Snedegar

Letter from France

I think that you have a wonderful site. I just discovered it and it is so much better than my little antiwar site. Then again, I am just one person who had a need to express my feelings from a deep inner sense of helplessness. I am going to link to you. Thank you once again for providing a very informative site. Now I will feel less guilty if I close my little site down. Ciao.

~ Bea, WarStinks.com, France

Thumbs Down to Paul Cellucci!

US Ambassador to Canada Paul Cellucci has the gall to stand up in front of a business audience in Toronto recently and prostitute himself to the Bush administration, whining that because the US would always be there for Canada if it ever came under threat, therefore Canada should now be standing behind the US attack on Iraq. What drivel! Cellucci's subtle lie, of course, is that just as Poland was never a threat to Germany in 1939, practically nobody in the world with any common sense seriously believes that Iraq is a threat to the United States.

~ Steve D., Canada

Torture

I would like to thank you for the excellent web site you and your colleagues have. Just like Jane from Arizona, I use and have been using it as an objective source of information to balance the often partial and nonobjective mainstream media. I don't always agree with what you say and your colleagues say, but then again, I m sure you don't always agree with me or anyone else. The point is that you at least give people a chance to make up their own mind by serving good articles and write columns that are interesting enough for people to read them. I am not a money contributor since I am unemployed and write on my first book, concerning 'Le GAUL' intelligence. I do however spread the positive word about you wherever I go and am very happy that you allow people like me to read for free.

...I was very concerned by a statement done by Pat Buchanan in his news show Buchanan & Press on the 5th of March. He commented the arrest of Khalid Shakh Mohammed, al-Qaidas third man, with a fast voice – "shouldn't this man who have all the names and all detailed plans for future terrorist attacks against USA, be tortured so that we can get all this out of him". Following this statement/question the reaction from the rest of the commentators and viewers were an anonymous Yes!

I haven't heard or seen any reactions on this in my mind totally non-acceptable public statement by a very public person who have many followers in many countries. Why aren't there any protests against this kind of rhetoric? I agree that the man is a horrible terrorist but torture is also extremely horrible – and to promote it on a major TV-channel with thousands and thousands of viewers should at least draw one or two comments. ...

~ Tom Mattsson

Regarding "Alley of the Damned" by Nebojsa Malic:

Nothing works without money.

~ James Tarvin

Nebojsa Malic replies:

Bosnia has plenty of capacity to generate money. But between its own warlords and the Empire, no one lets its people do so. That's a point I've been trying to convey.