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Posted September 24, 2001
Two Mistakes
[Regarding Justin Raimondo's column of September 12, "Imperial Paralysis":]
Horowitz
is right in [claiming] that: "America is embarrassed
at the idea that it has enemies and must protect itself."
The root is that we've made these enemies with our policies
and to admit that is to admit that we are wrong. As you
know, in government it's better to make two mistakes than
admit one. The body count is irrelevant. Besides, we should
be embarrassed.
~ Mark S., North Carolina
Justified
I don't understand why these people hate America. Is it because we are free and have the best system of government in the world? It is because we are considered wealthy?
The "Backtalk" editor replies:
Osama bin Laden has said that he is trying to "liberate Islam's holy places." According to most reports, bin Laden first began agitating against the United States during the Gulf War, when the U.S. military based hundreds of thousands of troops in bin Laden's home country, Saudi Arabia. Bin Laden sees the United States as an occupying power because the United States led the Allies in the Gulf War, was instrumental in imposing sanctions on Iraq, still has thousands of troops stationed in Saudi Arabia (and other Arab and Muslim countries), and gives Israel's military $5,000,000 per day (which must be spent on weapons made by U.S. companies). Before issuing his "fatwas" (Islamic declarations) against the United States, bin Laden helped drive the Soviet military out of Afghanistan.
Innocent People
I
was in my company's lunch room yesterday. Of course the
discussion was the WTC attack. A woman was saying "how
could anybody kill innocent people? We need to bomb 'them'
into the stone age."
I asked her if it was all right for us to bomb innocent people. Her response was yes, because the children "there" will grow up to be terrorist and that if I didn't agree I should go there and be bombed also. I hope this is just blowing off steam, but if that is the dominant American attitude, it is no wonder the Middle East hates us.
Ambushed
On September 11th, 2001 the United States Government did not protect Americans. Now our government wants to go halfway across the world to start a war on terrorism. If we go halfway across the world to start this war I believe we could be ambushed in the Middle East!
The Horrors of Terrorism
Having lived through the horrors of terrorism in Peru, I feel a deep empathy with the citizens of a country I left almost 21 years ago. As I watched the images on cable TV I was reminded of a similar incident in Lima in the early '90s, when terrorists left a car bomb in front of two apartment buildings in a prosperous district and killed some 40-50 people. I was with my 6-year-old on my rooftop terrace; after we heard the explosion he turned to me and asked, "Daddy, what was that? A car bomb?" Fortunately, the government had an intelligent, comprehensive, anti-terrorist strategy, and the threat is nearly over.
Peru's
guerilla war was a result of years of misgovernment, and
if things don't change it could come back again. The WTC
attack is surprising in its grisly success, in the sheer
numbers of deaths, but it is hardly surprising that it
happened. For years, US foreign policy can be summed up
in one phrase: smart bombs, dumb intelligence. And, judging
from the overwhelming support for bombing the bejesus
out of wherever to get even (a civilian for a civilian),
I fear we are heading into an even greater spiral of violence.
~ Steve G., Peru
The Day the Republic Died
With
the tragedies of the Trade Center and Pentagon buildings,
I am afraid that Antiwar.com's articles and positions
will become far more unpopular. A war mindset is a mindset
which cannot stop to give thought to the causes of anger
being expressed against us. One of the first replies given
to Justin Raimondo's article on the "Price
of Hegemony" expressed just such a sentiment:
it really doesn't matter what America has done, we have
been attacked, and therefore we must no longer consider
what we have done wrong, we must only attack. Whom shall
we attack?
The
mindset will likely produce three answers. A terrorist
organization and a nation that harbors them, the American
society's civil and political rights, and those who publicly
stand against our national policies will be ostracized
and declared friends of the enemy.
I have sometimes told friends that no one nation can long
be the global policeman without become a police state
in its own nation. On September 11, we were shown why,
it is now clear that for American global hegemony to be
successful a heightened police and military security must
be implemented to keep America secure inside its borders.
It appears to me that our descent from Republic to Empire
will now be hastened, and the descent from constitutional
rule to military rule will be hastened, for it will be
far easier to gain support for a military solution than
to disentangle ourselves from the numerous commitments
we have made in the erroneous belief that American global
hegemony and world leadership could provide total security
and help implement world peace. September 11 -- a sad
day, a day that may well someday be described as the day
the Republic died.
Mass Stupidity
I'm amazed by the number of negative comments Browne's "When Will We Learn" got. It all reminds me of the mass stupidity that took over China during the Communist takeover and the subsequent Cultural Revolution. There was no way a small segment of intellectuals could turn the tide. I read somewhere that the terrorists, with $250,000 and a couple of biology grad students, can make a biological bomb that will kill 90% of the N.Y. population and leave the city 12 hours before the bomb activates. Do Bush and the clan of warmongers really think a war will "eradicate terrorism"? I think Browne is trying to save us all from the fate of being victims to a biological bomb. But the public won't believe in it. For myself, I'm looking to move to a less metropolitan area. Just like my dad moved us out of mainland China. When mass stupidity is there, we all need to prepare for the worst.
~ Alice Ewing, Editor of Chinese American Media Watch