Letters to the Editor
bloomsbury
Published Letters: 339 Editor's Choice: 5
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history lesson
[Read the article: Letter from Gaza]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]If only the American powers-that-be in Iraq had built clinics and schools and provided support for the ordinary Iraqis instead of terrorizing them in their homes and making billions out of their tragedy, the situation in that country would be very different. People are not stupid: in a desperate situation if someone gives you food and medical care it's obvious who you will support, especially when the alternative is wedded to violence and blatantly corrupt. There's a poem in which the poet states that she believes in the brotherhood of man, however the poem ends with the words: "But this bread in my hand is my son's bread.' The lesson of history is that anyone who forgets this will be defeated in the end and anyone who remembers it will form government.
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Rule by decree
[Read the article: Still more extraordinary anti-democracy comments from Giuliani]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]What Rudy Giuliani is suggesting reminds me of what happened when the Nazi party candidate was defeated in a state election shortly after Adolf became Chancellor of Germany. Hitler simply suspended the constitution and ruled by decree. There were no more elections in Germany until after the war. This is the system Mr Giuliani favours. God help America if he gets within shouting distance of the White House.
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The Gem
[Read the article: The American media's fringe ideological view of Pelosi's trip]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Glenn Glenwald you are an absolute gem. Just when I thought things were too grim to be true you come up with the 'Clintons in the Carribean!'I applaud Ms Pelosi for her courage in visiting Syria and the fact that she might actually have found a way out of the mess in Iraq that doesn't involve a gun, a bomb or a rocket launcher. I was appalled when I heard Tim Russert spouting absolute nonsense on the subject. On the other hand if you missed Bill O'Reilly and Geraldo shouting his other down over immigration with the fixed, dopey stares of a couple of moose in the mating season, track it down. It says everything that needs to be said about the American media's lack of seriousness and depth.
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The formula
[Read the article: The right-wing brain in action]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]All of this ranting about 'Untermenschen' and the 'failure' of Iraqis to respond to the wonders and the benefits of having their country occupied by American troops is the same old Fascist formula: first collectively dismiss a group as sub-human, then feel free to do anything you like to them. Bomb them back to the stone age, lock them up in prisons for no indictable crime etc. My guess is that right now Michael Ledeen and his ilk are licking their wounds and plotting their revenge; nothing too sophisticated. Their theory of re-shaping the Middle East into a Western-style (meaning American) paradise by means of cruelty and violence has come unstuck, as it was bound to do. The fact is, people don't like being beaten up and having their sons taken away in the middle of the night. They don't like having no electricity, no decent medical care and no human rights. Arab or otherwise,the reaction is the same. In this the Iraqis are all too human not sub-human as the far right would have us believe.
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Tolerating racism and sexism
[Read the article: He's sorry now]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I've always said, scratch a racist and you find a sexist. Mr Imus is a perfect illustration of my theory. I don't understand why the matter is even being debated. If someone said what he said on radio or television in Australia they would be out the door before the words were even out of their mouths. He called these women 'ho's' which is an amusing little abbreviation that means 'whore' i.e. prostitute. How can this man be allowed to say this about female student athletes and then throw in a racist slur as well and keep his job? There should be a policy of zero tolerance of this kind of behaviour because that's the only way to stamp out the thinking that lies behind it. Something like this would end up in the courts in many countries under racial vilification laws.
I'm assuming you must not have such laws. It's no use saying that Imus is just foolish. He's a serial racist and sexist and if he can't help saying such things he should get therapy. People like him say these things to 'reach out' to fellow racists and sexists in a calculated way. However much he says 'Oh silly old me,' his fellow racists and sexists know exactly what he meant and are confirmed in their attitudes when he gets away with it.
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The inconvenient truth about Wolfie
[Read the article: Real inconvenient truths]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]No one has summed up the inconvenient truth of Paul Wolfowitz better than this quote from Paul Arcangeli a U.S. army officer. He described Wolfie as 'Dangerously idealistic and crack smokin' stupid.' I think he's been far too kind, especially about the idealism.
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Alas poor Wolfie
[Read the article: The comic tragedy of Paul Wolfowitz's many trials]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]There's nothing comic about Wolfie. And this is not a tragedy, it's the truth-at last! Corruption is a disease and he and his neo con pals have got it. It makes them do-guess what- corrupt things!They are just criminals and eventually there are going to be a lot of these people in jail, where they belong. Maybe instead of meddling in other people's countries they should have done something about fixing the jails in America. Too late now!
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Fred
[Read the article: Priorities]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]How can anyone take this tired old actor seriously? It's a measure of how desperate the Republicans are that they're trying to get him to run. At least he's not associated with the war in Iraq - just the war on drugs and the war on crime and the illusory preservation of law and order that is another American myth.