Letters to the Editor
Pyrrho
Published Letters: 120 Editor's Choice: 1
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Blackwater boobies
[Read the article: Blackwater in Baghdad: "It was a horror movie"]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Quote "Where was Salon and it's oh-so-concerned reporting when four Blackwater men were hauled out of their car in Fallujah and their mutilated bodies were set afire and hung from the supports of a bridge?
I guess Salon is capable of getting outraged only when are Americans are the supposed bad guys." Quote Dershin
Wrong Dershin. Blackwater not only killed Iraqis at the traffic circle but they sentenced their own men to death by incompetently putting them in Fallujah without proper support. I think incompetence is the correct word. Incompetence without a proper chain of command or legal ramifications. These comboys need to be put on a short rope.
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Mutatis mutandis!
[Read the article: America's trinity of terrorism]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]How could we possibly fall so far from the ideals of our democratic form of government to actively manipulate so many governments around the world against the wishes of their citizens? Rendition, water boarding, and death squads are casually referred to by many Americans in casual conversation but god knows how they would respond if they were the unwilling recipients of such attentions. So how can we allow our government to use these tactics abroad?
Let’s blame George Bush, he is in charge isn’t he? He is responsible for the hysteria that has lead average Americans to buy into our foreign policy and foreign wars. His policies have the same effects we have seen before in history, generating fear, witness the following quotes.
Preventive war was an invention of Hitler. Frankly, I would not even listen to anyone seriously that came and talked about such a thing.~Dwight D. Eisenhower
Our country is now geared to an arms economy bred in an artificially induced psychosis of war hysteria and an incessant propaganda of fear.~General Douglas MacArthur
Preventive war is like committing suicide out of fear of death.~Otto von Bismark
We can also blame ourselves as well for buying into the hysteria, a wholesale madness that allows our collective conscious to accept anything as long as we receive security for it. Oh, and as long as it doesn’t upset our declining standard of living we will continue with our Panglossian view of existance. Why do we have such a double standard about American rights versus those of the rest of the world? Why do we let corporate interests drive our policy as well?
Of course, this is nothing new. The US has always exploited other governments and the citizens of our world for national and corporate interests. We have been in South America for ages. As General Smedley Butler, USMC said,
“I spent 33 years and four months in active military service and during that period I spent most of my time as a high class muscle man for Big Business, for Wall Street and the bankers. In short, I was a racketeer, a gangster for capitalism. I helped make Mexico and especially Tampico safe for American oil interests in 1914. I helped make Haiti and Cuba a decent place for the National City Bank boys to collect revenues in. I helped in the raping of half a dozen Central American republics for the benefit of Wall Street. I helped purify Nicaragua for the International Banking House of Brown Brothers in 1902-1912. I brought light to the Dominican Republic for the American sugar interests in 1916. I helped make Honduras right for the American fruit companies in 1903. In China in 1927 I helped see to it that Standard Oil went on its way unmolested.”
There is nothing new under the sun, plus ça change. But isn’t it far past time to question what damage we have wrought by our greed and avarice to the citizens of the world? Can we break big government’s alliance with big corporate interests? First, we need to take democracy back from the neocons. Then we can try to improve our image and our deeds abroad, to have a foreign policy that looks like it came from a democracy. At least while we still have one.
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Free Speech is Anti-American?
[Read the article: America's trinity of terrorism]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I would also point out that self-flagellating, knee-jerk anti-American Americans like Grandin, and many of the Salon readers who have commented on his article, have a grossly simplistic view of what "the U.S." is. Markthomp
Markthomp, I have lived my whole life in the US, born and raised. My father was a career, decorated military officer who I am very proud of. He served in Vietnam, another waste of a war. I value his contribution and virtue, not the politicians who got us into that conflict. My family has been in this country for over three hundred years, if that is relevant. You can go to hell for calling me or any other critic of our current political leaders anti-American. If you were right in front of me I doubt you would like my response in person. In fact, it’s you who are anti-American to suggest criticism of poor policies is against the nature of our country. Maybe we should still be part of the British Empire. Perhaps you would be more comfortable living in the old Soviet Union, or Nazi Germany.
What’s ironic is that you contradicted yourself in your third paragraph by stating that “Yes, Grandin himself is also "the U.S." Which is it, anti-American or part of the US? What I don't buy into is the simplistic inflammatory pap that our elected politicians sell to us through a largely corporate media. While not always right I choose to think for myself and will share my views on forums like this. Whether you like it or not!