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Sunday, Nov 8, 2009
Reality-based Liberal
Published Letters: 950 Editor's Choice: 102
It is quite transparent to me, given the military angle, that Clinton is going for people scared of, yes, the darkie Muslims. None of the things you mention invokes an urgent military response in the middle of the night. And if they do (e.g. going to war with China or Russia) then she is all the more insane.
This isn't about Obama -- and it isn't about pictures of him in African garb. I'm not even an Obama fan.
The ad does not invoke diplomacy, or knowledge of international affairs. It shows children sleeping at 3am and asks who understands our military when the phone rings with something that presumably threatens those sleeping kids.
It is clearly aimed at voters who have bought into Bush's view of the world -- an inherently racist and violent view. I'd prefer a candidate who tried to dismantle that view rather than exploit it for a primary victory.
For the record, I think it's a shame Obama used the same ad (his being black doesn't excuse him from preying on racist fears either). I have been a sharp critic of Obama over the last few months when he deserved it.
You guys are right; we will never agree. Our world views are so different it's impossible. The fact that you are Democrats on a liberal site doesn't bode well for this nation or the world.
To show just how "crazy" I am, I don't think it's a dangerous world for any reason other than ones that start in this country. How ironic that the dictator we had to oust in Iraq used to be on our payroll, and that the alleged mastermind of 9/11 used to work for the CIA organizing what would largely become the Taliban in Afghanistan in the 70s and the 80s (his family and that of our current president used to attend each others weddings and such). I see a world in which you and I should be understood as having more in common with the Iraqis now living through hell than with the bin Ladens, and Bushes and the Clintons and the Noriegas, and the Qadafis and the oil company executives who have far more in common with one another.
That we identify with the largely white people who are the same ilk as the Husseins (power hungry chess players of regular people), and view as potential dangers the poor Islamic people who are, at root, just like us, is a victory for racism.
And while this may seem insane to you, and while my views are probably out of step with most Americans, if you want to talk reality-based, my views are actually in step with the rest of the world. So I submit that I am more reality-based than the small population of largely propagandized Americans who can't or won't see global relations as they are.
Think for a moment that over a million Iraqis are dead now who would otherwise be alive if it weren't for our "mistake." Over three million Vietnamese and an equal number of Koreans would be alive were it not for those mistakes. A death toll a lot greater than three thousand people on 9/11 -- the only foreign attack on our soil since Pearl Harbor. Even the genocide in Africa can be tied back directly to our "scramble for Africa" during the Cold War, in which we pumped weapons into the area and undermined democracy in favor of ruthless dictators for geo-political purposes (and exacerbated by the ongoing interference of western oil companies that operate with our government's blessing).
For all the survivors of our "mistakes" of genocidal proportions, the threat of an American president making a snap military decision at 3am is what constitutes a dangerous world. And unlike the 9/11 hijackers, who have killed a minuscule fraction of those we have killed, our killing was voted for and paid for by a nation -- our nation. And we do not ask for forgiveness, we think it should just be taken for granted. "Hey, I didn't support Bush. It's not my fault -- I don't owe the world anything for mistakes that I later disavow." Why do we get a special pass that brown-skinned people don't? If not racism, what?
Much of the initial coverage about Fort Hood turned out to be wrong. Is there anything wrong with that?
The accountability imposed by another country for the CIA's kidnapping and torture reveals much about our own.
Fox News' morning show plays to type, talking about whether Muslims in the Army should face "special debriefings"
The survivor and author is upset about comparisons some on the right are making to genocide
Once seen as a lunatic fringe, reactionary anti-women groups are courting respectability
Salon headlines in your mailbox
