Letters to the Editor
AreaMan
Published Letters: 9 Editor's Choice: 1
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Bad Ideas
[Read the article: The right-wing brain in action]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Greenwald is trying to inflate merely bad ideas into outright racism. Not every bad idea is racism. And not all the ideas discussed are bad.
G Reynolds was quoting reader mail anyway, it wasn't his idea. And the aspect he picked up on was the idea that attrition might be in favor of the US. An interesting military idea.
The references are to places that are less wealthy, less secular: cultural differences, not racial differences.
The "limitations of the people in that part of the world" mustn't assumed to be racial, but are usually assumed to be cultural, educational, and religious. If it were racial, it would include Arabs in North America or Europe.
G Reynolds asks, intelligently, what should we do if democracy can't work in Iraq. He answers, less intelligently, that 'more rubble less trouble' might be good. I think there are better answers but the question is sound.
And Reynolds original accusation, that the lack of left criticism of chemical warfare by the insurgents represents a racism (of lower expectations) is harsh, and could be wrong, but is evaded by Greenwalds response.
I'll ask it: "Why haven't you dumped heavily on the insurgents for using chemical weapons?".
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LeCastor and Hoag
[Read the article: The right-wing brain in action]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]LeCastor makes some sense. A bit more sense the Glenn Greenwalds original article, though. Reynolds questions, though, are still fair, and still evaded.
Except when LeCastor says: "How the US acts and now the insurgents act are not logically related.". Obviously, the rules that one side follows will impact the behavior of the other side.
Or when he says "the insurgents obviously know what they are doing...". They obviously are fascist fanatics with confused goals. They hide pretty well and some of them are good at surviving, but they have no political program and cannot agree on a leader. The insurgency has no hope of taking state power.
Or when he says "Because we're discussing something different -- the apparant rightwing racism of Ledeen and Reynolds". The remarks of Reynolds accusing the Left of racism were about the inconsistency of the Left in criticising napalm but not chlorine.
Hoag says the US is using banned napalm. Banned by whom? Or by what treaty? There was a UN-based treaty to ban napalm but the US did not sign it. The Sunday Mirror article Hoag referenced says this, so he knows.
The insurgency hasn't signed any treaties whatever, and obey no rules at all, so they are not in violation of any Conventions. If that is the reason for not criticising the use of chlorine then perhaps the Left is innocent of racism. But Greenwald should have said this. It's a better argument than he made.
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GDP Hard to figure
[Read the article: A neocon primer: Regime change in 18th-century India]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]I'm very dubious about the GDP figures from 400 years ago. It's got to all be made up of agriculture, unlike the GDP of today as we think of it. I'd like to see a few real economists weigh in on that subject. Also, GDP per capita would be a very important indicator.
I am even more concerned about the undertone of Leonard's article and those of the commentors. They seem glad to be watching the demise of democracy and the rise of tyranny. Moreover, the rise of East, characterized as "Traditional" by Dalrymple, is hardly an argument in favor of it. Slavery is just as "Traditional". If Dalrymple favors a demise of the West, why should Leonard, or I?
Technical note: Do not confuse this William Dalrymple, a historian, with the conservative psychiatrist and writer Theodore Dalrymple.
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Not Racism
[Read the article: Instant prejudice: Korea and Virginia Tech]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]Debbie Schlussel was wrong in her speculation. And was just speculation, and she said so.
But not all errors are racism, and anyway, Islam is not a race. Andrew Leonard jumped the gun and did not have the grace to say he was just speculating.
Debbie Schlussel asked a legitimate question: Why are the authorities hiding the ethnicity of the shooter? She wondered if it was because the shooter might be Muslim. Of course, maybe the cops, seeing an Asian corpse, did not know who he was.
And it could even turn out that Debbie's guess was right, what with the "Ismail Ax" tatto.
Most of us originally guessed "White Redneck". Does that make us anti-white?
Leonards column was "Yellow Journalism". Debbie's was merely wrong.
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Melanie Phillips Might be the Victim of a Crackpot
[Read the article: Right-wing blogs discover massive conspiracy to hide WMDs in Iraq]
[Read more letters about this article: Here]But it might be, that the guy saw what he says he saw. When nuclear weapons are at issue, it pays to be extra careful. If there is some way to check out the theory of "Gone to Syria" then it should be checked out.
Dave Gaubatz doesn't say he saw the stuff go to Syria, he's basically guessing.
"'Yes' is indisputably the right answer to that question. . . . about the fact that Iraq possessed WMDs, there is no doubt."
There really is no doubt that Iraq had chemical weapons in 2002. And there is no doubt that Iraq had a nuclear weapons program in the 1980's. Greenwald won't deny these known facts.
Glenn Greenwald doesn't know what Gaubatz saw, but he clearly wants to make sure nobody checks out his story.
If you read the Phillips and other blogs, you'll see they are mostly being very careful about not saying more than they know. Greenwald has irresponsibly converted a mere suspicion into a vast Paranoid Conspiracy Theory.
Gabautz is creating an atlas of Islamic centers and mosques. This is indeed extemely odd but should be quite harmless. The Muslims themselves need a sort of Yellow Pages so they can find mosques when travelling, and probably have published a travellers guide for Muslims. Gaubautz should just buy one of those. Granted, the law enforcement authorities would be within their job description to keep an eye on this sort of thing, in case some whackjob uses the collection as a list of targets. Likewise, they would also be within their job description to keep an eye on the Jihadi centers in the US. Jihad does not, after all, mean peace.