Letters to the Editor
-
Claire vs. Alistaire
I'm not going to wade into the political melee here-though I do find Sir Alistaire's courtierism, much like Bob Woodward's, more than a bit off-putting. This was, in general, a fine article that brought history alive and reminded me of why I read Salon every day.
I think, though, that the fascination and importance of history are often brought out more by fiction, or semi-fiction: I'm thinking of Claire Messud's wonderful novel, The Last Life. For those interested in the very personal weight history can have on a family of former Algerian pied noirs, her book, rather than Sir Alistaire's, is the one to read - That is, if you're more interested in history on an individual, human level than in political jabbering - Messud's book brings beautifully, and painfully, to light, how the past marks one, even though one may unaware of it or in denial.
-
There are possibilities
I have enjoyed much of Alistair Horne's work over the years and it was good to read an interview with him.
But I am disappointed in him and another fine military historian, John Keegan, for their initial support of the war and the Bushies. It makes me think historians can only see the truth after the fact not during.
Thanks to you, Salon, and other alternative news sources I saw the truth about George Bush and his neocon buddies and the awfulness they would bring to the world. Bill Maher told Charlie Rose the other night that he was often wrong in his judgments of people but he had George Bush pegged from the start as a disaster. Me, too. Since September 1999 when I first saw him being interviewed, I thought no one would be taken in by this fratboy idiot, but they were. Some still are.
On the night of September 11 I watched Bush give a thoroughly weak and silly speech about what had happened. No ringing phrases. No call to arms. No understanding that this "war on terrorism" would require some finesse. I shuddered with fear because he didn't get it and still doesn't.
The best options for containing the mess in the Middle East are still available to us.
1. Negotiate a settlement with Iran, Syria and the Iraqi insurgents. Leave behind the best situation possible. Protect those who have helped us. Protect the Iraqi middle class and professionals because Iraq will need them again. Pay to resettle the 2 million Iraqis who have fled.
2. Push the Israelis to make peace with the Palestinians. Give back all the land they have taken. Invest heavily in the Palestinians to make an economic miracle as we helped do with Germany and Japan after WW2.
3. Send more troops to Afghanistan. Push hard to get rid of the Taliban and the warlords. Burn the poppy fields. Invest heavily there, too. Make another economic miracle.
Democratic capitalism is a soft sell and cannot be imposed. Show the benefits and they will grab it. Force it on people and it's like good medicine that tastes bad. Only by showing the Muslim world that having us for friends means peace, prosperity and freedom will they abandon their hate and their suicide bombs. We have to give them a viable and desirable alternative to Osama bin Laden and death even with 72 virgins.
They may never love us but they will stop wanting to kill us.
-
The essence of a quagmire
I suppose I should be comforted that I'm not an moron just becase I can't see a way out of the Iraq quagmire, since a distinguished historian can't either. I think the Republicans are wrong with their endless commitment to stay, but the Democrats are also wrong with their urgent timetable for compelete withdrawal.
To me the who situation is akin to some idiot building a nuclear reactor in his back yard. Obviously you want him to stop, but the problem is that then you'll have unshielded uranium sitting around. However if you let him keep building then you'll have a worse problem when the reactor inevitably goes critical. (Ideally it would be best if the idiot never started building the reactor, but it's too late for that.)
The only solution I see there is stop the idiot from building any more and call in some actual professionals to dismantle the reactor. In the Iraq situation, who would be those professionals?
-
Correction and addendum
In my post above, the fragment "the who situation" should read "the whole situation".
Also, with regards to European efforts stifling Muslim democracies, I'm suprised at the omission of the Crusades. These incursions were events which turned a Muslim world in the throes of its own Enlightenment into a military state, thanks to the aggression of Christian imperialism. The hatred and mistrust these ventures created remain with us today, deeply woven into societies on both sides.
After several centuries of mismanagement by the Big White Boss, is it any wonder Middle Eastern peoples would want to run the show themselves now?
-
I'm glad someone finally brought out this point
Horne noted that one of the less-known effects of torture is its effect on those who carry it out. "The damage done to the torturees is awful, but an extraordinary thing is the terrible corruption of torture on the torturers. I've followed it up quite a lot in France. There are mental hospitals that have a lot of ex-soldiers from 50 years ago who are still suffering from what they had to do."
The neocons believe in Superman. They send Superman to Guantanamo to extract information. Superman can do anything to anybody and not suffer any damage himself.
I wonder how many of these Supermen are going to be found after the war, damaged forever because of what they've done.
No human is Superman. Everyone has a hippocampus. It's a little clump of tissue that helps tie your emotions and your thoughts together.
It's like a little circuit that can fry when you put too much juice through it.
Whether you're being tortured or doing the torturing -- that's too much juice through the circuit. It starts to burn, and your life is changed forever.
-
Pathetic.
Interesting how every anecdote Horne produces about his various head-of-state encounters involves complete lies being told to his face — and Horne, power groupie extraordinaire, being all to happy to let them go unchallenged.
Talk about fiddling while Rome burns. This guy has the ear of the president, and all he can say about his encounter is how flattered he was by Bush's attention.