Letters to the Editor
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chthonic
Re: Huh?
"chthonic forces far too large for us to comprehend, let along control."
chthnonic:
Dwelling in or beneath the surface of the earth.
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The emperor's new clothes
Gary Kamiya's article makes use of the fairy-tale about the naked emperor and his hallucinated clothes. However, he remarks that unlike the crowd in the fairy-tale, the American crowd believed Bush's and the neocons'delusion. As one who has wearily followed the non-progress of the war, I would like to take issue with his take on fairy-tales and credulous crowds. First, in the traditional story, the goggling on-lookers believed that the clothes were real--because they were told the clothes were real--and remarked on the finery aloud. It was a one small boy who pointed out the obvious: that the emperor's unlovely and naked butt was hanging out for all to see.
At the outset of this war, there were great numbers of us--operating on common-sense and historical precedent---who never believed this unprovoked attack had the slimmest justification. You may remember the enormous demonstrations both in Europe and in America. I marched here in Dallas in one of the city's largest ever protest marches. It not made up of any single wild-eyed hippie clot of people--there were elderly people, fashionistas, Muslims, regular-joes, the stolid middle-aged, women pushing strollers...in other words, everyone. There was no mention of the protest on the evening news, so I decided to write a piece about the futility of the Vietnam war (which I remember vividly and sorrowfully). I shipped it off to a magazine, which has often published my stuff. Returning it, the editor wrote, "...as for peace-marches, well, we've all been to peace marches..." Well, they weren't world-wide and they didn't number crowds of a million or more. So, when I read about dopy American buying into the Iraq war, I'd like to remind the writer that there were large numbers of us who never did. But, as with the emperor's new clothes, no one really saw us.
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chthonic
hahaha
this guy is cool
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What if everything is going perfectly?
It seems to me that this may be EXACTLY the outcome "they" were looking for. You have to ask yourself, who profits in chaos?
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The BURNING (Mesianic) bush
THE SLOW-TO-FIGURE-THINGS American electorate wants to stop the war-AND THEY THINK THEY CAN...Messianic leader, naive electorate-morally flexible congress adds up to a stupid war, beyond the control of the dullards-but they don't know it.
When Chavez said bush was a crazed messianic, Americans said "thats crazy." Now this is common knowledge, even in America.
America your first step is STOP KILLING PEOPLE until you know what you are doing.
And tell bush to get that stupid grin off his face-PEOPLE ARE DYING!
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What do we do with our fear?
It is possible that before he leaves office, the child lunatic presently in office will give the order to attack Iran with "bunker busting" nuclear weapons.
In the sixties, when I understood that Americans might use nuclear weapons in Southeast Asia should a numerically superior enemy assist North Vietnam in repelling our invasion, I, along with millions of others, engaged in protests that were eventually able to restrict our aggression in Southeast Asia and finally force our military to leave.
My fear is as great now as it was then when I contemplate the mentality of our current President and the support of his neo-conservative advisors for first use of nuclear weapons. Do other people here feel the same way? What is the answer, politically? The head of the House Judiciary Committee has refused to introduce a bill of impeachment, believing there are not enough votes to support it. The desires of the American people for withdrawl from Iraq are not being heard, much less respected.
If millions of Americans pour into the streets and consistently demand an end to the war, will the mainstream media cover the protests? Will the Executive and Congressional branches grow less deaf?
If we, the world, are in the most precarious position of waiting for Bush and his team to launch nuclear weapons, why are we not pouring forth and asserting our right to survive?
Where is everybody?
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Pakistan
This article mentions the unintended consequence of the support for the Afghani mujahedin, how Al Quaeda was partly created by the support we provided. I think this is a point that isn't receiving enough attention today. The reason I think this is important is because we are doing the exact same thing with Pakistan. I think that despite Musharraf's best efforts, Pakistan is one of the biggest sources of Islamic fundamentalist terrorism out there. As we busily arm Musharraf (who is, after all, also a brutal military dictator) to help us fight Al Quaeda we may be creating the next (and possibly current!) problems.
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WWI haunts this entire affair
The similarities between Bush and his war, and Germany, France, England, and Russia, and their war nearly 100 years ago are really creepy. Everyone then thought God, or *Right* anyway, was on their side. All of them waltzed right into a catastrophic world war from which there was no withdrawal. All of them thought the war would be over quickly.
England was offered more than one back-channel possibility of an early peace. So was France. But they did not take them. And once the first one was refused, all others *had* to be refused, because then the respective governments could have been, rightfully, accused of wasting thousands upon thousands of young men for absolutely nothing.
so, that war had to be fought to exhaustion, because none of the politicians, and none of the military men, wanted to be faced with the brutal facts and consequences of their incompetence. These leaders have been judged harshly by history. Perhaps not harshly enough, though, when you think about it.
Bush doesn't even have the excuse of events getting out of his control. The march to war in 1914 was not so easily avoided, once a couple of key events took place. Bush, on the other hand, could have stopped the march at any time. But, immersed over his head in his pool of delusion, he was sure *right* was on his side, and he would be triumphant.
With Bush, it's like watching a 14-year-old, a boy-man who never really grew up, making the most disasterous mess, and then relying on lies--and the adults--to avoid responsibility.
I hope we don't do this again in my lifetime. Offer up leadership of our country to a man who makes Beavis and Butthead look like serious, solid adults. But I fear that our electorate is too ignorant, and vulnerable to manipulation..and our media are in the hands of corporate power that will nearly always side with government..
It's not a good situation, going forward. What worked once to manipulate an ignorant population, will work again. And it will be used again. The Roves among us will not fade away.
Great essay Gary.