Letters to the Editor
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Gary you should have waited two more days
What's the point in blaming the Jews if you don't wait for Rosh Hashana? Did you forget your calendar again?
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It would probably be in Israel's interest to figure out a way to convey to Americans
that the Kristol/Podhoretz(sic?) stable of lunatics does not speak for Israel.
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What do you mean “we” kemosabe?
I remember the attacks well and the days afterward leading up to the invasion of Iraq, and there was a sizable portion of Americans who understood this was all an egregious, ignorant and political response and we were opposed to it for all the reasons you mention and more. We actually understood the Middle East, what our response should have been, taking the high road, working with other countries, and doing our dirty work behind the scenes, and we watched in horror while our current administration acted like a self-absorbed dumb high school jock who for once was faced with a punch in the nose. The problem rests solely with George Bush and this opportunistic administration. There was the other half of the nation that was angry and scared, and was looking to the government to show them the way, and placed their blind trust in the GOP that they were doing the right thing. The fact that Bush and Cheney completely let us all down with this dunderhead approach, all for self-serving short-term gain, is both a treasonous crime and has made us less safe. So don’t say “we” – many of us have fought this from day one, and will not rest until these cretins are behind bars for what they have done to our country.
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Our war on rationality.
To embellish on this exellent article...The various "wars" the United States have engaged in since World War II (wars on drugs, poverty, communism, terror) have all been marketed to the public in order to keep the country "mobilized" post-war. The current "War on Terror" has become in fact a total war on rationality itself, rationality having been replaced by self-righteousness. Those who wish to temper the country's reaction to 9/11 with strategy and intelligence are labeled "liberals". The term "liberal" has become an epithet implying, actually, a lack of blindness in running off amok in anger at the attacks.
A good boxer would not flail blindly at an opponent if caught by a sucker punch, but would cooly look for the right opening in which to efficiently do himself some good. When are we going to start doing that?
Perhaps the reason the press has been so complicit in the country's insane rush to war in Iraq is that the encouragement of mob mentality is a time-honored (atavistic)characteristic of the American press, which sells papers.
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Great article, Gary
It needs to be said and repeated and thought about and built upon: the invasion of Iraq was not just foolish, but an overtly racist act.
The racist belief is in thinking that all the Arabs are connected by invisible strings, so that killing one Arab is somehow supposed to frighten all the rest.
George Bush and the neocons talk a lot about 'freedom and democracy': but somehow they never talk about justice. Justice is what is so missing in all our doings in Iraq. Justice is the only thing that can ever make the world safer and better, yet we refuse to adhere to it in even the smallest way.
Also the absurd 'strength' doctrine of the Republicans needs to be challenged. They are not making us stronger, they are making us weaker. If we are supposed to respond with overwhelming force to every single provocation, then our enemies have us by the short hairs; they can keep us tied down in Iraq forever just by provoking us or threatening us. And every day we spend in Iraq weakens us further, not just militarily and economically, but in our souls and our character.
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Dear (~~~~)
Who's blaming the Jews? I think your response is the very kind of knee-jerking bullshit that Kamiya is talking about: any kind of mention of the words "Israel" and "Jews" not coupled with "Arabs must be destroyed" somehow means anti-Semitism.
Granted, Israel is a small country surrounded by nations and peoples who daily declare itself Israel's enemies to the death and some (like Hamas) even include Israel's annihilation in their mission statement. Nevertheless, slaughtering thousands upon thousands of Arab civilians, even in a state which was aligned against Israel, is not only racist, bigoted, violent but also destructive to Israel itself. Every shot we, Americans, fire in the Middle East makes Israel more hated. Why, then do we resolve to fire more shots?
I hear this a lot from people who declare themselves to be "pro-Israel" (and even from some Israelis): "Arabs are the kind of people who understand only strength." Fine. Isn't everyone, really? A show of force has been a reliable means of resolving certain conflicts at various times in history. But is blindly flailing about a show of force? Are our failures in Afghanistan and Iraq a demonstration of superior strength? Is the constant stream of deaths and injuries from IEDs, the billions of dollars wasted, the fraying edges of our military... are these attributes of "the world's only superpower"?
Come on, let's be honest here: we fucked up. Yes, "we", all of us. Those of us who were "aware" of how horrifically wrong the knee-jerk reaction to 9/11 was, those of us who knew that the casus belli for Iraq was phone, those who knew that war was madness, where were we? Maybe some of us protested, but where did it get us? Nowhere. So, yeah. We, folks, let this happen. Whether we could actually do anything or not is besides the point. If we are to preserve even the least shreds of national identity, we should own up to the mistakes made by our nation, regardless of whether we, the individuals knew better.
This is a great article, and its message should be hammered on over and over again until the right-wing noise machine shuts up and cowers under a rock. The reckoning, I'm afraid, is just beginning, and we must NOT let the talking heads on Fox News successfully rewrite history, or we'll do this again and again, until this nation of ours is a smoldering wreck. Won't take much, believe you me.