Posted October 17, 2002

Protests

Seeing as the congress has failed the American people, it is up to us to stop Bush from leading us down a path of destruction.

I would like to make a suggestion for your site. You may have this, but I was unable to find it. Could you possibly put a link to a page containing any antiwar demonstrations you know of on your home page?

Maybe organizations could be contacted to submit dates of demonstrations to your site.

This would help all to protest and maybe turn the tide.

~ J. Blake

The Backtalk editor replies:

This icon -- -- on the Antiwar.com home page links to the Peace.protest.net international antiwar event page.

Give Them Hell, Justin

Regarding "The Two Faces of Ronald Radosh," by Justin Raimondo:

I am not smart enough to know Ronald Radosh or some of the other person's names you use. I do know about Pat Buchanan, because I have been a voting Democrat all of my adult life. Also, I am a 76-year-old former World War II US Marine Corps combat machine gunner who spent 2 1/2 years in the Pacific jungles fighting Japanese soldiers (not children and civilians as Bush does), to protect our Constitutional liberties.

Furthermore, this old warrior agrees with almost everything you write, and I definitely admire your intelligence; maybe that is Ronald Radosh's problem. I'm sure you are brighter than him, and he can't handle it, so he castigates you because you are gay. I think A.W.O.L. Bush ("The Bastard President," as Time magazine wrote) is bloodthirsty and all because he wants oil which begets money which begets power.

We had a Jewish guy in our company who twice in battle was a hero, and eventually lost his life on Iwo, again while performing a heroic act. Now that I have said that, I think Sharon like Bush is a coward, and vampire who feeds on the blood of those countries citizens who are less powerful than Israel and the US If our stupid elected politicians, Democrats and Republicans, would stop giving Israel zillions of our tax dollars, Israel would be relegated to throwing rocks at the Palestinians the way the Palestinians do to the Israelis. Finally, Justin, please disregard those persons who attack you because you are gay, because my Jewish Marine Corps friend was gay, we all knew it, and didn't give a damn, he was a hero, and in my opinion, so are you.

~ Albert M.

3 Hour Drive to School

Justin said on October 4, 2002 ("9/11: What Did Israel Know?"):

"As Mohammed Atta and Marwan Alshehhi went back and forth between Huffman Aviation, a flight school in nearby Venice, and their Hollywood apartment..."

Hollywood, Florida is not "nearby" to Venice, Florida. Yahoo! Maps says they are 198 miles apart, and it takes 3 hours and 30 minutes to drive from one to the other. I think somebody might want to ask, why were flight students living in Hollywood attending a flight school that far away? There must have been something very special about this particular flight school, and also about living in Hollywood.

~ Bill Fairchild, Douglas, Massachusetts

Criticism Is Patriotic

As citizens we must take leadership as citizens of our Republic, and as leaders, be politically active, critical, questioning, bold, pointed and unapologetic. Criticism of the war effort is not only a right under free speech, guaranteed under the US Constitution, it is a right fought for by those who have given their lives in defense of our nation. This right must be constantly exercised so to make those who gave the ultimate sacrifice a worthy cause to have given their lives to defend. Thus we must all demonstrate loudly and critically so to honor their sacrifice and ensure that it was not in vain. Rather their sacrifice ensures and confers upon us all, as the people, the right to speak freely, critically, boldly and unapologetically. Criticism of war is not the same as criticism of the military and this point must become adequately clear to many Americans sooner as opposed to later. So let us be clear:

It is patriotic and noble to protest the war. It is patriotic and noble to criticize the war.

It is patriotic and noble to criticize those who take us to war. It is patriotic and noble to criticize a wartime president. It is patriotic and noble to criticize and to keep on criticizing.

It must be understood that criticism of the war is different than criticism of those who fight it and deserve no blame. Rather it is our duty to blame those who send them unnecessarily to fight and have not to go themselves. For certainly this is but the highest, most honorable patriotic duty of every American citizen.

Stand loud and proud and do your patriotic duty to dissent, to criticize the war and to criticize those who start wars. ...

~ Eric E. Johansson, Veteran of the Armed Forces of the United States, Antiwar Activist, Veterans for Peace, Chapter 69 San Francisco, California

Jihadi Parties' Victory in Pakistan

While I have no doubt that many, if not most Pakistanis want nothing to do with any US military presence in their country, the surprisingly strong showing of Radical Islamist parties in the most recent election may have little to do with the widespread anti-U.S. sentiment. Reading the results of the election, the most notable development is the dramatic drop off in support for PML-N, the party of the disgraced former prime minister Nawaz Sharif, which went from winning the last election to a mere 14 seats. Given the overwhelming public repudiation of Sharif at the time of the coup in 1999, and the tight restrictions placed upon PML-N campaigning, the defection of the bulk of his supporters was virtually a foregone conclusion. Pakistani voters who formerly supported Sharif had their choice between the party of the general who disposed him, PML-Q, Benazir Bhutto's socialist "Pakistan People's Party" which is forever anathema to PML voters, or the jihadis. Given these options, the vote of a substantial percentage of them for the only other non-Musharraf affiliated major Islamic parties should come, in retrospect, as little surprise at all.

Indeed, another, more sinister conclusion might be reached from the election results. Pakistani military dictators have traditionally cultivated Islamic extremists as a counterweight to their secular democratic opponents, and by imposing restrictions on the campaigns of both the PPP and PML-N, but not the jihadis, Musharraf seems to be playing the same game. While this may at first seem suicidal, given the oft-expressed Islamist demand for his resignation, the fact remains that the ISI has always enjoyed its strongest ties to the Islamist parties. Further, what better way to remind Washington of Musharraf's absolute irreplaceability than to wave in its face the rising power of pro-Taliban political parties?

With even such a sober observer of Pakistani politics as Tariq Ali perceiving the long hand of ISI in such horrific incidents as the murder of Daniel Pearl, the possibility of continued manipulation of the Islamists by the military for its own ends cannot be dismissed out of hand.

~ Michael P., Mercer Island, Washington

Stupid Leading the Blind

Brilliant, I cannot believe George Tenet has to declassify the statement below, and it supposedly surprises George W. Bush and company. Any citizen with common sense and who can think can figure out such a scenario, the CIA obviously either reveals or knows only the obvious, certainly claims not to have known about 9/11. Maybe they got the revelation below from my letter, which I sent on September 5, 2001, to my Alabama congressman and to CSPAN, I expressed exactly such a concern. I believe the stupid are leading the blind in this country!

"Should Saddam conclude that a US-led attack could no longer be deterred, he probably would become much less constrained in adopting terrorist actions. Such terrorism might involve conventional means ... or CBW." ...

~ BW

Editor's note:

Backtalk editor Sam Koritz is profiled in the Real World section of October's Smart Money magazine (print version only, not available online).