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We get a lot of letters, and publish a representative sampling of them in this column, which is updated as often as possible by our "Backtalk editor," Sam Koritz. Please send your letters to backtalk@antiwar.com. Letters may be edited for length (and coherence). Unless otherwise indicated, authors may be identified and letters may be reproduced in full or in part.

Posted July 6, 2001

Eternal Vigilance

"Eternal vigilance is the cost of freedom." Which is far more important than "no war." You are not in touch with reality. [Antiwar.com should] support the struggle and willingness of man to fight for freedom and oppose tyranny… It's a shame your "intellectual" approach completely missed the essence of man.

…In a world full of people who, as the saying supports, "power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely" has taught us… (with the likes of Stalin, Mussolini, Hitler, Hussein, etc.) [that we] must always be prepared to risk …war to prevent the more horrifying consequence of overt pacifism. Fact is: war is sometimes the lesser of two evils.

[In Antiwar.com's] editorials, I found a little too much …opposition to those that oppose tyranny - editorials supporting the likes of Fujimora, a known despot, and his henchman. Toledo preaches freedom and Democracy …and your articles are against him, it appears. Attacks on Israel are one-sided, without taking into account the total hate and refusal by the opposition to accept Jewish and even Christian values as equals in their society. A lot of support for the very types that would bring tyranny to all parts of the world through enforcement of a very narrow set of truths, that they would dictate.

~ Jonathan Gol

The Backtalk editor replies:

Antiwar.com opposes government aggression and tyranny, while endorsing the principle of self-defense.


The Mark

Western media and political leaders continue to portray the insurrectionist regions in the Balkans and in the Caucuses as strife-torn Muslim Tibets, little Sanjaks yearning for nothing more than their freedom and dignity. Viciously denied these basic rights by evil Slavic overlords, the menfolk (and women, too) have slung on bandoliers and started mining the roads willy-nilly. The cure to this Pancho Villa-style banditry, we are told, is appeasement and cash. Pardew, the US's new "mediator" has said as much: he blames the leaders of Macedonia for the current crisis. The solution to Chechnya's violence, too, is "political."

The alternative view, …put forth by Mr. Putin, is that Kosovo and Chechnya are in fact anarcho-terrorist mini-states, where drugs and jihad fuel ethnic terrorism. Besides heroin, their chief export is violence to their hapless neighbors. The invasion of Dagestan by the Chechens during their twilight period of quasi-independence, and the invasion of Macedonia by Kosova Protection Force "peace officers," shows that Putin's view is much nearer the mark. I have met the "mark" here, and he is us.

~ P. Smith


"Saddamization" Question

…I'm confused as to the intentions of the U.S. and Europe regarding the way they are Saddam-izing Milosevic, specifically as to how both superpowers' interest coincide on the matter. This became apparent to me when reading Raimondo's [column, "The Trial,"] when he points out that the ICTFY is primarily European. As we watch the EU gain political and military power, to the discomfort of the U.S., wouldn't such a potentially exploitable situation as Slobo and the state of the Balkans become a point of contention between the US and EU, instead of a joint demonization? …Why do the US and EU work together in the US intervening and extending its influence there? Shouldn't the EU be trying to squeeze the US out?

~ Josh Paige


Slobo, Raimondo, & Kostunica

…Justin Raimondo ...continues to …attack Milosevic while glorifying and whitewashing Kostunica. The fact is that when Milosevic "sold his people out" at Dayton, Yugoslavia was suffering under devastating sanctions while the Bosnian Serbs and Serbia itself were facing the threat of NATO bombing. Likewise after facing a miserable 78-days of NATO bombardment Raimondo expected Yugoslavia to hold out a bit longer and then get ready to engage in a ground war with the world's leading imperial powers.

As for Kostunica, he's a quisling! Kostunica's people, as well as the "independent" media and various other "NGO"s, were funded by enormous amounts of money from the U.S. and NATO. …Raimondo refuses to see any fault in Kostunica or his rise to the presidency. If Kostunica was so sure of victory why didn't he just go for second round elections instead of taking power through violence? Why did the new DOS government dissolve the Parliament whose elections they didn't contest? The "reforms" undertaken by the DOS government have made things even worse for most ordinary citizens and taxes have shot way up.

In his piece "The Trial" Raimondo can't stop at (correctly) pointing out the ridiculous nature of The Hague Tribunal and the truth behind the Racak "massacre" but has to go and launch into an attack on Worker's World, The International Action Center, and Ramsey Clark. Regardless of the politics or rhetoric of the IAC, Ramsey Clark is a man of great intelligence and integrity who will make a decent lawyer for Milosevic. Raimondo's attacks perpetuate the idea that those who back Milosevic or criticize Kostunica are only a select few from the Left. In fact, quite a number of voices from across the spectrum including Bob Djurdjevic, George Szamuely, John Laughland, and Emperor's Clothes have all said or shown that Kostunica is nothing more than a figurehead meant to give credibility to NATO's stooge government.

~ Dimitri O.

Justin Raimondo replies:

I recommend today's column [July 6, 2001] to you, Dmitri, in answer to some of your questions. As for the rest: your characterization of Kostunica as "a quisling" is typical of the sectarian Left (neo-Stalinist division), and I frankly don't hold your bitterness against you. After all, Kostunica took out the last Stalinist in Europe, and you guys are sore. Tough. Now you have to decide which side you're on: the ex-leftist sell-outs to the New World Order, like Djindjic, or the liberal market-oriented nationalists of Kostunica's stripe. But of course the content and tone of your letter speaks volumes about which side you have already chosen.

As for the intelligence and integrity of Ramsey Clark, I do not doubt it for a moment. What I was criticizing was not his personal character, but his politics. Workers World has been a major impediment to the antiwar movement: they split the antiwar movement during the Kosovo war, so that there were two anti-interventionist coalitions in practically every major city. They opposed Antiwar.com's every effort to unify the opposition to Clinton's war, and ruthlessly exploited Serbian-American organizations for their own sectarian agenda. Against our single-issue approach, they opportunistically dragged in every extraneous leftist crusade, from Mumia Abu Jamal to the dangers of bioengineered carrots. In its shrill, unrelenting and completely unreasonable tone, your letter epitomizes their politics to a tee, and I would say you deserve each other. But Serbian-Americans, I believe, and the antiwar movement in general, deserve better.

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