Posted February 20, 2003

Regarding 'Excuses and Justifications' by Nebojsa Malic:

I have been reading your articles on regular basis. They are of special interest to me since I was born in Belgrade. Needless to say, I get even more depressed after them.

Although antiwar myself unless it is for self-liberation, I can't help but wonder: where were all these protesters during the bombing of Yugoslavia? Do they really feel more sorry for Saddam Hussein? Do they think Slobodan Milosevic was more of a villain than Hussein? Or were they so enamored with Clinton and therefore did not question anything? This could be a good topic for one of your future articles.

~ M. Brown

Nebojsa Malic replies:

In general, Imperial interventions should not be opposed because of who their victims are or aren't, but because the Empire has no right to intervene in the first place. People who follow this principled reasoning opposed the invasion of Kosovo in 1999 just as they oppose the invasion of Iraq now.

Were Around

How come you were not around when Bill Clinton was bombing Iraq? I think I know.

~ IDW

Managing Editor Eric Garris replies:

If you had read our statement on "Who We Are," you would know that we started Antiwar.com to protest Bill Clinton's bombing of Iraq in 1998, and later to protest his war against the Serbs.

I think I know what you think you know, but you are wrong: I am a Republican.

Hit Them in the Wallet

Since the only thing Bush and his like-minded Republicans (and too many Democrats) care about is money, why not hit them in the wallet. Perhaps it's time to evolve the antiwar movement. Has anybody considered trying to get trade embargoes against America going? If the countries who oppose the war banded together to place a trade embargo on America then Americans business (a.k.a. the Republican Party) would get nervous and start to listen. It would also give the beginning of a way out for Bush in case he has painted himself into a corner.

Just a thought.

~ Vic Meyers, veteran, husband, father, American

Anti-CIA

...For over 40 years the CIA has been masterminding acts of horror directed at our world neighbors. The inconceivable facts that surround the CIA's strategies leave only enough room for Americans to be ashamed. We should be ashamed to know that the unsubstantiated murder of innocent people was all done in the name of Democracy. We should be ashamed of the men and women that ran the CIA in the past and the individuals that run it today. We should be ashamed that we have allowed these psychotic patriots to run amuck in the world and destroy the honor and integrity that made this country great. Lastly, we should be ashamed for allowing laws to be passed which exempted the Agency from the search and review requirements of the Freedom of Information Act. After The CIA Information Act of 1984 was signed into law by President Reagan, the CIA was able to make ignorant tactical alliances with people like Manuel Noriega, Osama Bin Laden, Saddam Hussein, the Islamic Jihad and many other terrorist organizations without revealing it to the American people. Under the noses of the United States Citizens, these terrorists received expert training from the CIA on how to unconventionally kill innocent people and also received our tax dollars in the form of stinger missile launchers, chemical weapons, countless explosives and American cash. ...

If "We the People" want to make a move toward piece and prosperity, we must move our focus away from antiwar, and point all our attention to the systematic, and unconventional deconstruction of the CIA. Written on the wall of the main entrance in the CIA headquarters is "The Truth Shall Set You Free". Unfortunately, when the truth about the CIA is revealed, many will realize that the real terrorists have been working for the United States all along.

Contact your local representative to pass legislation to rid our country of the CIA. You can find them at <http://www.senate.gov/> by choosing the state on the front page. For more information on the History of the CIA, check your local listings for "The History Channel" Programming or go to <http://www.historychannel.org> .

(All history concerning CIA intervention in foreign countries is summarized from William Blum’s encyclopedic work, Killing Hope: U.S. Military and CIA Interventions since World War II, Monroe, Maine: Common Courage Press, 1995. Sources for domestic CIA operations come from Jonathan Vankin and John Whalen’s The 60 Greatest Conspiracies of All Time, Secaucus, N.J.: Citadel Press, 1997. Also see Coleman McCarthy, "The Consequences of Covert Tactics," Washington Post, December 13, 1987.)

~ Matt Council

Boycott Oil

Peace activists in Portland, Oregon are calling for an oil company boycott for Exxon, Shell, Chevron and BP on the onset of war. These are the companies working behind the scenes through their former employees to gain control of Iraq's oil through conquest. By threatening a permanent boycott they hope to avert war.

US and UK companies long held a three-quarter share in Iraq's oil production, but they lost their position with the 1972 nationalization of the Iraq Petroleum Company. The nationalization, following ten years of increasingly rancorous relations between the companies and the government, rocked the international oil industry, as Iraq sought to gain greater control of its oil resources. After the nationalization, Iraq turned to French companies and the Russian (Soviet) government for funds and partnerships.

Today, the US and UK companies are very keen to regain their former position, which they see as critical to their future leading role in the world oil industry. The US and the UK governments also see control over Iraqi and Gulf oil as essential to their broader military, geo-strategic and economic interests. At the same time, though, other states and oil companies hope to gain a large or even dominant position in Iraq. As denationalization sweeps through the oil sector, international companies see Iraq as an extremely attractive potential field of expansion. France and Russia, the long-standing insiders, pose the biggest challenge to future Anglo-American domination, but serious competitors from China, Germany and Japan also play in the Iraq sweepstakes.

~ B. Picolin

No Blood for Water

Note also in Pelletier's recent article about the fighting between Iran and Iraq that led to the gassing of the Kurds the reason for fighting over that area: control of water supplies. And note further that that area of Iraq could well supply – if it were diverted – a great deal of water to Israel. Not a principal reason, to be sure, but not negligible either.

~ GD Kenney

Boycott the Pro-War Countries

If the protest has no real power, it may not work well! Just a big noise is not enough. ... Therefore, we have two suggestions:

1: What a citizen can do is boycott the pro-war countries. Yes, boycott all of the pro-war countries' products including those of the US, UK , Spain, Italy, Australia, Japan, Taiwan, Poland, Bulgaria, etc. For example: stop buying Ford, which is made in US. Stop eating at McDonalds, another big American firm. Stop taking the flight from US, UK companies' airplanes. Stop tourism to the US, UK, Spain, Italy, Bulgaria and Poland. Those ferocious hawks must feel the pinch before they stop the war! On the other hand, as encouragement, we should all buy more of the antiwar countries' (like Germany, France, China, Russia etc.) products.

2: Please immediately warn Turkey that if they let the US to use their base to attack Iraq, then we are going to urge millions worldwide protesters stop buying any products from Turkey! ...

~ CC

The Berlinale

Here in Berlin, the Berlinale, our annual Film Festival, has just been held. It was satisfying to see how especially American actors took the opportunity to express dissent with their government's unconditional will to wage war on everyone not living the American Dream.

Edward Norton said he'd envy French and German people being able to agree with their governments, something he and a lot of other Americans weren't able to do for years.

Spike Lee mentioned that he felt the US government having no moral justification whatsoever to tell anybody else what to do. ...

Regards and encouragement from Old Europe!

~ Tom Loew

Hollywood Demonstration

We had a tremendous demonstration here in Hollywood California. Starting at the world famous intersections of Hollywood and Vine, the massive march made it's way down Hollywood Blvd. past all of the internationally renown landmarks. I saw quite a few signs that read "Antiwar.com" – including one huge sign that must have been ten feet high and painted in red, white, and blue.

From the stage at the end of the march, one of the organizers was informed by the Los Angeles Police Department that the LAPD estimate of the crowd size was 100,000.

There were also demonstrations in outlying areas of L.A.: Santa Monica, Long Beach, and Orange County had demonstrations that numbered in the thousands.

The independent media center of Los Angeles – http://la.indymedia.org/ – has full details on much of what happened. Photographs are starting to pour into that site. I've lived in Los Angeles my entire life and I've never seen anything this large before, not even during Vietnam.

Thanks for all of the work you do at Antiwar.com – you guys really rock! Forward ever, backwards never!

~ Mark Vallen, Art-for-a-Change.com

Regarding "A 'Toxic' Meme?" by Justin Raimondo:

I always enjoy Mr. Raimondo's work, but he should learn to better keep his libertarian leanings from clouding his perceptions. Casually dismissing the Left's "war for oil" thesis – as flawed as it may be – makes no sense. Certainly in a free market (that wonderful, elusive beast), releasing Iraqi oil would drive prices down, but so would increased drilling in Alaska, and that doesn't stop the Bush Administration from pushing that agenda. The fact is, person X would rather have the ability to sell 100 barrels of oil at $30 a barrel than 50 barrels at $40. Of course, person X wouldn't have to sell the extra oil at a reduced price; person X can just hold on to it until the demand goes up, as oil companies do all the time.

But even if we assume that oil prices will go down, how does this counter the "war for oil" concept? In other words, maybe the very point of this war is to drive oil prices down. Destabilizing the region could have this effect (along with several others), and it would not surprise me if this thought was behind the thinking of many in the Administration.

I admire Mr. Raimondo's work in considering the players in the Administration and their motivations. Treating the Administration, or any social organization for that matter, as a black box does nothing but lead to the circular, epimethean understanding so common to members of the Academy. Mr. Raimondo is obviously very aware of this. However, for this very reason, Mr. Raimondo should not be so quick to dismiss other forces at work, even if they conflict with his ideological leanings.

~ J.B. Allen

Regarding "Bush Losing Patience with Turkey's Growing Demands," London Times:

I was reading the following paragraph from the article linked from your web site on times on line February 19th:

"Senior American officials, including President Bush, made the Turks their final offer, which Western diplomats and Turkish officials put at $6 billion of grants and up to $20 billion in credit, and urged an immediate decision. However, diplomats say that Ankara is holding out for $10 billion in grants, $15 billion in credits and loans and an additional $6.8 billion in forgiveness of military debts."

And it sounded very familiar, and I remembered the Bible Mark 15:24

"And when they had crucified him, they parted his garments casting lots upon them, what every man should take..."

Although the majority of the Iraqi people are of the Muslim faith, I am sure they would sympathize with Jesus during his final hours.

~ Fariborz Fazeli, Dubai, UAE

Regarding Denka Seiken's letter posted February 15:

As a Canadian I feel compelled to respond to Denka Seiken's accusations, especially his opening barb that "...Canadians (especially Muslims) hate America...". First, Denka doesn't seem to comprehend simple geography; "America" compromises two huge land masses known as continents situated in two hemispheres of North and South America, of which the United States (of America) is a part.

Canada is located in the northern portion of North (America) so with all felicity and due respect, Canada itself is geographically speaking "American". It is only a reflection of the gross vanity and implicit greatness of US hegemony that some United States citizens claim all of America (if not the World?) as theirs to own and (ab)use as they please. Suspicion and fear of such a nation, hell-bent on self-destruction, with little if any regard for the deathly harm its warmongering depravity is inflicting upon others, besides its insatiable lust for world domination and global empire, is enough to make any sane person extremely wary, to say the least! It is not hatred of the United States or its citizens that motivates Canadians (and other nations) to oppose US imperialism; it is simple, healthy fear, the God-given emotional faculty of natural intuition, so to speak, that provides the discernment of things dangerous and destructive to life, and most important, the inclination to avoid, shun and flee from them.

Finally Denka wants us to believe that the Islamic Faith is based upon hatred and violence and therefore providing the justifications for war against Muslims around the globe. I'd probably laugh myself into hysterics, as many probably do, at the sheer hypocrisy of such a viewpoint, if it were not so bloody serious and the dark extent to which the role that theocratic authoritarianism has played throughout history, let alone in the last century. If any religious system of authoritarian dogma has been central to the abuses of violence, plunder and warfare, for the promotion of slavery and colonialism, it has been the fanatical dispensations of Judeo/Christianity. The True Faith has always been beyond the reaches of formalised religion and the backwash of the doctrinal flotsam and the dogmatic jetsam of human vanity. True religion is simply love.

~ David d'Apollonia

Regarding KM's letter posted February 15:

KM, why not make your donation to Antiwar.com before the war begins – and just maybe it won't! Anything that can forestall the Charge of the "Lite" Brigade (forgive me, Tennyson) on any front helps.

~ CW, Florida

Regarding "Antiwar Conservatives Bash Hawks on Iraq" by Rene P. Ceria-Cruz, Pacific News Service:

Congrats to you guys as seen here with this mention of your role in the antiwar movement. Your website, especially Justin's column, has the best links on this movement on the Internet. I was especially pleased to read you have so many readers overseas. Perhaps much of the most vociferous opposition to this insane war we now see in Europe can be partially credited to your website. I am now retired and not loaded but am sending another check today. I usually just send one at the beginning of the month. It may be too late but I hope those areas that are having demonstrations tomorrow hold up Antiwar.com signs which should gather some interest from TV viewers for your website.

~ SB

Editor's Note: We have been subjected to a denial-of-service attack on our email server. As a result, our email server was shut down and much of the email received February 18 was lost. If your letter to Backtalk is not posted within the next week, you may wish to re-send.