Posted April 14, 2003

Regarding "Bolsheviks in Belgrade" by Nebojsa Malic:

Shame on you Mr. Malic. What are you trying to do? Protect the property of criminals? Property of Milosevic's ministers? Those mansions they stole from Serbian people. Are you protecting people who sell drugs to Serbian youth? Serbian people fully support these actions of the government. They want justice. My guess is that your father belonged to upper elite of Milosevic's bloody, fascist regime. You are repeating yourself Mr. Malic. Empire this, Empire that.

~ Andrea Tirado

Nebojsa Malic replies:

Your guess could not be more wrong. My family is still in Bosnia, where I was born and raised. Sarajevo, to be specific. It's in the bio on the right of the column page, which you obviously did not bother to read. What I'm trying to do is protect life, liberty and property of all in Serbia (and other Balkan countries, but of that some other time). If someone obtained that property fraudulently or by force, then by all means they should be compelled to return it with appropriate compensation. But this has to be established through a due process of the law, fair trials and full human rights for everyone. Nobody's a 'criminal' simply because the government arrested them. That's nonsense, especially given that the government (by its very nature) engages in more actions that could be described as criminal (from taxation to organized violence) than any individual possibly could. Serbian people want justice? They should start by acting justly themselves, and not supporting thugs and totalitarians.

USW

When do WE get to go home? British can leave. Russia leaves. When can we go home? We never leave. We are still in Bosnia, Kosovo, etc.

If Iraq was as easy to pacify as Kosovo, and we needed proportionately as many troops to police that place as we have now in Kosovo, we will need, on a semi-permanent basis 500,000 troops. I don't know if Iraq is as hard a problem as Kosovo, but Kosovo is more our job too now that Russia is leaving.

AND Sharon says we need to Syria and Iran, Iran has 3 times the population of Iraq. So lets just kiss any hope of prosperity and peace good-bye and wade into the brave new world of the "United States of the World."

~ Larry Hickey

Regarding Johnson Davis's letter posted April 11:

Mr. Davis asks how to solve the "very real" problem of terrorism. I will attempt to address his question without answering with a question.

The only way to solve the terrorism problem is to adapt a foreign policy that is fair and evenhanded, especially with regard to the Middle East. To my knowledge, neither Mexico or Canada has a terrorism problem. That is because they do not play favorites or adapt double standards in their foreign policy. Clearly our "special" relationship with Israel is the root cause of many terrorist acts. Israel is a perfect illustration of how NOT to address terrorism – that is, with military responses (unless you actually ENJOY living in fear). Besides addressing the root causes, it is important to have the best covert information gathering operations – real spies in the field – not trying to rely mostly on "electronic surveillance." Europeans obviously understand this concept better than US leaders.

Mr. Davis asks how to remove the fear of getting on a plane or working in a skyscraper. If people have these fears, the terrorists have already won. Einstein once said that the most important question anyone can ask is: "is the universe a friendly place?" It is clearly a fact that the statistical chances of an American dying in a terrorist attack are far lower than in any type of accidental death. My point is that people who live in fear will do so with or without terrorists, if that is the only way they know to live.

Mr. Davis ends by saying that sometimes war is necessary. I agree. But if the purported objective of the war is to curtail terrorism, and most experts agree that it is going to have the opposite effect, why do it? Every rationale given for going to war has evaporated, except to "liberate" the Iraqi people. Since when is this type of venture a conservative ideal?

~ Mark T. Matranga, Sacramento, California

Regarding "Has American Gone Commie?" by Christopher Deliso:

Thank you for the thought-provoking article of Mr. Christopher Deliso. It sure takes a wide and vast memory to absorb the information and analysis he has presented. If only there would be a media to provide for this article to the general public as do they for the oligarchy's propaganda with their drum-beats all across this land in the many variations of outlets at their disposal, of newsprint, electronic and magazines.

~ Edward Tkacik, World War II combat veteran, Pennsylvania

Chris Deliso and many others are misinformed about a small matter of influence and corruption:

"Richard Perle's recent resignation from the Defense Policy Board was hailed as a victory for popular dissent..."

From "Top Rumsfeld adviser resigns over ethics" (UPI):

"Richard Perle resigned his chairmanship of the Defense Policy Board but is remaining a member of the board, according to the Pentagon."

In other words, Richard Perle, though no longer chairman, STILL sits on the DPB planning World Peace.

~ Andrew Sibre

Christopher Deliso replies:

Thank you, Andrew. In my hastiness I was not very clear about saying that yes, Richard Perle remains on the board. It is astonishing to note, but it seems that he has actually become even more of a blowhard since being scandalized. I suppose it fits into the general War Party belief that the best defense is a good offense.

I think a better term for what is happening in America today is "Fascism." All of the conditions seem to be met to fit the definition.

From the Encyclopedia Britannica:

Fascism is a political ideology and mass movement that dominated many parts of central, southern, and eastern Europe between 1919 and 1945... Although fascist parties and movements differed significantly from each other, they had many characteristics in common, including extreme militaristic nationalism, contempt for electoral democracy and political and cultural liberalism, a belief in natural social hierarchy and the rule of elites, and the desire to create a Volksgemeinschaft (German: “people's community”), in which individual interests would be subordinated to the good of the nation. ...

~ Dudley Stevenson

Christopher Deliso replies:

You are correct, good sir. In my haste it appears I forgot to add the "fascist fries" to my order of a "fuehrer burger." But I can assure you the sentiment was there!

Excellent article.

I have been protesting the war and the dictator in chief for several months now. I do not wish to bore you but I would like to share an example of the oligarchic problems you wrote about.

I live in Pittsburgh, PA home of Carnegie Mellon University (CMU). CMU opened one of the first Robotics institutes I know of back in the late 70's. CMU is considered the premiere research institute in robotics. After Chernobyl the Director of CMU's Robotics institute Todd Simmons was asked to found a company to build robots to help with the cleanup. He founded RedZone Robotics that year. Built several dozen robots for the Chernobyl containment effort and went on the become the premiere design and manufacturer of robots for hazardous cleanup. and environments.

Back in the early '90s the Dept. of Defense came to Redzone to begin design of a military robot with ground control antipersonnel abilities. After 10 years of research and design, this small innovative company completed a design acceptable to the DOD.

As you may know Pittsburgh lost almost all of it's heavy industry jobs in the early '80s. Nothing has replaced those jobs. Pittsburgh as a community has supported the Robotics institute in the hope it would bring manufacturing jobs to the area.

So, Redzone bids on the production of these defense oriented robots. They have the most experience and highest quality in the software, electrical systems, materials manufacturing for the job. DO they receive the contract?

No. Lockheed Martin does. But the DOD awards Redzone the software contract, definitely the one things even Washington cronyism can not publicly give to Lockheed Martin. So at least this local company that has made very little profit making these robots for nuclear plants all these years at least will be able to expand their software group and provide some good tech jobs in a bad tech market with the $12 mil a years contract.

Then 3 months later Lockheed Martin as the prime contractor uses this position to remove Redzone from the software production leaving them a $250,000 a year consulting contract to tell Lockheed Martin how to have their engineers in Colorado build the software.

So the most qualified company has gone from building the entire system toa $250,000 a year consultancy all do to Washington cronyism.

~ Shea McKinney

Christopher Deliso hits the nail on the head with this seminal essay. He sees the corrosion of American civic virtues, liberties and the astounding distortion of the free market by government-junketing arms corporations. Eisenhower's warning has come to pass: the "military-industrial" complex is swallowing the USA using corrupt politicians as its proxies.

By hyping American paranoia of the outside world, these politicos can justify their suppression of civil rights, safe in the knowledge that the news media are easily bought off. In fact Fox News is cheerleading the whole effort. No surprise there! Send Deliso's essay out to everyone you know: this asks the questions all US journalists should be asking.

~ Tom North

Regarding Jeffrey Powell's letter posted April 11:

You forget to mention what else didn't happen with this conflict:

No major finds of WMD to justify this invasion.

The big threat to our national security by Iraq. If they cannot even threaten our ground forces in Iraq and basically handed territory to invading forces, wow, I am shocked and awed by the big Iraqi threat to America.

Bush went to the UN talking about WMD and disarmament, well where is the evidence after taking control of over two-thirds of Iraqi territory? It's getting to the point where America may plant evidence rather then finding any.

I was never sold on this conflict like many sheep and I am justified by the lack of WMD and this so-called threat to our national security by Iraqi forces that handed us their territory.

Open your eyes, this Iraq invasion has less to do with WMD and national security issues and more to do with oil interests and justifying a bigger and fatter defense budget along with a much bigger federal government.

The new motto for the upcoming election: stop right-wing fascism, DUMP BUSH!

~ Pete Papageorge

Regarding Johnson Davis' letter posted April 11:

Of course, terrorism is a very broad category of crime, and the different tactics of terrorism require different responses.

As far as airplane hijackings are concerned, I believe that cockpits should be completely sealed off from the passengers, thus giving pilots the same security that cabdrivers have long enjoyed. Also, I think a little federal investment in improving America's rail system would go a long way, as trains are notoriously hard to hijack.

The threat of car-bombs could be greatly reduced by turning the centers of our cities into car-free zones, which would have plenty of additional benefits.

The only response to a biologically tainted letter that I can think of is to wear a mask and surgical gloves while opening your mail, if you are someone who has seriously pissed people off. Personally, I don't use the post office much anymore, and the only mail I'm afraid of is the deluge of spam I get daily.

As far as snipers are concerned, I personally would not be at all bothered by a repeal of the 2nd amendment.

Overall, though, I think the ultimate solution to the problem is to give all of the world's citizens enough to eat, a decent place to live, reasonable medical care and a good education.

People who have something to live for may be less willing to die, for any cause.

~ Willie Watson

Congratulations

It is the right time for people to keep thinking about the implications and consequences of the war. We have to be informated to assume our personal responsibilities in this matter. It is great to see that so many Americans are not the instrument of their government propaganda and are able to think by themselves with a great degree of humanity.

Quebec (French-province) and Canada were against the war and never against the Americans. This corresponds to a free expression of our independency and liberty in a democratic country. Some US politicians and diplomatics didn't accept this position and criticised us as a bad neighbours. Even more, they keep making a systematic and enormous economic pressure to make our government to change its views. The point is that some values are not a commercial matter. American don't need to buy our support for the great causes.

~ Rodolfo H.