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Posted May 9, 2003 Eric Garris Replies Do you have any information on Ali's whereabouts/ condition/ prognosis? I am very interested in keeping up with him, contributing to his care if possible as well as other children injured by my country's horrific invasion. I heard week before last that he had been taken by military transport to Kuwait but haven't seen anything since. Managing Editor Eric Garris replies: We just posted the latest news: "Ali's skin graft a success." Maybe I missed it but why is there no mention of the terrorist attack in Israel yesterday? It seems the times I tune in to read what's new on your site it's a tad pro-Palestinian. Don't you think that the Israelis getting the sh*t bombed out of them yesterday is newsworthy? I would think it would be considering your site's opposition to violence. Or is the death of a bunch of Israelis citizens who were probably doing nothing more than enjoying a beer not considered important to your site? Like I said maybe you did print something yesterday and I missed it. Eric Garris replies: We ran the story at near the top of the page most of the day on Tuesday. We have tried to report most breaking stories on the day they happen. What happened to the aljazeera link? Are the off the net? I enjoy your site very much, thanks for all the info. Eric Garris replies: It hasn't been taken off the net, but aljazeera has stopped doing English-language page updates for now. They had stopped updating a few days ago, and now they just have a "test pattern." Regarding "U.S. troops leave school after deadly clash with Iraqis": Where are the US casualties if they were fired on, or even if the students were armed one would expect the US to have some injury? Regarding "Keep the United Nations out of Iraq and America" by Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX): Rep. Ron Paul seems to be saying that the U.N. should not be permitted to participate in Iraq's reconstruction "if the Iraqi people hope to enjoy any measure of self-determination". This leads one to the mindless conclusion that it is the US that will guarantee the free choice of that unfortunate nation. Vaya por Dios!, this must be the "Texanspeak" way of thinking. Disrespect for the UN is nothing new in the US and there is little doubt that it is increasing. Ron Paul is right on this but why it is so, isn't surprising either, because he shows that he, himself doesn't understand the purpose of this organization. The UN is simply a forum where big powers try through some consensus to avoid international conflicts and if one of these powers (US, China, Russia, Europe, India) decides to sabotage it, the UN falls flat on its face. It doesn't represent any threat to anybody, least of all to the U.S.A. On the contrary, it is a convenient punching bag for anybody's failures. The United States has ignored the United Nations for ages with no other consequence than exposing American double standards. The case in point is its almost fanatical vetoes on all proposals to restrain Israel. Strange irony that Ron Paul in the same breath evokes George Washington's warning of "entangling alliances" as we have already asphyxiated ourselves on the one with Israel, which is, incidentally, the real threat to the Republic not the UN What America doesn't seem to fathom is that to the rest of the world (except to Israel, of course) the UN is the last hope and defense against the bully i.e. the law of the jungle. If we want to have anything to do with the rest of the world we have to accept that everybody beyond Rio Grande does care very much about the UN He also mentions a standing myth so dear to Americans: they envy us. Don't believe it! America's mystique has faded, our faults have surfaced and they are many and glaring in their majesty: Our staggering rate of crime, our rigging of the ballots, our corporate corruption and frauds, our fading democracy,our multi-million convict population, our pathologically lying Government, our phony free speech, our heroes who haven't done anything heroic, our inane flag-waving, our police brutality, our Evangelical delirium, our obscene obesity, our sleazy President, our stupid and uneducated President, our junk GM-food, our school murders, our Guantanamo humanitarian justice, our murderous military etc. just to name a few. ...
... International laws and UN most of the time is serving the interest of the US abroad. That is why US, when directed by clever people, has supported their creation. Of course, most American don't know that because they sometimes forget that >95% of the population of the world is outside the US. They see that UN slow down the US. However, this loss of time is worth it because UN support of any US action has a huge effect on the perception that the rest of the world have of the US. This is of incredible value. Bush policy is the best thing all anti-American of the world ever wished for. He is screwing up years of building effort and give reason for billions of people to hate the Western world. For example, if Bush would have got the UN support in Iraq, the war would have been smoother and the Iraq reconstruction would have been easier. The burden would have been shared with other country. The question is: How many future presidents will be necessary to fix the catastrophe induced by the neocons in the Republican Party that have no basic training in international politics? American Interests Since the US now controls the 2nd largest oil producer in the Mideast, maybe we won't have to kiss OPEC's backside any more! The US now has air bases in Qatar, Turkey, and every country with "stan" in it so we don't need to kiss the ISRAELIS' backside either! American tankers can dock in Syria! Turn the pipeline back on! Let the OIL flow! Regarding "Weapons Of Mass Delusion" by Jennifer A. Gritt: In her featured article on Antiwar.com, "Weapons of Mass Delusion," Jennifer Gritt raises the possibility that the United Nations may, at some point in the future, offer a meaningful counterweight to the unrestrained exercise of force by the Bush Administration in pursuit of its goals. Would that such a possibility actually exist; sadly it does not. In realizing its war aims, the Bush Administration has brought to an end any hope the world may have had that the United Nations might be an effective instrument for peace in the world. The UN is finished and Bush has seen to that. Of no little interest, however, is the four power military force now being brought together in Western Europe by the French, Belgians, Luxemborgians and Germans. How many insults does it take, how many irrational acts before sensible people conclude that they'd better do something to protect themselves? To see a military alliance in the next twelve to twenty-four months between these four nations and Russia cannot be considered entirely out of the question. France, Germany, and Russia have long military traditions, of course, and, once allied, could, in fact, offer the counterweight Ms. Gritt forecasts. Its dimensions would not be inconsiderable. So it would seem that the doctrine of preemption has quite possibly launched us backward into the era of the balance of power, into the 1920s and 1930s. We'll live to regret that. Regarding "Neocons in Denial" by Justin Raimondo: Raimondo's column today has an unfortunate concomitant. The neocons have cleverly arranged for many of freedom's staunchest defenders to waste an inordinate amount of time defending themselves against the smear of anti-Semites. It reminds me of an election held years ago in Oakland CA two black men were running for mayor. One accused the other of lying, claiming that he "wasn't really black"! It worked quite well. The other fellow spent the rest of the election refuting that claim. And of course, was soundly trounced. The neocons are leading this country to disaster. Freedom is pretty much something we read about in books these days our children will never taste of it, thanks to these fine fellows. These people are nothing more than damnable traitors -trashing our country. I don't care who they are, what their religion is or any of that. I want them out of my hair. And frankly, I don't care what my enemies call me. I'm working for my friends, period. Reclaiming the Right What would it take to get an updated version of Justin Raimondo's book Reclaiming the American Right: The Lost Legacy of the Conservative Movement, back in print? It seems this type of literature is sorely needed now days. There is a flood of neocon trash coming off the Mellon-Scaife presses, e.g., Ann Coulter, Hannity, etc., and some sort of rational balance is desperately needed. There is some good stuff on the center left, e.g., Brock's Blinded by the Right, Courting Disaster by Martin Garbus or Karl Rove: Bush's Brain by James Moore, but very little from the center (rational) right. An updated version of Raimondo's book would go a long way towards filling the void. There are a great many moderate conservatives that are leaning towards the radical right because they are reflexively avoiding the radical left; they were born after 1967, they chaffed under the campus PC regime and they haven't thought about the situation since. A book such as Raimondo's could help bring these people into the rational camp. Today, rational and responsible public policies are being crushed by the implementation of a radical ideology that benefits a very small group. In this fight the center left, the rational right, and even Nader and his Greens, must put aside their differences and fight for a common and very basic goal, i.e., a democratic Republic where Senators are still elected by the people, the popular vote still sways Presidential elections, the Supreme Court operates without an overbearing political bias and the electronic media does more than spew the propaganda of the radical right. The loss of a large section of the electronic media to the radical right has had a profound effect on the way many Americans see the world. I've been spending some time reading posts and talking to people in the street and I'm surprised how many are unaware that we have not found the WMD cache in Iraq, that many Iraqis are unhappy with our presence, that the President's proposed tax cut will result in very little money for them, that social security is in danger, etc. Basically, what I hear is Murdoch/ Limbaugh propaganda repeated back to me. One way to fight this is with grass roots education. If one person reads an updated version of Raimondo's book, he will be armed with the facts to convert five others or at lest make five others seriously question the knee-jerk opinions they were spoon fed by Limbaugh. As it is highly probable that these people would reflexively dismiss anything with a far left bias, a book such as Raimondo's is sorely needed. Perhaps an email and letter campaign to the publisher could be started. The best time to do such a thing would be now, at the start of the campaign season, where the interest is such books would be maximized. ~ Richard Cheuvront, Texas |