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Posted June 20, 2003
Regarding "What's It All About?" by Justin Raimondo:
I recently made a contribution to your site. I have found it to be informative, enlightening, and also entertaining. I agree that the internet has changed the way debates can occur. You can not only send a response to someone, but also include the links to the reference material. It's like having an argument in a library, and being able to run over to a stack, pull out a book and open it, and say "see for yourself!" Unfortunately it seems many people don't want to look, and prefer to just keep repeating the same rhetoric over and over.
I have never been involved in protests before the past few years. I work in finance, managing billions of dollars of other peoples money, and could reasonably be described as conservative. But the actions of the U.S. after September 11th have made me "wake up". I have read more about foreign policy (not just the US) in the past two years than I have in my previous forty-four. My wife and I (and our son) have taken part in protest marches for the first time in our lives. Looking forward, I have a sinking feeling that my (our) newfound activism could ultimately result in the loss of some friendships. That would be unfortunate, but may be unavoidable.
What I was trying to say is that part of my awakening is the result of reading your articles. I hope you keep the site running.
Regarding smoking, it is a terrible habit. I quit almost twenty years ago and it took about ten years before I stopped getting the occasional craving. Just keep telling yourself that it makes no sense to have a cigarette when the last one you smoked was "it". I had only thought that they damaged my lungs, but I have later seen that it destroys the entire body. Good riddance!
Please stay well – we need your insight and well-reasoned commentary more than ever. I am not a libertarian, but via Antiwar.com have gained some understanding of and new respect for libertarian ideas. I especially enjoy Alan Bock and Lew Rockwell, and pieces from Murray Rothbard's work. The news and editorials are indispensable – they have introduced me to publications and authors that I might never have found on my own, and have helped keep me sane during these trying times. Heartfelt thanks to you and the Antiwar.com staff.
Is it possible to become a monthly supporter?
Backtalk editor Sam Koritz replies:
The monthly pledge page is here: https://securecommanders.com/antiwar/secure.asp.
I want to thank Justin Raimondo and Antiwar.com for helping me to understand the neocon agenda. Watching many debates on Chris Matthew's Hardball, I often heard guests like Pat Buchanan speak of Neo-Conservatives. I had no clue who they were a year ago until I became curious and typed "Neocon" in an Internet search engine; bringing me to Justin Raimondo of "Antiwar.com."
Thanks for helping me and so many of us; I have passed this site on to many other like-minded people. Clearly Antiwar.com is gaining notoriety, and it is far too important to lose. I am sending a contribution today, and will continue sending them, they won't be large contributions, but they will be consistent. Thanks Justin!
I have been reading this site since it started, when my fellow leftists started saying alarming things justifying intervention in Kosovo. I was saddened to hear of your heart attack and have realized how valuable this site is to me. I have donated twenty dollars, which is all I can afford because I am saving money to take a reporting trip to Palestine to cover the occupation's impact on science and technology.
Many thanks for your fine prose and incisive and often amusing commentary.
If you ever have a moment, my "blog" on the upcoming Palestine trip is at checkpoints.livejournal.com.
I am a left-winger and I diverge in many areas from Justin and other conservatives' basic ideology.
However, I find Antiwar.com a top notch website – one of which I visit frequently to acquire basic information (as opposed to puffery and propaganda).
Well done, Justin. Very happy to hear that you are recovering, and remember that if you play your cards right you will have many years remaining on this Earth to oppose harmful policies and ideas. Optimism is the key, however.
You do make a difference. War, as opposed to legit defense, is a form of collective human insanity that at this juncture of human evolution this practice could well spell our collective doom – not to mention the continued diminishing of what freedoms we have won from those who would have us under a tyranny.
I thought I was a leftist until I began reading your column about two years ago. Now I realize I'm more libertarian than anything else. I'll send money as soon as I can, but I just want to say thanks and here's wishing for a speedy recovery.
You might want to check out Nicotine Anonymous. The whole idea of an individualist asking a group of losers for help is pretty repulsive, I know, but it might just save your life. I know for a fact it saved mine.
Best wishes for a speedy recovery. I'm sure the state of the world didn't help your health, but we all have to take some time for ourselves. I just wanted to state my solidarity with Antiwar.com, I made a modest contribution out of my appreciation for the great work you folks do.
I say all this despite my political alignment, which is much more Red than most of your site's commentaries. I would like to think that tons and tons of political unity have to be built in these pre-fascist times, and I raise my political glass to Antiwar.com for providing a platform for such unity!
Regarding Lester Lee/ Mike Ewens dialog posted June 14:
Mike, please tell us that you made up that exchange between yourself and a fictional 'Lester Lee'. Please tell us that my neighbors and fellow citizens are not really that stupid. ...
~ Carter Mitchell, Gurnee, Illinois
Mike Ewens replies:
You should have seen the email that I received during the war! It would make Lester sound like a man with a Phd!
Lester, why don't you save the rest of us from your so-called "patriotic" drivel and just admit you wish this country was Fascist Italy or Nazi Germany or Stalinist Russia, join the Fascist Party (if there is one, and if not, form one!) and be done with it? Be honest for once and go somewhere in which you can trade freedom for security, and live in a police state, which I suspect you'd rather do anyway?
In other words, LEAVE it or LOVE it!
Why is this illegal and cruel occupation so perpetually difficult for Americans to understand? Looking into the face of Sharon (or any of his smug underlings) is like contemplating pure evil. The shills Israel sends to us, like Gold and Pinkhas, have a sneering smugness as they endlessly propagandize and lie that would ordinarily warn anyone with above moron IQ to avoid them at all costs. The "settlers" (a euphemism equal to calling a child rapist "young at heart") have an arrogance and nastiness that the most malicious Palestinians can hardly match, yet this apparently goes unnoticed.
When are our people going to wake up and realize we are aiding and abetting some of the vilest criminals this planet has ever produced? This intransigence, supremacism and brutality would be tolerated nowhere else on earth. Jews are no longer victims, but the perpetrators of the most barbaric occupation in modern history. At one time they had my pity. They now have my utter contempt. That of course would be meaningless if I were not simply one of billions who feel exactly the same way.
Mike Ewens Replies
IW: Have you guys ever considered that a war could have positive outcomes? I realize that its a bit "hypocritical" to bomb a country that we are trying to liberate, and I think it's a bit ironic to say that murdering civilians is hypocritical, it's also a bit strange to write it.
Associate Editor Mike Ewens: Have you ever considered that killing a crowd of children could have positive outcomes? You are asserting that the "ends justify the means." This philosophy has been refuted in every which way, and thus I am not going to spend time repeating the arguments. Rather, consider the doors that you open by accepting something such as utilitarianism.
IW: But can you really sit there and believe that Iraq is better off with Saddam as their leader? Well I know that you probably get these from every hick, redneck and pro-war enthusiast, but I came across your site and am a bit scared that an American, someone who had so much freedom and opportunity could become so one sided. I ... know my email will probably be skipped over but I guess that I am a little sick of Americans taking their freedom for granted.
Mike Ewens: First, I direct you to my article: "Is the World Really Better Off?" Now, your question is bit leading, so I will address something more general, namely, what you presuppose in asking it. First, presumably by asking that question you believe that the US military/ government or you can determine when other people are better off. For instance, my hair is a little long and sometimes it gets in my eyes. A perfect stranger who sees me struggling with my hair, may believe that I "would be better off" if he came over and forcefully cut the hair that was bothering me. If you see nothing wrong with this obvious breach of individual sovereignty, then I can see how you believe you have the right – and the probity – to tell the Iraqis what will make their lives better. I prefer to allow individuals – both Americans and Iraqis – to make their own decisions. Ah, but the Iraqis were "oppressed." Well, kind sir, you have your work cut out for you if you intend to "free" the "oppressed."
Here you also aver that by opposing the war, and simultaneously (and I think necessarily) taking one side, that I am neglecting my freedoms; "taking them for granted" as you say. First, this assumes that government is the creator of my rights and freedoms... Well, I believe that this nation was founded on the principle that the government was entrusted its power through the consent of the governed, who were themselves the fundamental source of rights and freedoms. You appear to have a warped view of the hierarchy of rights. Second, I think that an important attribute of a healthy America is debate and partisanship. Moreover, middle-of-the-road policy – as I assume that you would prefer – is just as dogmatic as being strictly on the right or the left.
IW: I mean if you want to protest that's one thing but to walk around claiming that Bush is a nazi and that no blood for oil, I wonder where we would be if our oil was cut off. It is pretty horrifying.... Our country pretty much functions on punctuality. I know that it is pretty depressing to think that our country could not survive without fuel but it's a sad and constricting fact that even an complete anarchist can't eventually deny.
ME: Antiwar.com never labeled Bush a Nazi, nor did we say that the war was "all about oil." Rather we contended that much of the drive for war was fueled by America's ties to Israel and the neocon hawks in the administration and media.
I agree that it is disturbing that the US relies on oil so much. However, I have confidence that the market can figure it out and the force of arms is never the way of fixing a supposed economic ill. Instead, allow the forces of supply and demand to dictate how America's reliance on oil will change.
IW: I just think that if our country could at least keep an open mind whether or not you agree that the steps we took to eliminate these threats were excessive, that we would all eventually function as a more productive society, I mean this in a way other than trade. I also think that celebrities should not be America's spokespeople. But I don't know email me back if you acknowledge this at all otherwise my ranting and raving will go unnoticed either way life should not revolve around politics, whether you agree with them or not.
ME: I agree: the country should keep an open mind. I think that if we would have done so in the months before the war, perhaps the truth of the non-threat that was Iraq would have been more accepted. Yes, celebrities should not be the spokespeople just as much as Bush, neocons, Noam Chomsky or Bill O'Reilly should be.
Thanks for your email, I hope that I cleared some things up.
I am the Chair of American Voices Abroad Berlin – we are part of a growing coalition of overseas American opposition to the Bush regime. We would very much appreciate anything you could do to spread word of our coalition and upcoming congress – especially as we are trying to reach out to people on the entire political spectrum.
I have included our latest press release/open invitation to our upcoming congress.
Thank you very much!
Mike Ewens replies:
Good luck with your event. I posted it on our Student Activism Page.
Merchants of Death
I have often seen reference at Antiwar.com and many other like-minded web-sites to "Merchants of Death" when describing DOD contractors and vendors. I work for one of the "Big Three", and it is not uncommon to see protesters outside the plantsite waving signs: "Tomahawks kill babies in foreign lands" – "Beat missiles into plowshares" and the like.
I can't help but feel that these types of assemblies are misguided in there goals and strategies. It often brings to mind the saying that "Guns don't kill people, people kill people", and in this case interventionist policy kills people.
I feel it undermines other more effective protests. These protests are an attempt at appealing to the moral conscience of DOD employees, and I can only say one thing. I feel that my part in the effort to provide our troops with the best possible tools to ensure their safety is an important one, and it is up to the public (including myself) to appeal to the powers-that-be for responsible, noninterventionist policies.
The "merchants of death" strategy seems like a rather shortsighted approach to furthering the antiwar cause, and possibly hurts the cause in its perceived immaturity. Let's continue to make sure our men and women in the military have the best that we can offer, and our policy makers allow them to use it responsibly.
~ Rodger S., "Merchant of Death Engineer"