Antiwar.com Blog

The good folks at the Future of Freedom Foundation kindly forwarded some of the lively responses they received  after sending out my op-ed, “Are Presidents Entitled to Kill Foreigners?”

I’m not certain, but I’m pretty sure all these editors decided not to publish the article.

Here’s a response from Bob Weir,  the executive editor of the News Connection (Texas):

Were we right to kill “foreigners” in other wars? Were the Germans, Italians and Japanese not foreigners? Adhering to your definition, the only wars we’d be able to engage in would be civil wars. By the way, do you have anything good to say about the United States? Your support of Iran, a dictatorship that has been proven to be responsible for the deaths of countless American soldiers, tells me all I need to know about your hatred of your own country.

I will never understand people like you who live the American lifestyle with all its bounty, while taking every opportunity to trash it.  If you have so much affection for Iran and its ayatollah-style government, why do you stay here? Could it be because you have freedom here? Could it be because if you lived in that tyrannical state and opened your mouth against the government you’d be stoned to death in the public square? You’re like the spoiled brat who has all the comforts of life, yet hates the parents who provide it for him. Sadly, your parents must have done a lousy job of
raising you because you bear all the signs of a child that was never taught to appreciate his good fortune.    ****

The Guthrie Center Newspapers sent an indignant one line response to the piece:

It’s not Bush — it’ President Bush, just like President Clinton, President
Bush, President Reagan, President Carter, etc.

Well, maybe that’s why Mr. Editor didn’t like the piece.  (That particular email did not include a name). *****

The Addison Eagle News and Reporter in Middlebury, Vermont, replied:

What a stupid, naive premise here. Presidents don’t kill foreigners (unless
they are secret agents although I never heard of one stalking a foreigner
and shooting them.)

The real question you should really care about as an American citizen
is: Should foreigners be entitled to kill Americans? Thankfully we have a
President who doesn’t think so, after 9/11.*****

If George W.  is ever indicted for war crimes, he should certainly try to stack the jury with editors from this paper.

Bill Johnston, the editor of the Collinsville News, also successfully resisted the article’s allure:

Didn’t have to read very far in your “op-ed” to know that you obviously
don’t have a clue as to what you’re talking about….

“Seems to be the attitude” . . . what a comment. You don’t have a clue what
the attitude of President Bush and his advisors is or ever will be.
Needless to say, your ridiculous effort at some sort of anti-Bush rhetoric
will never see the light of print in this publication and I am hopeful in
very few other newspapers around this country….

By the way, if you’ve got evidence of President Bush breaking the law, file
the proper motion in court….

My hunch is that Bill Johnston has not spent a lot of time reading about the State Secrets doctrine and how the Bush administration continually invokes it to sway judges to throw out court cases involving brazen and proven government wrongdoing…

SARAJEVO, BOSNIA-HERZEGOVINA – Early in the morning on October 16, word came through news bulletins and blogs from a stretch of highway north of the Sava river, in Croatia. A terrible car crash claimed the life of Macedonian music superstar Toshe Proeski, who had been popular in all of the former Yugoslavia for his golden voice, charity and kindness. TV networks all over the region, from Macedonia to Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia, pre-empted their regular programming and played Toshe’s music videos with messages of condolences. Thousands gathered in town squares, first in Macedonia and then in Bosnia, Serbia and Croatia as well, lighting candles and making impromptu memorials. For a moment, Yugoslavia existed once more – united in grief over a man whose voice had brought them together.

Proeski was 26.

“I don’t believe in god any more. How could he let this happen?” growled a man from Skopje on Tuesday night; “God takes the best from us,” said a fellow musician from Croatia. “He was a wonderful man, good and kind, who loved all. I am crushed,” said another Macedonian fan.

Accounts of the accident seem to underscore the cruelty of fate. Proeski was traveling from Skopje to Zagreb by car; having driven all night through Serbia and Bosnia, driver was tired. The thick fog that blanketed the Sava river valley in the early morning made for low visibility as they merged onto the highway leading to Zagreb. It was hard to notice a stopped trailer-truck until it was too late. The Volkswagen SUV ricocheted off the truck and slammed into the guardrail. Proeski had been asleep. He died instantly. The driver survived.

Born in Krusevo, Macedonia, Proeski made a name for himself by singing both traditional tunes and pop melodies. In a fragmented music scene, often influenced by ethnic chauvinism, Proeski was equally welcome in Zagreb, Belgrade, Sarajevo or Skopje – something no other artist managed. In a region haunted by hatred and war, he offered hope. Somehow, with his songs, joy became more joyous and sorrow was easier to bear. His fans didn’t care that he wasn’t Croat, or Serb, or Muslim, or Albanian. He was Toshe.

It is said that as he took off from Skopje on Monday night, Proeski told someone that he was “going up.” He meant Zagreb. He went to heaven instead.

[audio:http://dissentradio.com/radio/07_10_15_greenwald.mp3]

Glenn Greenwald, former Constitutional lawyer, blogger and author of A Tragic Legacy: How a Good vs. Evil Mentality Destroyed the Bush Presidency, discusses the merger between the U.S. national government and the telecommunications industry, revelations from the trial of former Qwest chief, the “Protect America Act,” the complicity of the Democrats and the media, the history of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, the fact that the NSA has been breaking the law since long before the 9/11 attacks, the unprecedented level of secrecy and power in Washington D.C., some more about the sycophantic media, our Orwellian state of permanent war and some reasons for hope.

MP3 here. (40:29)

Glenn Greenwald was previously a constitutional law and civil rights litigator in New York. He is the author of the New York Times bestselling book How Would a Patriot Act?, a critique of the Bush administration’s use of executive power, released in May 2006. His brand new book is A Tragic Legacy.

“This is why I hope we never explore the cosmos, and go to other planets: any intelligent life we find there is bound to be declared an Enemy.” — Antiwar.com blog, October 13

“Presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani yesterday said preparedness will be key for all crises, even an attack from outer space. During a town hall meeting in Exeter [New Hampshire], a young questioner asked the former New York mayor about his plan to protect Earth. “If (there’s) something living on another planet and it’s bad and it comes over here, what would you do?” the boy asked….

“Giuiani: ‘Of all the things that can happen in this world, we’ll be prepared for that, yes we will. We’ll be prepared for anything that happens.'” — New Hampshire Union-Leader, October 15.

A fairy tale posted at FrontPageMag.com:

The campaign mounted by campus leftists against Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, which is scheduled to take place on more than 100 campuses during the week of October 22-26 has taken a new turn with the announcement of a counter-protest at the Washington Monument. The protest, which will be called “American Fascism Awareness Day” is being organized by Adam Kokesh of Iraq Veterans Against the War, the Revolutionary Communist Party, Students for Justice In Palestine, and the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee among others and will feature speakers such as congressman Dennis Kucinich and presidential candidate Ron Paul, anti-war activists Cindy Sheehan and Harry Karry and actor Sean Penn. According to a spokesperson for the Revolutionary Communist Party, one of the sponsors of the event, “This is an answer to the Jew Horowitz and the neo-conservative Zionists who dragged us into an imperialist war in Iraq and are spreading hatred against Muslims to support their war plans against the Republic of Iran.”

Flyers for the American Fascism Awareness Protest were distributed on at least ten campuses which are scheduled to hold Islamo-Fascism Awareness Weeks in 9 days. (The text of the flyer is reprinted below.) Many Americans contacted by Frontpagemag.com were outraged over the announced protest. Latisha Freeman, an African American student at one of the campuses that was flyered commented that all Americans were not racists and that the flyer was generally “unpatriotic and unfair.” American Legion commander K. “Ike” Landsman, was blunter. “These are communist ingrates who don’t appreciate this great country and they ought to be deported to Iran or Afghanistan where they would be welcome." Fox News Channel anchor Alan Colmes, had a different take. “Lighten up,” Colmes said when he was shown the flyer; “this is a parody of views that liberals actually have. No one should get upset. This is just free speech in action.”

Who Hates Americans? We Do.

Your typical American is:

• A racist. A sexist. A homophobe.
• An Islamo-phobe.
• Is willing to invade other countries for oil and pleasure.
• Is easily manipulated by Rush Limbaugh and Jews.
• Is the cause of global warming.

Join Us For American Fascism Awareness Day
Place: Washington (Slaveholder) Monument
Date: November 31, 2007
Time: 12PM-2:00 PM

Speakers:
Dennis Kucinich, Ron Paul, congressmen
Adam Kokesh, Iraq War veteran
Cindy Sheehan, Harry Karry, peace activists
Michael Moore, Sean Penn, film-makers

Sponsors:

Peace and Social Justice Crusade, Iraq Veterans Against the War, Code Pink, Muslim Students Association, American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, Students for Justice in Palestine, Revolutionary Communist Party, International A.N.S.W.E.R., Moveon.org, DailyKos.com, Indy-Media.org, HuffingtonPost.com, Ivorypower.com

There is, of course, no November 31, and no such event. "Latisha Freeman" is Horowitz-speak for any old schvartze; I leave it to you to figure out why they named the fictional superpatriot "K. Ike." None of the groups listed have this “event” mentioned on their websites, and a Google search produces only results from the original hoax article. But this failed effort at satire will almost certainly be taken as fact by Horowitz’s vicious, drooling followers. And the insinuation that Ron Paul, in particular, has any affiliation with Communist or Neo-Nazi groups is laughably false.

I see Putin is going ahead with his trip to Tehran in spite of rumors that he’s to be assaulted by suicide bombers or captured. One has to say, however, that if the Russian president is assassinated, he’ll probably be blamed for plotting his own demise. After all, he’s been blamed for the death of practically every Russian “dissident” and half-baked journalist, from the nuclear poisoning of Alexander Litvinenko to the shooting death of Anna Politkovskaya.