Letters to the Editor, August 29, 2003

To the Editor:

I 100% ditto Marcel Canuel's recent compliments and
thanks to your paper and webpage.

I've suggested to several of my own countrymen
(Americans) that they check out your webpage. All
have indicated pleasant surprise at the temperance and
relative objectivity displayed. Great job!

~Nile Stanton

To the Editor:

Bush needs "Kiray Key Tutto" to receive bullets on their chests or backs and provide strength to the Bush Control over Iraq. Interestingly Bush himself is a Tutto for Israel. However Israel is not paying him any thing. As a matter of fact Israel is sucking billions of dollars from USA economy each year. Will Mushrraf make Pakistan army a Kiray Ka Tutto for Tutto Bush?

For a long time now I have noted the targeting of news reporters by Israeli and US armed personnel. Have you noticed who gets targeted? Not the Jerusalem Post. Carrying a camera that looked like a rocket launcher? I doubt that Mr. Da'ana, a Palestinian, was that naive.

There seems to be an open season on Palestinians and the great news agency Reuters, known for unbiased reporting for all of my life.

Two more observations of the Da'ana killing. 1. The contents of Mr. Da'ana's camera .Who suppressed that film ? Let us see it . 2. He was not killed by that tank they showed to us for three seconds. From that distance he was killed by a sniper with a scope. Shot through the chest , where he wore his press badge.

Dear Editor,

In contrarily with the widespread views among European and American political circles, the Palestinian resistance organisations are not primarily responsible for the failure of the
recent peace-negociations and the truce.

It was striking that from the announcement of the Roadmap those organisations were attacking only the Israeli army [legitimated according to International Law.]

However, Israel continued its liquidations of Palestinian leaders
[ as extrajudicial executions are serious violations of
International Law].

In reaction, the Palestinian organisations committed several
suicide-attacks, which are of course serious violations of human rights, but also a reaction to the liquidations.

When Hamas and Jihad announced a one-sided truce, which implied a stop to all military actions against Israel, Israel declared unofficially a temporarily stop to the liquidations of Palestinian leaders.

Although the air-strikes stopped, at least twice the Israeli
army encircled a house on which cases two Hamas leaders and one Jihad leader were killed.

As a reaction, those organisations committed a suicide-attack in
Jerusalem dd 19-8 [20 dead and 100 wounded], after
which Israel started its air-strikes on Palestinian leaders again.
Of course this suicide-attack is highly condemnable, but must also be seen in the light of the continuous Israeli violations of the Roadmap and the truce.

Although both parties made themselves guilty to serious violations of human rights [air-strikes, demolitions of Palestinian houses, killing of Palestinians in refugee-camps, suicide-attacks] Israel bears the the head responsibility of the failure of the
peace-negotiations and the truce.

Astrid Essed
Amsterdam [Z-O]
The Netherlands

I have often been criticized for criticizing the United States government and the American people.

I am an American. My family is American. I love America. And I want to see America become a great nation.

I want to see an America that cooperates with its neighbors and does not threaten them. I want to live in a world where America peacefully co-exists with other people in other nations and does not murder and mistreat people in other countries in violation of the norms of human dignity. I want to live in an America that is wealthy because it shares the world's resources with others and does not merely exploit other countries for its own benefit. I want to live in an America where people practice the religious values they preach and do not use these values to justify their hatred of others. I want to live in an America where my President and my government respect international law and the human dignity of other individuals everywhere in the world and do not regularly violate the laws and sanctity of human life. I want to live in a world where I feel protected as an American citizen because others view me as a friend and not a world where I am the enemy because of my government's disrespect for the lives and well-being of others.

American is a rich country--just the fact that we control approximately 80% of the world's capital proves this. America must also prove that its is a just country, a compassionate country, a country that respects the rule of international and national law. Through our exploitation of others, our use of violence against others, our disdain for international law, we, Americans have proven that the rest of the world is right to hate us, to threaten us, to treat us as the world's greatest threat to peace and security. It did not have to be this way.

We could have responded to 11 September 2001 by applying the rule of law within our country and internationally. We could have shown the world the proof the Sheik Osama Bin Laden was associated with the attacks and then requested his extradition under a treaty we had with Afghanistan. If this did not work we could have gone to the United Nations to seek authority to use force. The United Nations would have undoubtedly supported action in such circumstances. We could have also showed the patience that respect for the rule of law requires in dealing with Iraq, instead of rushing to attack the Iraqi people in violation of international law and creating a situation in which Americans die daily. We could respond to the world's AIDS epidemic by proving the vital resources needed to combat this scourge, instead of providing paltry sums to institutions that we already starve of funds by our failure to pay what we agreed to pay in international agreements. We could learn from our mistakes in pushing unbridled capitalism upon the world and agree to treaties that make us more answerable to the rule of law for our crimes, for our use of resources, and for our actions towards others. We could cooperate with others instead of threaten, coerce, and use force against some of the poorest people in the world. In other words, we could set a good example, instead of the example of violence, arrogance, selfishness, and exploitation that we currently set.

Yes, some of the above steps would require us to expend more of our wealth on helping others who are thousands of times less fortunate than us, but is not the peace of mind of living in a secure world where we have friends around us, preferable to being the enemy of humankind? This is a question we should ask Bush, Rumsfeld, Cheney, Wolferwitz, Pearl, and each other, every single day we live in fear of the next attack against us somewhere around the world or at home. This is a question I pray everyday as a God-fearing man, the Bush administration will also ask itself.

Gore Vidal recounts in his terrific memoir "Palimpsest", that President John F. Kennedy confessed his surprise that whenever a President makes a mistake he becomes more popular with the public than when he takes the right course of action. Of course, this is indeed, the lesson of history: as we stupidly reward the ambitious warmongers, and ignore those who took the wise, but difficult road to forge peace and prosperity for all.

Excess, corruption and, vulgarity, thy names are the Bushies ... who are now recklessly squandering our futures, and that of our children and grand-children, to enrich their Corporate Cronies to whom they've awarded obscene contracts in an illegal and immoral war, which has costed over 324 US & British Soldiers & over 7000 innocent Iraqi civilians (now more have died in the 'post-war' guerrilla quagmire, than prior to Bush's bombastic victory dance on May 1st, when he foolishly roared "Mission Accomplished!"), and over $70 Billion in taxpayer treasure thus far, with a staggering $4 Billion per Month and no end in sight.

"War is a tragedy for some and a boon for others. As American soldiers continue to die in Iraq, and the length of the war and its costs escalate, Halliburton, the company headed by Vice-President Dick Cheney before the Bush Administration took office, announced that it had converted a half billion dollar quarterly loss of a year ago into a quarterly profit of $26 million for the same period in 2003. This profit comes largely from hundreds of millions of dollars in Iraqi rebuilding and oil contracts awarded by the Bush Administration. "Yes, one man's loss is another man's (vulture's) gain! Of course, Daddy Bush is raking in the big-bucks too (Read "Daddy Bush 41 has Hit the Jackpot from Baby Bush 43 War on Iraq" on http://www.tblog.com/templates/index.php?bid=WinstonSmith&static=4906 )

Today, the Congressional Budget confirms what economists have been predicting, that the Bush Regime has foolishly spent us into a $480 Billion Deficit in 2004, and the interest we will incur on the debt alone will take a heart-breaking toll on low-income, middle-class workers and fixed-income retirees. (Read "Estimate for '04 Deficit Is Increased to $480 Billion", by the Associated Press on http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Federal-Deficit.html?hp )

The Bushies have taken their walk on the "wilde" side, giving massive tax cuts to the corporations & richest Americans; massacring thousands to enrich their corporate paymasters & cronies; spending us into a lavish debt that won't hurt them (they've lined their own pockets with gold at the expense of the average American taxpayers & Iraqi citizens) but will become a back-breaking burden for the rest of us; and, they have lied, lied, lied:

* Bush Regime lied about the phony WMDs posing an "imminent threat" to give corporate pimps lavish gifts (Read "The Price of Freedom in Iraq and Power in Washington", by Ceara Donnelley and William D. Hartung on http://www.worldpolicy.org/projects/arms/updates/081203.html ).

* Bush Regime lied about environmental issues to let their corporate paymasters ruthlessly exploit the environment irrespective of the damage & destruction they cause (Read "White House Global Warming Cover-up" on http://www.stopextinction.org/News/News.cfm?ID=1056&c=9 , and "Dust and Deception" by Paul Krugman on http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/26/opinion/26KRUG.html ), as we discover the EPA censored a taxpayer report on Global Warming and was also intimidated by the White House into "massaging" evidence of toxins spewed into the air in the aftermath of 9/11.

* Bush Regime lied about the economy "improving (sic)" with the Bushies having destroyed 3,000,000 jobs and spending us into an exorbitant record-level debt, faster than at any time in our nation's history, while their corrupt, greedy feudal lords & ladies live the Belle Epoque at the expense of the misery and blood of most Americans. (Read "Nobel Laureate for Economics reports Bush Regime is Worst Government in US History" on http://www.tblog.com/templates/index.php?bid=SamAdams&static=6040 and, "Bush's Lootocracy in the USA & Iraq" on http://www.tblog.com/templates/index.php?bid=WinstonSmith&static=6406 )

Why should the Bush Gang not take us on a walk on the "wilde" side and lie through their teeth?-- It works. The American public loves to be snookered, bamboozled, swindled, scammed & conned ... we're a country drowning in con artists and adore those who succeed at taking-the-money-and-running, like Bushy-boy & his gang of thugs, including their criminal buddies like Kenny-boy (Enron) Lay and Ahmed Chalabi.