Letters to the Editor, September 6, 2003

I had been wondering when the Christian propensity for the truth would show her beautiful and proud face. In Mark Glenn's article, I find what I had been anticipating.

The founder of Christianity, who is also revered among Muslims as the being who embodied the spirit of God, put truth above all else, even when it meant his humiliation and crucifixion. He made his life an example.

In these troubled times, his life would teach us more about how we should conduct our daily affairs than any ideology or dogma. Mark Glenn is following the example set by the master, and I greatly admire him for that.

The White House is going back to Congress to request a "supplemental" appropriation for more money, and Republican & Democratic representatives alike, are not happy campers! Already having squandered over $72 Billion on Iraq, with a recurring cost of $4 Billion per Month-- the Bush Regime is burdening the Poor and Average American Taxpayers (but not corporations or the rich, who have profited from immoral Bush tax cuts, cronyism & war-profiteering) are faced with the recurring costs increasing to $5 Billion per Month next year, and even more in subsequent years: It's a Disaster!

On a daily basis, an average of 1-2 Americans are being massacred in Iraq, and 10 Americans are wounded (maimed, injured severely, loss of limbs, etc.). Over 7700+ innocent Iraqi civilians have been slaughtered thus far ... and the Bush Regime have the unmitigated gall to "lectures" us all about mass graves?

The Neo-con Death Cult chants their mind-numbing screed: "We have no choice now. We must spend whatever it takes!". It's Absurd Flim-Flam:

* My goodness, how come we never "have no choice" when it comes to improving the lives of our citizens via Universal Health Care, Educational Programs, Infrastructure, Environmental Protections, etc.?

* Why is it that "we have no choice" but to enrich the Bush Regime's Corrupt Corporate Cronies, but Do Not Have A Choice when it comes to our own welfare?

* Why is it that "we have no choice" and can't use the billions squandered on this insane, imbecilic war (and an obesely fat Military Industrial Complex, outspending the next 18 richest countries combined? i.e. Wasteful, Corrupt & Destructive), and instead use our resources to create Jobs to benefit Americans?

We Americans are being scammed, bamboozled and conned by the Bushies & their thugs, out to enrich themselves from the blood & treasure of working people. We had better reflect upon these problems before we're all bankrupt and relegated to the positions of neo-serfs paying back-breaking tithes and heart-breaking homage to Emperor Bush's 21st Century Neo-Feudal System.

Did Bush invade Iraq at the behest of Bin Laden?

Just who did manage the "campaign" to have the US invade Iraq.

The Bush administration is now seemingly beginning to spreading the word (trial balloon?) that they were possibly mislead and/or fooled by the many Iraqi expatriates feeding them information about Iraq's WMD. They seem to be saying they these were actually Saddam's "coached" operatives.

Just why couldn't they just as well have been operatives of Osama Bin Laden?

One would have had to be an idiot not to have realized that once Junior was elected to office the "pump was primed" for an attack on Iraq (they supposedly tried to assassinate his father, you know.). Then after 9/11 the "pump" began to overflow.

Just what was the source of those forged documents that the administration used, against the advice of the CIA mind you, to sell the public on Saddam constructing and/or having nuclear capability?

Look at where we were just after 9/11, every nation in the world was sympathetic to the US and our cause against Bin Laden.

Now look where we are, a rogue nation in the eyes of most of the world.

Who would most benefit?

Saddam?

Then why would he agree to destroy Al Sammoud II missiles that clearly were not "proscribed"? If his goal was to provoke an invasion a refusal would have been all Bush needed/wanted.

And look at Iraq today.

No, the only person or group to profit from the idiocy of this current US administration is Osama Bin Laden and his Al Queda terrorist organization.

Let's start looking, seriously, REALLY seriously, for the source of those forged documents and see if that trail doesn't tell us what we now so desperately need to know.

PS: The next question would logically be....

"If Bin Laden "engineered" our invasion of Iraq why not lay claim to it??"

Not until the "engineering" has run its course.

Not until it becomes clear that Bush will not go into Syria, Iran, or even North Korea, or Bin Laden's "plan" is somehow threatened with exposure otherwise.

Editor: It's amazing that you haven't mentioned Israel as the main beneficiary of the war in the Middle East. Sharon was given the cover he needed to crack down on the Palestinian people and to stop the peace process.

POLITICAL SOFT-PEDDLING IN TWIN MUMBAI BLASTS ENQUIRIES?

Following the twin Mumbai blasts; there were theories galore less to solve the whodunit, and more to press motivated spins by any number of vested interests that had a field day trying to fish in the troubled waters. While L.K. Advani has his own ‘foreign hand’ theory, Maharashtra’s Home minister, Chagan Bhujbal, very tentative, and at times almost inaudibly whispered in probing TV reporters’ mikes, that possibly this is something to do with the Gujarat riots. However, he was not able to elaborate on his own information that the fugitive suspect Ashrat Ansari had an elder brother associated as activist of the local BJP. Times of India’s TIMES NEWS NETWORK generously conceded that the local unit of the BJP has not taken any action against Mohammed Ansari after his brother’s terror links surfaced. Now some circles are wondering why finger of doubt could not take in, by extension, Mohammed Ansari and BJP itself, in any enquiry in the possibility of involvement into the whole episode. In normal cases, zealous police take in the whole families of the suspects in such dire cases. Why this political soft pedaling of a crucial line of enquiry, when the crime is as heinous as the mass murder and near fatal injuries of hundred of innocents inflicted on a peaceful city and the ominous grave danger of repeat attempts to accomplish a fixed political target.

GHULAM MUHAMMED,

MUMBAI, India

- Nobody assassinated Pablo Neruda. He died a natural death and was mourned by *all* the country. - The chopping of Victor Jara's hands is nothing but a myth, although he was indeed killed. - The killed/disappeared during 17 years of dictatorship were app. 3,100. Not Hundreds of Thousands whatsoever! This from an official research, conducted by opposition groups. And I'm counting all victims of political violence (victims of both gov't repression agencies and subversive leftist actions). So, more people died in the staged "terrorist attack" on NYC in hours than in a 17-year dictatorship. - There is no sign that CIA arranged the coup, but they interfered with internal issues, like financing opposition press and a transport strike. - There is quite an agreement among local politicians that the coup was the consequence of irresponsible policies by all political class, specially Allende's supporters like Altamirano, who instigated civil war against the "momios" or opposition peoples. - There were internal attempts at dividing the armed forces by political affiliation, in a move that could've triggered a bloody civil war. - Chilean congress declared (with a huge majority vote) that Allende's gov't was violating the Constitution and was illegal.

The coup was not a clean affair, and surely many crimes were committed during Pinochet's government, but misinformation campaigns directed at poorly informed foreigners depict Pinochet as a blood thirsty tyrant which he was not. It's strange that people who admire men like Gamal Abdul Nasser, who like Pinochet was a dictator, got the power through a coup against a corrupt government, and developed the country's economy, would condemn Pinochet so easily, just because he is a conveniently manufactured media symbol of the fight against tyranny.

- Successfully avoided 2 external wars with our aggressive neighbors, without compromising his objectives. - Left a legacy of order and seriousness in administration, that enabled an unprecedented growth during the following democratic governments (which didn't "change the rules" unless by agreement with opposition).

Finally, Spain has no right to judge crimes committed against non-Spaniards, outside Spain. It's self delusional that in the rush to apply so-called "justice", which cannot be served with the kind of information available there, from a vain and fame-seeking political "judge", and against all legal precedents, some people (a lot of which still believe that Pinochet is an "African dictator") expect a show-trial against a convenient scapegoat for a just but ill-informed desire of justice.

Another columnist wrote about the case of Sharon and Belgium: No doubt Sharon is a criminal, you don't even need propaganda to believe it, but trying to judge him by dubious means doesn't make a good precedent.