Web Letters: Support Their Troops?

So according to Mr. Cockburn, the problem with those of us who want peace in Iraq is that we don't support the people who blow up car bombs in crowded markets and will probably massacre thousands of people when we finally get out? So if we supported peace in Northern Ireland, our only choice was to support the IRA? If Mr. Cockburn really thinks that the "resistance" in Iraq deserves our support, then he has truly lost his mind. The rest of us will continue to fight for peace.

Thomas Paul

Plainview, NY

Another provocative column from Cockburn. Just to add a couple points: The anti- Vietnam War movement in the sixties derived much of its strength from the struggle against racism. The example of African-Americans fighting race and class oppression was a huge inspiration to many in the antiwar movement. Indeed, many of us "old farts" went straight from sit-ins against segregation to sit-ins against the war. We came to see that racism and imperialist wars were opposite signs of the same coin--twin strategies of the ruling class to make profits and stay in power. Many also viewed the struggle in Vietnam as part of the world wide struggle against US/Brit/French/etc. imperialism and neo-colonialism. A question that was sharply posed in the antiwar movement back then was: Are we merely for peace, or do we call for the defeat of US imperialism in Vietnam and elsewhere? To call for the defeat of US in Vietnam or Iraq is based on the notion that Bush, Nixon or Johnson, the government, the war-profiteers etc. are as much our enemy as they were the enemy of the Vietnamese people or the Iraqi people.

And, finally, Bush, who is an idiot, is right about one thing to: To withdraw from Iraq, to leave Iraq and Iraqi oil to the Iraqis, would be a defeat for the US and US interests. I just happen to think that is not a bad thing.

Michael Wolf

Chicago, IL

Congress is under the delusion that they are competent and can make intelligent decisions. You have to hand the Democrats their heads in the next elections, if you want to get their attention. It worked for the Republicans in 2006. I am sick and tired of a Republican-lite Democratic Party. You are going to have to shake their tree.

Pervis J. Casey

Riverside, CA