Web Letters: Pre-empt Preventive War

By The Editors

This article appeared in the October 29, 2007 edition of The Nation.

October 11, 2007

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To my mind, the move to war was a shroud worn by endemic American bigotry and belligerence. This bigotry and belligerence is our real problem, not this one horrendous application of it as a US war in Iraq.

Politicians know that given any set of facts, people will fight you over the truth if it's not what they want to believe, and lay flowers at your feet in exchange for lies if it fits what they already think. In general people look to the media to support the ideas they hold in their heads but this time the media did nothing to delineate the finer points of the errors of Bush's war plans, for whatever reason. Angry, belligerent, Muslim-challenged Americans with no wise leadership trusted their ignorance, their fears, and their President.

We should address endemic bigotry and belligerence in our people and lessen the propensity for war in the future. What we need is the sort of superb nationwide educational system that makes the average American citizen able to read and digest for themselves enough information about the world such that they don't have to rely on weak politicians controlled by special interests, or media abdicating it's responsibilities to discover and spread truth. I was saw Colin Powell as lacking credibility in his UN speech, for various reasons, both technical and logical. Why couldn't others?

Chris Kent

Rye, NH
10/11/2007 @ 10:26pm
Absolutely! The problem is the War Party and their enablers have a vise grip on Congress. The Military Industrial Complex is still callling the shots, and war means profit. AIPAC and other Likudniks are banging the drum for war against Iran calling it an "existential threat," as they did before the Iraq War.

Democrats and supposedly conservative Republicans have caved to security hysteria. The Main Stream Media shouts every innuendo and fabrication verbatim, only later quietly adding any caveats. Reports on the views of the IAEA about nuclear matters never juxtapose neocon war mongering.

If only we could turn the tide.

Michael McKinlay

Hercules , CA
10/11/2007 @ 8:45pm

Web Letters: Pre-empt Preventive War

By The Editors

October 11, 2007

Rye, NH

Hercules , CA

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