|
CounterPunch
October
14, 2002
An Open Letter
to Barbara Lee
by DAN BROOK
I am writing to express my deep gratitude for
your courageous votes against authorizing the (illegitimate)
Bush Administration to wage wars against unknown enemies and
innocent civilians for an unknown length of time and with unknown
goals. I'm against the war. I support you.
Your votes against war were votes against
terror, lawlessness, unilateralism, brutality, bullying, violence,
vengeance, vigilantism, hate, conformity, and social insecurity.
I oppose terrorism. I still mourn the victims and am totally
disgusted by the perpetrators of the September 11th crimes against
humanity. I despise bullying and brutality. I support you.
Your votes against war were votes of
sanity, clarity, thoughtfulness, intelligence, courage, compassion,
and integrity in the proud tradition of Rep. Jeanette Rankin.
Your votes against war are also in the proud tradition of many
great American values: democracy and dissidence, free thought
and fairness, rule of law and rationality, liberty and love,
equality and equal protection, peace and justice. I ardently
and actively support those values. I support you.
You know that war will not solve any
problems, but rather create many more. War dishonors the victims
of the terrible terrorist tragedy by creating many more innocent
victims. We need to honor the victims, along with the rescue
workers and volunteers, by supporting life instead of pursuing
death. War undermines the United Nations and international law
by violating their charters and our agreements and treaties,
while further undermining respect for the US and its future proposals
and policies. War increases our insecurity by fanning the flames
of discontent, alienation, marginalization, and hate and by making
more victims and more so-called martyrs to be avenged. War is
a form of terrorism and multiplies the terrorism that occurred
at least a thousand times in at least a thousand ways. The bombs
of war indiscriminately destroy people, animals, trees, houses,
markets, farms, art, and much else, as well as severely polluting
the air, land, and water, as has been done in Vietnam, Iraq,
the former Yugoslavia, Vieques, Angola, El Salvador, and elsewhere.
War makes us most like those we most despise. War is a blank
check death penalty without any due process. War is cruel and
unusual punishment. War is torture. War kills children and this
is totally unacceptable. War is unhealthy, toxic, bloody, and
destructive, while justice is democratic, constructive, and long-lasting.
We should be builders, not bullies. We should support freedom,
not fanaticism. We should encourage democracy, not destruction.
I support you.
You know that the CIA eagerly supported
Osama Bin Laden and Saddam Hussein and that Bush supported the
Taliban with millions of dollars in 2001, just as the US government
also politically and financially supported Noriega, Pol Pot,
Somoza, Mobutu, Suharto, Duvalier, Savimbi, the Shah, Pinochet,
and various other vicious dictators, while actively opposing
their millions of citizens struggling for freedom, democracy,
and justice. You know that US foreign policy has often been militaristic
and terroristic, causing untold destruction and death in scores
of countries. You know that we should follow the rule of law,
just as we would, or should, in any mass murder case. You know
that the US has studied and engaged in biological and chemical
warfare and has refused to sign on to the international ban against
biological weapons. I oppose all techniques and weapons of mass
destruction, whether physical, financial, biological, chemical,
nuclear, or otherwise. I support you.
You know that the costs of Bush's ill-named
and ill-defined wars will make us less secure as a nation and
that real national security lies not in far-flung militarism,
murder, and mass military expenditures, but in bolstering our
collective standard of living through better education, universal
healthcare, adequate housing, a cleaner environment, poverty
reduction and elimination, a more developed infrastructure, job
creation and living wages, eradicating racism and sexism, ensuring
and enhancing social security, reducing the power of corporations,
and instituting electoral reform to strengthen our democracy.
I support this type of real national security, here and elsewhere.
I support regime change in Washington, D.C. Future generations
will support you. I support you.
You know that the first Gulf War against
Iraq and the continuing decade-long slaughter of Iraqis through
bombings and sanctions have killed hundreds of thousands, perhaps
millions, of innocent civilians, many of whom are children; not
only has that not solved any problems, here or abroad, but that
policy and the US military presence in Saudi Arabia is cited
as one of the reasons for Islamic jihad against the US. You know
that Bush-led crusades to attack a jihad and Bush's with-us-or-against-us
ridiculous rhetoric is a Sophie's Choice encouraging us to follow
Karl Marx's advice that sometimes the best way to answer a question
is to negate it. You know that the ongoing problems and lack
of peace between Israel and Palestine also contributes to ongoing
problems and a lack of peace throughout the Middle East, the
US, and elsewhere. You know that war, like terrorist attacks
themselves, setback progressive causes and that the drumbeats
of war are presently trying to silence dissident perspectives
on a wide range of important issues. You know that the Bush administration
is scapegoating abroad while rolling back civil liberties at
home. You know that jingoism, nationalism, authoritarianism,
fundamentalism, xenophobia, racism, and scapegoating are ugly,
undesirable, and untenable. You know that war is horror on a
massive scale. You know that many young people will die for other
people's ignoble ideas. You know that violence begets violence
and that if violence was a solution we would long since have
had a peaceful world. You know that peace is infinite justice
and that only justice can lead to peace. You know that Bush's
policies and actions, supported by an acquiescent and herd-like
bi-partisan congress and a sensationalist corporate media on
bended knee, are dumb, dangerous, and despicable. I oppose the
ignorant and impatient stampede into the abyss and cataclysm
of militarism and war. I support you.
I am so proud of your bravery, heart,
conscience, moxie, and good sense in casting your patriotic votes
against war and all of its intended and unintended consequences.
Thank you for acting on your conscience and not just reacting
to our fear. Thank you for doing the right thing. I wholeheartedly
oppose the war. I wholeheartedly support you!
Dan Brook
teaches sociology at UC Berkeley, which is in Barbara Lee's district.
He can be reached at: Brook@california.com
Yesterday's
Features
Alexander Cockburn
Vindication
Through Violence:
Jimmy Carter and the DC Sniper
Robert Jensen
The American
Political Paradox:
More Freedom, Less Democracy
Ben Tripp
Congratulations! It's a War!
Susan Davis
Proverbial
Wisdom:
Red!
David Krieger
A Bleak Day for America
Anis Shivani
George W. in Therapy
Ken Paff
Where Do Hoffa's Tactics Belong in a Mob-Free Teamsters?
Carol Norris
The Politics of Fear
Elaine Cassel
The Lynne Stewart Case:
When Representing an Accused Terrorist Can Land a Lawyer in Jail
Musa AlShaer
Scenes
from an Occupied Wedding
Anthony Gancarski
Concerned Citizen: a serialized
novel (Episode 3)
M. Shahid Alam
I Will Fight Your Enemies
New
Print Edition of CounterPunch Available Exclusively
to Subscribers:
- How to Change the Subject: Corporate Scandal and Pension
Reform as Weapons Against Warmongering;
- Padilla's Predecessor: Court Ruling Cites 1904 War
Against Mining Union;
- Adios Hitchens: the Dorian Gray of Our Time;
- Object of Suspicion: How the FBI Watched Janis Ian
From Birth;
- First Carter, Then Clinton,
Now Sen. John Edwards:
Another "New South" Slimeball;
- Corporate Crooks: Nature or Nurture?
Remember, the CounterPunch website is
supported exclusively by subscribers to our newsletter. Our worldwide
web audience is soaring , with about seven million hits a month
now. This is inspiring, but the work involved also compels us
to remind you more urgently than ever to subscribe and/or make
a (tax deductible) donation if you can afford it. If you find our site useful please: Subscribe
Now!
Or Call Toll Free 1 800 840 3683
home / subscribe
/ about us
/ books
/ archives
/ search
/ links
/
|
October 9,
2002
Hesham Hassaballa
Here
We Go Again:
Rev. Falwell's Slurs
Ann Pettifer
Brainwashing
in America
Anita Ramasatry
Airline Security Run Amok
Josh Frank
Iraq: It's
About Globalization
Rep. Cynthia
McKinney
Iraq:
the Double Standard
Robert Jensen
Bush's
Illogical War Speech
David Vest
Dylan in
Eugene
October 4,
2002
Ahmad Faruqui
The Anvil
of War and the Ailing American Economy
Norman Madarasz
The
Truth and Violence
of a Symbolic Act
William Hughes
Political
Show Trial for
Marwan Barghouti
Ron Jacobs
The Struggle
Against
Another Oil War
Sen. Robert
Byrd
Bush War
Plan:
Blind and Improvident
Michael Schwalbe
The
Costs of American Privilege
Ralph Nader
Holding
Politicians' Feet to the Fire on Corporate Crime
Robert Buzzanco
Pacifica
Caves in to Zionist Smear Campaign
October 3,
2002
Gary Leupp
Talking
to Your Kids About Fascism
Will Youmans
The New
Anti-Apartheid Movement: The Campaign to Divest from Israel
Deb Reich
Report from a Mad World
Todd Chretien & Sue Sandlin
"It's All About Power on the
Docks"
Kurt Nimmo
Poetry
as Treason
Amiri Baraka
Somebody
Blew Up America
Alexander
Cockburn
October Surprises
October 2,
2002
Carol Wolman,
MD
Is the
President Nuts?
Diagnosing Dubya
Jeffrey St.
Clair
Something
Rotten in Klamath
Resources:
100s of Links
About 9/11
CounterPunch:
Complete
Coverage of 9/11 and Its Aftermath
Five
Days That
Shook The World:
Seattle and Beyond
By
Alexander Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
Photos by Allan Sekula
(Click Here to Order from CounterPunch
Online at 20% Off Amazon.com's price!)
Read
Whiteout and Find Out
How the CIA's Backing of the Mujahideen Created the World's Most
Robust Heroin Market and Helped to Finance the Rise of the Taliban
and Osama bin Laden
Whiteout:
CIA, Drugs & the
Press
by Alexander
Cockburn
and Jeffrey St. Clair
|