[Peace-discuss] yet another letter to the editor

[C. G. Estabrook]

Good letter.  I particularly like the specifics about the revolts, and
about Bechtel, Carroll, and Stevedoring Services.  I also like the conceit
(so to speak) of France in America.  It might be interesting to work out
what Louis XVI's ministers and generals would have done in America after
1781 -- and what the results would have been -- if France had behaved as
the US is in Iraq.  E.g., French occupation troops in Boston and New York,
firing on civilians -- a New York Massacre to go with the Boston one;
French financiers controlling Southern exports and ports; Washington and
Jefferson in custody; some Virginian who went to Paris in 1740 and stayed,
brought to Philadelphia on a French ship to become President of America...
why, the difficulties could lead to a Revolution in France itself...


On Wed, 30 Apr 2003, Ricky Baldwin wrote:

> Dear Editor:
> 
> Two articles on the front page of the News-Gazette (4/29/03) help
> illustrate just what “liberation” looks like for Iraqis.  First,
> during one of the many recent protests against US presence, US
> soldiers shot and killed a group of children – many of them under 10.  
> Second, UNICEF warns that millions of Iraqis – most of them children –
> now face disease and possible death as a result of US bombing of water
> treatment plants, arguably a war crime, and war-related chemical
> shortages.
> 
> >From the relative comfort of the US, of course, many argue that
> “freedom is worth it,” or words to that effect.  That is for the
> Iraqis to decide, but the argument would ring truer if the US had not
> helped Iraqi forces crush internal rebellions in 1975, 1988 and
> 1991-2.
> 
> The argument would also make more sense if Iraqis were actually free,
> instead of living under martial law, watching foreign generals meet
> with handpicked “representatives” to set up their next government and
> spend Iraqi money.  Among the spoils of war are $380 million or more
> in reconstruction contracts to Bechtel, control of the Iraqi oil
> industry to former Shell CEO Philip J Carroll, and Iraqi sea ports to
> notorious US union-buster Stevedoring Services of America.  The US is
> even using frozen Iraqi assets to pay the bills.
> 
> Now what if France had done all that in 1776, instead of helping
> American colonists liberate themselves?
> 
> Ricky Baldwin