[Peace-discuss] 'The Moral Quandary' from The Nation

[C. G. Estabrook]

Mort's objections to Massing, the Nation, cruise-missile liberals, and the
celebrators of humanitarian war seem to me correct and quite valuable.

--Carl


On Wed, 29 Jan 2003, Morton K.Brussel wrote:

> I don't think much of Michael Massing, and I have reservations about
> The Nation, although I do subscribe; Fortunately, the Michael
> Massings, Todd Gitlins, Marc Coopers, and Hitchens who appear(ed)
> regularly there have been counterbalanced by people like Katha
> Pollitt. That "forum"  in New York, by my lights, was unfortunate.
> Todd Gitlin is what Ed Herman calls a" cruise missile liberal". If the
> forum had someone like Herman at that meeting, it would have been
> better balanced. I need to know more about Makiya.
> 
> Indications of Massing's soft headedness is his casual acceptance of
> what is said by people like Gitlin, the Northern Kurds, and others he
> cites. We remember the stories of the babies ripped from their beds at
> the onset of the first Gulf war. Vicious propaganda to justify the
> war.  His assumption that the US intervention in Yugoslavia was
> "humanitarian" gives Massing away. Ditto Afghanistan.  Without irony,
> citing the Kurds as evidence that the Iraqis want a US attack is
> disingenuous or ignorant. We have no good evidence of what the main
> body of Iraqis want at this stage. It is all speculative and
> anecdotal, and that is not good reason for murderous attacks by a
> superpower on a weak and miserable country which we have been
> squeezing for ten years and more.
> 
> This kind of article is destructive of our protest against a war waged
> for geopolitical reasons and imperial hegemony by the Dr. Strangeloves
> in the Bush administration. Most people against the war do not want
> the bloodshed and destruction they feel is likely to ensue in a US
> attack on the chance that the US in Iraq will change its spots and be
> sympathetic to the poor people of Iraq. That is a laugh. If change is
> to come to Iraq and the world, it cannot be through US military
> aggression; time would resolve the issues there with much less
> bloodshed, especially if we released our grip on the Iraqi throats.  
> I do not accept that Afghanistan and Serbia are shining examples of
> the "good' we have done. Our record as rogue state can be well
> documented...