[Peace-discuss] 'The Moral Quandary' from The Nation (fwd)

[patton paul]

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.
>
> In summary, I am not happy with your advertisement of Massing's
> article, or for that matter your advertising for the Nation Magazine.
>
> Mort Brussel

Mort-
Please read the Massing article through to the end.  After considering the
humanitarian argument for war against Iraq, Massing ends up dismissing it
and arguing that war is not justified for reasons quite similar to those
you have just stated.
-Paul P.