[Peace-discuss] Fwd: Zinn article

[jencart at mailstation.com]

The Chomsky response to same question in The Nation (the one w/ EXIT on the cover, one issues ago) is wonderful, also....I think the Zinn response in The Nation is the same as the one Al forwarded....

-----Original Message-----
From: Alfred Kagan <akagan at uiuc.edu>
Sent: May 21, 2004 3:21 PM
To: Peace-discuss at lists.groogroo.com
Subject: [Peace-discuss] Fwd: Zinn article

>Howard Zinn has an article in the latest issue of The Progressive 
>titled "What Do We Do Now?"  I recommend it to everyone who is 
>thinking about the fall elections.  He makes some basic arguments in 
>very clear ways. I would like to see millions of people tell Kerry 
>to read this article. Perhaps something like that could make a 
>difference. You can e-mail the Kerry campaign at 
>http://www.johnkerry.com/contact/contact.php
>
>Here are some excerpts.
>
>"The only rational argument for continuing on the present course is 
>that things will be worse if we leave. There will be chaos, there 
>will be civil war, we are told. In Vietnam, supporters of the war 
>promised a bloodbath if U.S. troops withdrew.  That did not happen.
>
>There is a history of dire forecasts for what will happen if we 
>desist from deadly force....
>
>Truth is, no one knows what will happen if the United States 
>withdraws.  We face a choice between the certainty of mayhem if we 
>stay and the uncertainty of what will follow if we leave."
>
>There is a possibility of reducing that uncertainty by replacing a 
>U.S. military presence with an international nonmilitary 
>presence...."
>
>
>Talking about the call for more troops, "When you find you're going 
>in the wrong direction, you double your speed." Zinn calls this the 
>definition of fanaticism.
>
>Talking about what will happen if the troops stay, "The effect of 
>that will be the exact opposite of what our political leaders -- of 
>both parties -- claim they intend to achieve, a "victory" over 
>terrorism. When you inflame the anger of an entire population,you 
>have enlarged the breeding ground for terrorism."
>
>Talking about long-term effects at home, "I'm thinking of the 
>poisoning of the moral fiber of our soldiers -- being forced to 
>kill, maim, imprison innocent people, becoming the pawns of an 
>imperial power after they were deceived into believing they were 
>fighting for freedom, democracy, against tyranny. I'm thinking about 
>the irony that those very things we said our soldiers were dying for 
>-- giving their eyes, their limbs for -- are being lost at home by 
>this brutal war. Our freedom of speech diminished, our electoral 
>system corrupted, Congressional and judicial check on executive 
>power nonexistent. And the costs of the war -- the $400 billion 
>military budget (which Kerry refuses to consider lowering) -- make 
>it inevitable that people in this country will suffer form lack of 
>health care, a deteriorating school system, dirtier air and water."
>
>Finally,
>
>"Kerry does not seem to understand that he is giving away his 
>strongest card against Bush -- the growing disillusion with the war 
>among the American public. He thinks he is being clever by saying he 
>will wage the war better than Bush.  But by declaring his continued 
>support for the military occupation, he is climbing aboard a sinking 
>ship.
>
>We do not need another war President.  We need a peace President. 
>And those of us in this country who feel this way should make our 
>desire known in the strongest possible ways to the man who may our 
>next occupant of the White House."
>

-- 


Al Kagan
African Studies Bibliographer and Professor of Library Administration
Africana Unit, Room 328
University of Illinois Library
1408 W. Gregory Drive
Urbana, IL 61801, USA

tel. 217-333-6519
fax. 217-333-2214
e-mail. akagan at uiuc.edu