[Peace-discuss] Letter in DI

[C. G. Estabrook]

  [To keep the ball rolling, I commented on the comments (140 of them!).  --CGE]

Editor, DI:

I've taught at various universities in addition to the U of I for forty years, 
so I shouldn't be as surprised as I am at the published replies to the quite 
reasonable observations by Mr. David Green, which appeared under the title 
"Block-I chant portrays 'neither patriotism nor remembrance'." The replies 
illustrate astonishing ignorance, proto-fascist attitudes, and a distressing 
inability to use a spell-checker.

They might serve as the text for a seminar in remedial political education, if 
the history and political science departments were up to such a thing. The 
writers may know that there's a war on, but they certainly know little about it.

The Obama administration is actively killing people in our name in the Mideast. 
Most Americans are opposed to the war: recent polls show more than 70% of us 
think that it's not worth the loss of life - remarkably, because that's not an 
opinion we often hear in Congress or the media.

Whatever one might say about Obama's mendacious speech on August 31 - announcing 
a US "withdrawal" from Iraq - it did acknowledge the connection of the wars in 
Iraq and Afghanistan. But the US is also killing people in Pakistan, Yemen, and 
Somalia - and threatens Iran.

The US is fighting a single war from Palestine to Pakistan, from the Caspian Sea 
to the Horn of Africa. And it's not to "stop terrorism" (or Al Qaeda) - as Mr. 
Obama has to say, because the only constitutional authority he has for war is 
the October 2001 AUMF, specifically directed against terrorism.

The generation-long neo-colonial policy of the US is to exercise control over 
Mideast energy resources. (Not because we need the oil - the US imports very 
little oil from the Mideast - but in order to give us an advantage over our 
economic rivals in Europe and Asia.) Support - particularly mindless support - 
for this imperialist enterprise should be condemned.

Sincerely,

C. G. Estabrook

Visiting Lecturer
109 Observatory
244.4105

On 9/20/10 12:24 PM, Jenifer Cartwright wrote:
> I guess it's possible to catch flies w/ vinegar after all, huh?
>  --Jenifer
>
> --- On *Mon, 9/20/10, David Green /<davegreen84 at yahoo.com>/* wrote:
>
>
>     From: David Green <davegreen84 at yahoo.com>
>     Subject: [Peace-discuss] Letter in DI
>     To: "Peace Discuss" <peace-discuss at lists.chambana.net>
>     Date: Monday, September 20, 2010, 11:50 AM
>
>     http://www.dailyillini.com/opinions/letters-to-the-editor/2010/09/15/block-i-chant-portrays-neither-patriotism-nor-remembrance
>     They repeated my first paragraph, obviously.
>     This letter was in the DI last Thursday, but for some reason the Comments
>     didn't pick up until this morning--I guess the students writing were drunk
>     for a long weekend.
>     There is one supporter. I will be sending a version to the News-Gazette,
>     since the response is bound to compete with letters pertaining to the
>     upcoming election.
>     I'm also getting some articulate hate-mail through my work and personal
>     e-mails.
>     DG
>
>
>     -----Inline Attachment Follows-----
>
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