Wrong from the start
Cindy Sheehan is trying to show that the Bush war on Iraq is wrong, and was wrong from the start. This war has absolutely nothing at all to do with American freedom or security, or a so-called war on terror. But it has become a war of terror, and Sheehan’s son and almost 2,000 other American sons have all died in vain since it was, and is, really all for George W. Bush’s insatiable thirst for Iraq’s oil.
Stephen Frey
Via e-mail
Truth perspective
Your newspaper, I think, points out the truth about things here in the U.S. and the rest of the world as well. I am just one of many people who listen to short wave radio broadcasts to get a different perspective.
Richard Fogle
Louisville KY
Iraq’s constitution
I must take issue with Susan Webb’s article on the Iraqi constitution (“Iraq’s future at issue in battle over constitution” PWW 8/13-19). Webb gives the impression that the constitutional process in Iraq is a great thing for the Iraqi people. We should remember that South Vietnam had a constitution. Under occupation it was a sham and never brought real democracy to the South Vietnamese.
To think that a constitution drawn up under occupation in Iraq could bring real democracy to the Iraqi people is delusional. The article fails to grasp the goals and strengths of U.S. imperialism. The author or at least the Iraqi Communist Party believe that if only they had a constitution with “separation of church and state” that some how they could convince the U.S. to leave Iraq.
But just like Vietnam, only a resistance supported by the people themselves — both secular and religious — that forces the U.S. out of Iraq will be able to build a free and democratic country. The U.S. will never leave Iraq’s oil in the hands of an independent Iraq.
If Iraq controlled its own resources maybe they would be able to use them like the people of Venezuela are now doing.
Jim Fennerty
Chicago IL
Susan Webb responds:
It remains to be seen what will come of the current political process in Iraq. But really it’s up to the Iraqi people to determine whether their route to sovereignty lies through political struggle or through taking up arms. There are vast differences between Iraq in 2005 and Vietnam in the 1970s. Those conducting armed attacks in Iraq today have issued no political programs. Many of these attacks are directed against civilians who have nothing to do with the occupation, and increasingly fuel sectarian conflict.
Recent polls by nongovernmental groups in Iraq indicate concern about security tops concern about the U.S. occupation for a large majority of Iraqis, and it appears these attacks in fact give an excuse to the Bush administration to continue the occupation. Right now, all indicators are that the vast majority of Iraqis at this time are hoping that the political process will enable them to move forward.
The writer greatly misunderstands the position of the Iraqi Communist Party. You can read a detailed and extremely informative presentation of how the Iraqi communists see things at www.politicalaffairs.net/article/
articleview/1508/1/41/
Afghanistan and hypocrisy
Public sentiment suggests that, of the two main military incursions so far in Bush’s “war on terror,” the campaign in Afghanistan is the more righteous, despite Bin Laden and cohort being allowed to slip away.
Another consensus exists, quite plausibly promoted by our leadership, that the international narcotics trade is a primary source of funding for the still existing terror networks.
It is therefore quite remarkable that U.S. forces have not yet been ordered to eradicate the abundant poppy fields that grow from horizon to horizon, right under their noses, throughout several Afghan provinces. In effect, our forces are overseeing the world’s largest source of illegal narcotics.
Incredibly, our leadership seems more intent on seizing covertly cultivated marijuana on U.S. forestland than they are about moving in on those Afghan drug lords whose very crops are said by Bush to fund the terrorists, as well as addict our nation’s youth.
Cord MacGuire
Boulder CO
A different God?
For 30 years I listened to a lot of talk radio and participated by calling in. Then came the conservative onslaught and the endless, mindless, rabble-rousing rhetoric drove me away. I went back to the print media, an active community life and prayer.
Now comes Pat Robertson, an ordained minister of a Protestant church advocating the murder of the Venezuelan president.
The God my parents and the Lutheran church taught me about would not be pleased with such behavior. Maybe Reverend Robertson has a different God?
I hope this extroverted insanity will motivate those who have not been active in the political process to get busy and end the Republican tenure in the White House.
We need to actively participate in our government.
Cletis Harry Beegle
Tucson AZ
End police terror
Police terror is a thorn in Black people’s side. It’s real and I should know because I became a victim during a demonstration in response to the death of a young man at the hands of Philadelphia police. Police terror should be labeled a hate crime since many of the police who kill in cold blood belong to hate groups. I urge the PWW to lead a campaign against police terror by lobbying politicians to introduce bills that would eventually become legislation against police terror.
Ernst Ford
Philadelphia PA
Socialism and security
I read Jim’s letter in the PWW (6/18-24) regarding socialism. If you want to know the things that are guaranteed all of the people of a socialist country, please read a copy of the constitution of the former Soviet Union. It guaranteed every citizen a right to employment, health care, child care, pension, vacation, education (through Ph.D. and M.D.) and summer camps for children. The unions concentrated on vacation resorts for workers since job security, decent wages and hours and safe working conditions were guaranteed by the constitution.
Betty Kallo
San Francisco CA
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