The following is an archived copy of a message sent to a Discussion List run by the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
Views expressed in this archived message are those of the author, not of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq.
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> 'United for Peace and Justice' is headed by > Leslie Cagan, a Sixties Marxist with a long history > of supporting Communist causes. The horror! The horror! Still, we can't all be supporting the good old neocon causes. Being apolitical myself, I am terrified at the thought of one single ideology reigning supreme. I am especially frightened of a planet completely dominated by the neocon ideologists of the New World Order. (That thought also frightens quite a few Americans.) It would be a world devoid of anything that makes us human. Einstein, in 1945, predicted that the US would succumb to a 'military mind' - a mind that calls its victims 'collateral damage'. And I am thinking of people like Paul Wolfowitz; Richard Perle; Perle's sidekick Michael Rubin; David Makovsky, a senior WINEP fellow and former executive editor of the pro-Likud Jerusalem Post; Makovsky's brother Michael... just to name a few. Then there is David Horowitz, a born-again neocon - and lapsed Marxist. Horowitz uses his websites, CSPC and FrontPage Magazine, to vociferously demand '(neocon) political correctness'. He also goes in for inflaming racial tensions - or as he sees it - he is standing up to the 'racial arsonists' who advocate reparations for slavery. And to round things up, Horowitz publishes a newsletter, 'Heterodoxy', which if full of vicious rants about Black Americans, feminists, and homosexuals. To me this sounds alarmingly racist, given that this the year 2003. I myself feel reparations for the abomination of slavery are both just and fair. But I am especially apprehensive of Daniel Pipes' fanaticism. Pipes, the publisher of the Middle East Quarterly (MEQ) is a latter-day McCarthy. He wants to stamp out all expressions critical of US foreign policy, ie, to annihilate dissent by destroying the dissenters. Prof. Nagy is one of the victims of Pipes' witch hunts. Pipes also runs CampusWatch, euphemistically described as 'adult education'. CampusWatch aims to stamp out all _wrong_ views about Middle East policy. Only the _right_ views will be tolerated - those endorsing Israel's policies. To this end, Pipes hunts down university professors who express impure thoughts. Their names, address, and thought crimes are then listed on MEQ. (This courtesy allows frequenters of Pipes' website to bombard the culprits with death threats.) I think a democracy should welcome dissent. At least it should not fear it. But when dissent gets suppressed or even punished, as the Bush regime does, you are looking at totalitarianism, not democracy. > ... an organization whose purpose is propaganda > and political support for the Castro dictatorship. 'A dictatorship is much easier', the young Bush apparently said while campaigning for president in 2000. And as he subsequently demonstrated, he wasn't kidding. But unlike other people I could name, Fidel Castro is able to consider and discuss other views. He was for many years a close friend of Pierre Trudeau, former Canadian prime minister. Trudeau maintained trade relations with Cuba. He visited Havana, and hailed Castro with 'Viva Fidel!'. The US didn't like any of this. Nixon particularly disliked Trudeau's preference for peace - and his fascination with the East. When Trudeau died in 2000, Castro came to the funeral. The US didn't like that either. Castro was one of the honorary pallbearers. So was former US president Carter. Communists are human beings too. > In otherwords, Leslie Cagan is a communist nutcase. Ah well... She has probably been called worse things by better people - as Trudeau might have said. In fact, he did say it: When the Watergate tapes were made public, some not so lovely epithets were revealed that Nixon had bestowed on Trudeau - one equating him with an anal aperture. Trudeau merely shrugged his shoulders and raised his brows when he was told about it: "I've been called worse things by better people," he said to a friend. > Any information coming out of her, any of her > organizations, or any organization she (or her > organizations) are affiliated with I take with a > grain of salt. Zero Value -> Zero Meaning. Good idea! And since one 'knows' that beforehand, one can just put the brain on autopilot. But I'd make that a tablespoon of salt - be prepared. The FBI was similarly paranoid about Trudeau: for many years they kept a files on every move he made. Trudeau was an inveterate traveller with a passion for Asia. He was widely read and was interested in many ideas, including communism as a political theory. And he had a quit wit. During his 16 years in office, he did many things the US found exasperating. For example, he reduced Canada's role in NATO. He recognized China and Cuba. And he opposed the Vietnam war. Nixon couldn't make him out - that "clever son of a bitch". And this frustrated Nixon even more: "You've got to put it to these people for kicking the U.S. around after what we did for that lousy son of a bitch", Nixon once told Haldeman after an exasperating session with Trudeau in the Oval Office. That's when Nixon got Haldeman to plant a negative story about Trudeau with columnist Jack Haldeman. This of course didn't faze Trudeau. > (My brief visits at C.A.S.I. have already set off > a number of red flags). Perhaps it wasn't so much the length of your visits that alarmed people, but the mode of your arrival. As I see it, you swooped down on CASI like a tornado, instead of coming in as a gentle breeze. And there is one other thing: Your explanation that you just _happened_ to stumble on CASI and then decided to enlighten those "folks" is... well, a bit tenuous - to say nothing about the assumption that those "folks" need to be enlightened by a complete stranger. And that you then had all those 'debunking' stories on hand is another coincidence. The third point is that all these stories, including Dr. Baram's, so conveniently lead back to the intrepid Daniel Pipes and his MEQ - another coincidence. To me it sounded more as if you came with a mission - Pipes-style. Still, Virginia, there may after all be a Santa Claus. Anyway, these are really minor points - reflecting my own take. You have actually done extremely well on CASI... Besides, a "Darin Zeilweger" by any other name may be just as sweet. Regards, Elga Sutter P.S. We just got a a little taste what it must feel like to live in occupied Iraq: no electricity, in many places no water, water treatment plants collapsing. Boil the water came the warnings. How? Extreme heat - no air conditioning. No stores open - no food. Hospitals had to cancel scheduled operations. Looting started almost immediately in some places. And a state of emergency was declared. And it isn't over yet here in Canada. Yet compared to what are _normal_ days in the life of an Iraqi, this is a picnic. _______________________________________________ Sent via the discussion list of the Campaign Against Sanctions on Iraq. To unsubscribe, visit http://lists.casi.org.uk/mailman/listinfo/casi-discuss To contact the list manager, email casi-discuss-admin@lists.casi.org.uk All postings are archived on CASI's website: http://www.casi.org.uk