Below we post a recent selection of recent letters to the World Socialist Web Site.
On “2004 begins with massive military mobilization in US cities”
Great article on militarizing us that, unfortunately, won’t get any deserved coverage in the major media—electronic or otherwise—all of which are controlled, monitored by embedded CIA personnel and all of which tout the party line. As Lavrenti Beria, former head of Stalin’s secret police said, if you can control the language of the people, you can control the people. We have a “war for terror,” not a “war on terror.” Since 9/11, the American people have been hit by the largest, most pervasive, most persistent mass psychological campaign of terror in history—all to ratchet up the index of fear and despair to prepare people to accept anything in the name of “safety” or “security.” We also have, inter alia, the UnPatriot Act (as I call it, not the Patriot Act) and the Homeland Gestapo Control Act (not Homeland Security), which means security only for those enforcing unconstitutional, draconian practices. I could go on, but you know the picture.
PH
6 January 2003
* * *Dear Sir,
I was perusing the web and happened to come across your article. I am no socialist, but happen to agree with almost everything that you have written in your article about the Bush administration, i.e., its tactics, goals, methods, etc. I, too, have recently thought that events are quite possibly leading to the enforcement of martial law and that elections could very likely be called off. How would the administration go about in calling off elections? That I do not know. It seems to me that there would have to be some crises, most likely fabricated and allowed. This would result in the calling off of elections for reasons of security. The legislative branch would probably not offer much resistance to this measure and it might also be legitimated by and through the Supreme Court as constitutional (eventually). After all, the Constitution is the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court is the Constitution. The Court is allowed to “interpret” the Constitution to come up with an array of new rights. Not much opposition to this is raised.
PK
6 January 2004
* * *A fantastic article, if only it had appeared in the New York Times. That no one uses the word “lies” for the president’s explanations on Iraq is disgraceful. There is a blind worship of the military as seen in the ridiculous Time magazine, which hailed the American soldier as the “Man of the Year.” Now the administration is hiding behind them and their “safety.” Journalists constantly state they are fighting for our freedoms when obviously there is no connection between any of the recent wars and our freedom.
Keep writing!
DH
New York
6 January 2003
* * *Mr. David Walsh,
This is a nice summary of current events, and a well-thought-out article. I think you are precisely right on most counts, but I would suggest that the Bush administration doesn’t NECESSARILY need to resort to scaring the hell out of everybody or staging attacks, because they can simply use media to SUGGEST to us that terrorism and the terrorist threat is real.
If I’m sitting in my living room in Idaho watching cable TV and every channel is showing the “heightened state of alert,” I may soon come to believe that something’s going on here and that the “War on Terrorism” is justified, even though I know very well that no terrorist is going to attack Idaho.
Also, you say that “The feverish actions of the past several days suggest that the Bush administration is sitting atop a crisis of its own making, with which it does not know how to cope.” I would suggest that the Bush administration knows precisely how to cope with this “crisis,” because they designed it. They are completely in control of what’s going on, even though it may seem like a runaway train.
Best regards,
BW
Houston, Texas
4 January 2004
* * *Wow. Articulated and laid out row after row. I’m inclined to call it visionary, but it’s so obvious, it’s simply vision. It’s right there in front of our faces and we have a nation of television sheep believing propaganda is reality, like: so what if it’s propaganda, it’s reality.
I see this time the same as Germany in the ’30s, and thought it especially at the end of this article, the showdown between the Nazis and the Communists, this time between the Republican Party and the American people. The war on the American people is on. I’m glad I live 70 miles from the nearest urban center and 100 from the next one. It will reach here too, and I don’t mean terrorism but the American military and law enforcement. Law enforcement is already doing it.
Thanks so very much for the WSWS take on what is happening in the action movie America Takes Over the World serialized every day on CNN, etc. I don’t believe we have to do anything to resist here. The house of cards is poised for the merest breeze to dismantle it and that breeze, I feel, is near at hand. We just need to be ready to put the fallen pieces together in new ways, ways beneficial to all, as the American experience was ideally intended.
Sincerely,
TW
4 January 2004
* * *On “Orange alert in US—terrorizing the American public again”
I’m afraid Bush is crying wolf too often. We just aren’t buying it anymore. I, for one, believe that all these alerts are political. I do not for one moment believe that there has been any real danger of a repeat of 9/11. 9/11 would not have happened if our government had been doing their job. Also, I am not convinced that the Bush administration did not have a hand in the planning and execution of 9/11. Look at the facts: Bush had to steal the election. He was appointed by his daddy’s cronies. He wanted a war with Iraq. He could not have that war unless he had a really good reason and if the American people weren’t scared witless. Also, look at the long association that the Bush family has had with the bin Ladens. I do not believe in coincidences. I believe that this was all planned and that it was planned by those in the administration. I don’t fear the terrorist nearly as much as I do the administration in Washington.
Those fools scare me to death.
CG
College Station, Texas
27 December 2003
* * *After raising the national threat level to orange, Tom Ridge said the risks are “perhaps greater now than at any point since September 11, 2001.” If Ridge’s assessment is correct, then the US military has spent the last two years killing thousands of the wrong people. And it’s not because the US military can’t shoot straight. It’s because its Commander in Chief can’t think straight.
If it wasn’t obvious to the American public before, then it should be obvious now: The war with Iraq was the wrong war, at the wrong time, with the wrong enemy.
HW
Chicago
24 December 2003
* * * * * *To the Editor,
I don’t wish harm to any country, but what Bush hasn’t taken into consideration is the American people. He has to realize what goes around comes around. If he isn’t reelected, he should be charged for committing war crimes. Surely the American people aren’t stupid enough to be conned by his ploy. He doesn’t want the country to realize how poor the economy is or for the people to wake up to how incapable he is.
He claims America is giving Iraq its democracy, but how can that be? If it’s like American democracy it doesn’t exist. He will get a puppet elected—the people won’t stand a chance. He gives orders to Australia’s air force, now he demands our ships be made terrorist proof. As far as I’m concerned Bush and his companies raping our country can take a flying leap. The sooner they leave the better. I hope for America’s sake they don’t reelect him.
AG
Australia
3 January 2004