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More letters on the terror attacks and US war preparations

The following is a selection of recent letters sent to the World Socialist Web Site on last week’s terror attacks and US preparations for war.

Thank you for your insight and articulating it so well. I too am saddened by the total disregard for life, yet I knew it was only a matter of time. The people of America are shocked. I can relate to being stunned, the sheer magnitude of the attack without the usage of conventional weapons, but being shocked speaks volumes about how detached the American people are from their government—“the suits.” We can look back only a few months ago at the developing recipe for this disaster. Bush administration takes office. The all-American duke is back, attacks on America were inevitable, just not this way and this soon. The Bush administration accelerated the time for this new war with their “our way or no way” mentality, their machismo, their lack of respect for neutrality in the Middle East. All these and many more were and are ingredients for the disaster we now see, and the ones that will follow if we the people continue to allow our government to represent us in such a poor way.

GVM

14 September 2001


Sir, I am happy to read your commentary on the events of Tuesday. One must reflect upon American policy and then foresee its consequences.

I

India

13 September 2001


Thank you very much for your article of September 13. You have provided much needed leadership and insight into a very troubling event. I also appreciate the courage required to write and sign such a document these days, and am grateful that I was allowed to see it.

JH

13 September 2001


Thank you very much for your very thoughtful analysis of the events leading to and surrounding the terrorist attack in New York on Tuesday. Yours was a welcome breath of clarity in an otherwise cliché-ridden media spectacle.

IT

13 September 2001


Dear Editor,

The attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon are despicable and murderous actions. However, the WSWS is absolutely correct in pointing out that the conditions for this horror have been created by the reckless and brutal policies of the American ruling class. The corporate media, as usual, is playing a particularly pernicious role. While President Bush skulked in his bunker in Nebraska, the US media stepped into the breach, baying for blood. They are now eagerly preparing the American population for war and further carnage. The terror in Washington and New York almost certainly presages an intensification of American aggression and militarism and further destabilization of the situation in the Middle East. This can only mean disaster.

Yours,

EG

South Africa

13 September 2001


Hello. For the past five days, I have been experiencing, as many of us have, a wide array of emotions in regard to the WTC tragedy. One of those emotions has surprised and also isolated me from those around me. I’ve never been really politically involved or even informed, so until five days ago I really had little knowledge of US policies or politics. Once over the horrible initial shock I became disturbed and then angry at what I perceived as manipulation by both the president and his staff and the media.

This turned to anger at such exploitative opportunism on the backs of a confused and bereaved nation and I began to search out alternative news sources. (God Bless the Internet!) What I learned was not comforting, but at least it justified my feelings of unease and isolation. When I have tried to voice my concerns to friends and loved ones, my views are met with uncharacteristic intolerance ... further proof of my suspicions. This morning I read the article “Why the Bush administration wants war.” Everything that I have been guilty of thinking, because I am a patriot and I love this country and there is guilt attached to any thoughts that don’t reflect a “team player” attitude, was expressed in the aforementioned article. I don’t feel quite so alone anymore. Thanks.

Peace,

M

15 September 2001


My son sent me the link to your article “Why the Bush administration wants war,” after I had sent him an email expressing how isolated I felt in believing this gung-ho enthusiasm for war was wrong, and that it seemed to me a holy war with a political agenda.

My greatest fear of this new government ruled by the religious right and warmongers is that they will not have enough young bodies to kill in their self-fulfilled prophetic war against the “Arab devils” and that my son will be forced to give up his life for an Administration of Faith’s political agenda.

When I told my son-in-law I would move my son away before sacrificing him to the Christians he called me un-American. He said he would go to war and become a number if it meant freedom in America. I asked him what freedoms he thought he would have ruled by a country based on religion. No answer. When I bring up the benefits of war in the Republican mindset, no one wants to hear it. Friends are turning away because I won’t chant war.

Thank you for your article, and letting people like me know we are not alone, and not un-American by seeing the potential threat a war between good and evil will have on us as a nation and a world.

CJ

15 September 2001


Thank you for a sober and intellectual evaluation of the recent events surrounding the WTC and the Pentagon. After the horror of the events subsided I began to ask myself some hard questions that no one in the media is asking or answering:

1. Who is going to benefit from the tragedy?

2. Where did the money come from to finance this venture?

3. Why was there such a spectacular failure of counterintelligence?

4. Why was there such a spectacular delay in the actions of the US military?

5. Is there someone inside the US government who was giving strategic info to these people about military preparedness?

I think your analysis is more accurate than anything I’ve seen or heard since these events unfolded. For 11 years the US has been bombing the Iraqi people and the people of the United States have chosen to not know. If we fall into this trap, and it looks as if we are, shame on us. Again, thank you for such a thoughtful analysis. Keep them coming.

NB

15 September 2001


Your articles are the best. You fill in the missing spaces in the US media.

Just wanted you to know.

BH

15 September 2001


I just read the WSWS article, “Why the Bush administration wants war,” and wanted to thank you for providing just about the only alternative viewpoint on these recent events that I’ve been able to find. The role of the corporate media in magnifying and sustaining the grief and rage of the American populace is truly despicable, but the average American has been so immersed in this synthetic infotainment stream for so long that very few of us even notice the extent to which we are being manipulated. I can only hope that this manufactured war fever will exhaust itself in time for some of us to begin thinking rationally again, before the bombs start flying. There are some signs that this is happening—people are reporting feeling “burned out” on the unrelenting televised display of suffering, fear, and anger; perhaps they will begin to consider, after a period of reflection, the real consequences of this chimeric “war” that we are all so eager to wage against who knows who.

M

15 September 2001


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