Below we post a selection of letters to the WSWS on the November 7 article “Bush’s war at home: a creeping coup d’etat”
I thought your article was very good. It confirmed my own sense and fear about what’s been happening in our country. When I heard Ridge say (I’m paraphrasing because I don’t have the exact quote): “liberty is the most precious gift our government offers its citizens,” I was stunned. I looked up the Declaration of Independence and read it again just to make sure my memory was right. I know I don’t need to tell you what it says, but I like saying it:
“We hold these truths to be self evident; that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness.”
I’m quite sure I first heard those lines in grammar school, possibly even kindergarten! It’s a beautiful concept and I am proud and happy to live in a place, and time in history, where the idea exists and is revered by most, even if it seems to be more a dream than a reality.
As far as I can see, people like me, working people, throughout history have been entirely at the mercy of those in power. We only know what they want us to know and we don’t have any voice in the decisions they make. If we are lucky our lives are not cut short fighting their wars we don’t end up buried in the unmarked grave of history’s forgotten soldiers. Or, as women in the past, we don’t suffer the loss of our husbands, fathers, or sons.
I was thinking recently about the irony of Bush’s service in the National Cathedral where the voice of one chaplain who said “love is stronger than hate” and others who suggested that Christians think about what it really means to be Christians and the meanings of Christ’s teachings, were drowned out by Bush’s war cries in the surrounding days. To me, in his address to Congress he was like a gorilla beating his chest on the hilltop.
Thank you. I will continue to visit your web site.
S
7 November 2001
Dear author,
Thank you for writing that article: “Bush’s war at home: a creeping coup d’etat.” I’m very worried about the present world situation, as are a lot of Norwegians with me. In December Kofi Annan arrives to collect his Nobel’s Peace Prize and guess who’s going to be singing him in: Paul McCartney, who has announced publicly that he backs the bombing of Afghanistan.
Hopefully there will be a lot of protesters to greet them as well. I can envisage a whole crowd of burka-covered men, and when they take off their burkas, they all look like Paul McCartney.
AG
7 November 2001
Your analysis of the situation we Americans find ourselves in right now is paranoid at the very least. Like many people who suspect the government of everything from spying on us in the toilet to genocide, you think just because we want to start being really careful about who we let roam free around America the government is going to start spying on all of us. You also think our freedoms will be reined in and our democracy will be less democratic.
In your article you talk about a “sweeping attack on democratic rights” never seen previously during any war. Then you ask, “Why is this happening today, when the alleged enemy is a small band of terrorists operating out of caves in one of the poorest countries in the world?” The answer is because it only took 19 fundamentalist maniacs to kill 5,000 people! It doesn’t matter from where they operate. They are cunning, motivated, fearless, ready to die, filled with hate, murderous, and are already spread around the world in a loose network ready to kill more people whenever they so choose.
Am I worried about my civil rights? Hell, no. Am I for racial profiling that singles out those who would be suspected of terrorist activity? Absolutely. It’s the terrorists’ fault all this is happening in this country, not the government’s. Don’t forget that.
JR
8 November 2001
Thank you for printing such a good analysis of the current events in the new America in the article, “Bush’s war at home: a creeping coup d’état”. In my view the situation unfolding is not surprising. America has been propping up dictators and fascists for a hundred years or so. Why would, in the end, America, which has aided and abetted right-wing dictators worldwide, not feel envy for the powers that a totalitarian possesses in countries such as the former Chile, Saudi Arabia or other puppet states?
JJ
7 November 2001
As one who carried banners in the 60s all this isn’t new but a continuation. We did make some progress in the 60s until Raygun/Nixon saw it and “made corrections.” Since then, I’ve had the constant question: Is there anything we can do? Seems to me that I’ve seen little forward movement in a long time. Sure. the little successes do help, but is there any hope other than moving to some far off unimportant place?
MR
7 November 2001