Below we post a selection of recent letters to the WSWS.
Hi,
I am an American and I feel that this war thing is all about oil, and that September 11 is just an excuse the leaders of this country are using to wage “war” on Afghanistan’s Taliban. Even the gas prices have gone down here and nationally ever since we waged war on them. I mean, come on, everyone knows that terrorism is a social ill, not one party that you can get rid of. I don’t see us bombing Germany because they have terrorists.
Thank you for your time,
E
27 November 2001
Dear Editorial Board,
I am sure you know that for articles like this people used to go to jail in the McCarthy era. And I have a strange feeling that now that the commies are no longer the prime target, those who refuse to run along with the rats will be targeted next.
Permit me to congratulate you on your courage to highlight and back up with facts what is generally believed by the relatively small community of those who refuse to be brainwashed by the privately owned media (still referred to by the indoctrinated as “free”). Especially in these mad times of concentrated capitalist power and corruption to match, when the giant, having for the first time been stung by terrorism (whose seeds he has been sowing for decades), is beginning to shed his last vestiges of democracy, your voice must be heard by all who are willing to think.
Keep up the good work, and may likeminded people through common efforts and your help some day create a society that can truly be called democratic.
Your appreciative reader,
RT
27 November 2001
I sometimes wonder if you think that the Taliban and Al Qaeda are on the same sheet of music you are. Your coverage at times seems to paint them as poor underdogs who if let to their own devices would have a heaven on earth. While I would not support what you say happened at the fortress, it does seem as if you really do not present facts. It is all opinion. But your condemnation is heavy and not what if. While I like to read your articles for a view I might not get otherwise, let’s not forget that if you can’t be open in your news, it is not any better than the rest.
27 November 2001
I wish every USA citizen could read your articles—and read them with an open mind. Perhaps there would be less flag waving and more protests. Keep up the good work.
FG
California
27 November 2001
Dear WSWS,
After reading Joseph Kay’s review of the WSJ [Wall Street Journal] article I felt physically sick. This is not just the demasked face of the Ugly American. This is the downright Vile American. The idea that the highest echelons of the only remaining superpower consciously embrace such blatantly fascist ideas makes me want to vomit. One truly can say that the US is on par with the Third Reich; after all, what else is the US so ruthlessly and viciously pursuing than Lebensraum? It reminded me of something a friend of mine (an officer in the Swiss army) told me: apparently many West Point cadets sew Nazi and SS insignia onto the inside of their caps, in admiration of National Socialist militarism. And what is happening at the home front? Shades of Operation Garden Plot and Cablesplicer: National Guard and Army at airports harassing dissenters, free speech at universities, etc., quelled, calls for using torture, de facto revocation of the Bill of Rights, disappearing “suspects” Pinochet-style and the list goes on and on ad nauseam.
Göring, Himmler and Heydrich would be proud of their foreign students, indeed!
Cecil Rhodes once said that those who oppose civil war must support colonialism. The US is in a similar position as the UK (and other nations) over a hundred years ago: in order to defuse social tensions they engage in imperialism. Future generations, however, will “look back at the present period with a combination of shame and outrage”.
Sincerely,
CN
Switzerland
28 November 2001
Sir, I discovered WSWS by accident and I am glad that I did so. I would just like to thank you and your team for reporting facts, with clear objectivity to expose the US-led war in Afghanistan, which has brought nothing but destruction and suffering to the people. It takes passion for justice and courage to report the truth in the face of so much deceit, lies and constant propaganda by the richest countries of the world. I just wish that mainstream media could follow in your footsteps and do their job with honesty and tell the ordinary people the truth about the murderous aims and objectives of the USA and its rich allies. Please keep up the good work, as I am sure you are a source of factual information for many, many people.
Thank you once again.
ZB
29 November 2001