Below we post a selection of recent letters to the WSWS.
In response to “ New York Times’ Thomas Friedman: “No problem with a war for oil”—What a pleasure to read accurate, intelligent reporting backed by solid proof and analysis! Why are you not pushing to have your articles in other papers? This is what more Americans should be reading. I’m certain that if more people read articles that were actually written by intelligent thinking humans, we would not be considering war, but diplomatic solutions only. We might even have more people in our government facing what is truly important to most Americans at this time—our economy.
Keep up the good work, and I hope that you are able to attract more readers to your site or to at least get your articles in other sources.
Regards,
AA
15 January 2003
Excellent article of 30 October 2002 which I just came across: “Report on urban warfare points to US plans to destroy Iraqi cities” and found it to be well researched. I worked as a photojournalist in Kuwait from 1991 to 2000 and am very disturbed at our present administration’s bent on attacking Iraq without provocation. Also, very disturbed that our stateside media is supporting the White House propaganda with only a few articles embracing fact, i.e., Atlanta Journal-Constitution, LA Times, New York Times. Americans seem to be following along blindly, too unconcerned to do any serious research on their own.
While in the Middle East I had the opportunity to talk with ambassadors and heads of state, met Bush Sr. after his term in office along with Baker, Sununu and others there to reestablish their business deals. Watched the construction of the new Arifjan US Army Base in Kuwait and talked with US Army COE engineers as they finished the new Al-Udeid USAF Base in Qatar—this plan to attack Iraq has been on the table ever since Bush Sr. was in the Oval Office. So much more—some times I wish I didn’t know.
Would be interested in reading other articles you may have written regarding the Middle East situation.
Sincerely,
BL
14 January 2003
Dear Editor,
I found David Walsh’s analysis of Martin Scorsese’s Gangs of New York to be well-argued, well-researched, and, on the whole, brilliant. Through Walsh’s numerous examinations of US cinema, I, like he, have come to conclude that misanthropy is the default mode of Hollywood filmmakers. Scorsese’s most recent work is only the latest, and among the most expensive, manifestations of this negative and maligning disposition. It is only the innate sense of decency, compassion, and empathy among movie goers that prevents such “intellectuals” from going farther in depicting, and to a definite extent, glorifying depraved behavior.
Sincerely,
GG
16 January 2003
* * *You’re amazing, David. I don’t think I’ve ever quite learned so much from a film review. Trouble is, since I’ve been reading you—a couple years now—I can’t enjoy movies to the same extent!
As to A.O. Scott knowing better—you give his occasional insights too much credit. Read his Bowling for Columbine review to see the damage regular employment at the New York Times can do to a once-sharp intellect. Clueless.
Regards,
MM
16 January 2003
To whom it may concern:
I just finished reading about the Medicare cuts. It is certainly sad to see that the people who built this country are being treated so poorly by our congress and president. The people we vote in don’t take very good care of the elderly. We are getting close to the Medicare age but we may as well forget about getting old with all the cuts that they are going to do, especially if you become a cancer victim. It doesn’t look like they are going to take care of them. What is really sad as we see on the news it looks like the people who have paid claims, etc., are as guilty as the hospitals and doctors for fraud, which has probably put Medicare where it is today. Why would they pay for a bill that an 83-year-old man had a baby—I saw this on the news—or the many other costs of aspirin, band-aids, etc.—this is ridiculous.
They certainly ruined it for the future Medicare people who have paid all of their lives and when it becomes their turn have nothing. Let’s hope our researchers come up with a cure for cancer, heart attacks and any other illness that needs a medical cure or we won’t live to be 78 years old if there is no insurance for the elderly. I think all of this has gotten out of hand with our insurance companies as well as all of the lawsuits people are encouraged to file by our lawyers. No wonder this country is in the state it is in. Our state governments and the White House simply don’t know how to budget.
Thank you,
AD
15 January 2003
* * *That our country—the wealthiest in the world—does not provide health care to all is wrong. I have worked for 30 years as a nurse in every facet of health care and watch in horror as CEOs and managed care get richer and more and more people fall off the edge. Most health care workers at the bottom of the medical ladder work like slaves taking care of the frail and the elderly, but they do not make enough money to afford health insurance! They have nothing and if they get sick there is not even sick time for them. At the top are administrators, owners, directors of nurses and ancillary staff who all have immediate health care the first day of employment! They drive BMWs, own their own houses, and live the good life. The CNA who does the hard grunt work is expendable and turnover is at an all-time high. This is an area that needs to be exposed. Let me tell you, someone is making a hell of a lot of money and it is not the worker.
MS
15 January 2003