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Letters from our readers

On “Israel considering attack on Syria

It is clear that, like the Libyan scenario, “victory” in Syria is going to lead to a chaotic situation with many disparate militias, including Al Qaeda. So why is the US pushing for this?

The answer must be that that is what they want—a weak Syria. They don’t have to win an outright victory with only “the good guys” in charge, just so much chaos and confusion that Syria cannot possibly consider attacking Israel, Turkey, or even supporting Hezbollah in Lebanon.

The same thing is being done in Egypt, with western media giving heavy coverage of protests against Mursi, despite him doing well in the constitutional referendum.

Then the stage will be set for the attack on Iran, without the worries of retaliation by Israel’s immediate neighbours.

Palloy

18 December 2012

On “Obama announces task force on gun violence

Your analysis, as usual, is dead on. I have long thought, as your publication has long insisted, that the two-party system in the US is merely a “good cop, bad cop” facade for oligarchical rule. Thank you for exposing the false mass media frame of this tragedy.

Paul G

20 December 2012

On the Connecticut school shooting

Re: your recent excellent articles on the Connecticut school shooting: I just read today in the LA Times, “Adam Lanza’s family had kept a watchful eye on him.”

They report that a family friend who visited the Lanza home saw a basement room “where (Adam) Lanza spent a lot of time playing video games. As Wlasuk’s father described it, the room had posters of military weaponry, and Lanza would be playing violent video games such as ‘Call of Duty.’”

This cannot be surprising and certainly supports your main points regarding this tragedy.

It’s American militarism, endless multiple wars, out of control police violence and murders, the drugging of untold numbers of children and teenagers and the overall grotesque debasement of human values and positive culture that are primary causes of this continuing horror.

Richard R.

Hawaii, USA

20 December 2012

On “Media, politicians obscure social roots of Connecticut shooting

It is the same Bloomberg, during Sandy, who cut off all the water supply and heat from working class neighbourhoods, while he made sure that barons of Wall Street not be irritated by the power cuts.

Sathish

19 December 2012

On “Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty: Hollywood embraces the ‘dark side’

Once again through the WSWS, Bill Van Auken has lifted the veil that masquerades this film. In plain view, it exhibits the deception and the essential rationale for its production. The perpetuation of wealth and privilege requires naked barbarism and repression; no way to disguise it. Those that have eyes see.

EB

20 December 2012

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This film sounds like a form of “torture pornography.” Just the description in the article is sickening. The fact that the likes of Bigelow are glorifying violence and torture and patting themselves on the back for it, claiming it is some sort of “journalistic” presentation, is an obscenity.

We can no doubt expect more mentally ill emulators of the protagonists in this film, while the likes of Obama and others shed crocodile tears over the slaughter of innocents that will result.

The fact that Bigelow and her ilk have made millions out of such perversion is an outrage. If I believed in hell, I would hope that there was a very special place in it for the likes of these filmmakers.

Carolyn

San Francisco, USA

20 December 2012

On “Obama proposes Social Security cuts

Another fraud being perpetrated against the working class. In order to find savings to prevent an immediate fiscal crisis, Congress seems poised to change the way the cost of living is calculated. But it will save only about $225 billion over the first 10 years, half coming from Social Security.

At the same time, with imminent fiscal doom approaching, Congress wants to appropriate $88 billion for another year of war in Afghanistan. Changing the way the cost of living is calculated isn't about the “fiscal cliff,” it’s about cutting benefits and weakening the social safety net for the working class—a safety net that is meaningless to most members of Congress and other inside-the-Beltway toadies.

MZ

Maryland, USA

20 December 2012