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Letters from our readers

On Kathryn Bigelows Zero Dark Thirty: Hollywood embraces the dark side’ 

It is most disturbing to me that women are being promoted as the supporters of torture—the militarization of women in general has been a step backwards. Note that Project Censored has named, as one of its most underreported stories of the past year, the extremely high level of sexual assault against women by their colleagues in the armed forces.

Kamilla V
British Columbia, Canada
21 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
20 December 2012

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Once again through the WSWS Bill Van Auken has lifted the veil that masks this film, [and] in plain view 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

On Obama nominates John Kerry as secretary of state

This is a good article in the style of “Who is...?” I have been watching in disgust—though not surprise—this political weasel’s degeneration over the past several decades. The richer he gets, the further and faster he slides to the right.

What has caught me by surprise, though, is the pass he enjoys from all quarters. That he was the leader of the Vietnam Veterans Against the War, that he threw away his medals, not only means nothing today; it is utterly forgotten.

In 2004, he shamed himself forever in my book when stood up before his supporters and blew out his own political brains to make the Republicans happy. Had he soiled his pants in public it could not have been an uglier sight.

The main reason this man is able to enjoy his life of wealth and privilege under the prophylactic bubble of official forgetfulness is the ex-left. This process began when all the “libs” got behind the Balkan wars and has continued unabated since.

CH
Houston, TX
22 December 2012

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Dear Bill,

Is this the same John “taser-the-son-of-bitch” Kerry who taunted a 21-year-old journalism student at the Univerisity of Florida in 2007?

Randy R
Arizona, USA
22 December 2012

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 Morsi, 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 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.

It is no surprise that he supports gun control, aiming for a broader attack on democratic rights of working class.

Regards,

Sathish
19 December 2012

On Letters from our readers

Regarding your recent excellent articles on the Connecticut school shooting: I just read today in the L.A. 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 Obama announces task force on gun violence

In regard to the article “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 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

On Robert Bork (1927-2012): Reactionary jurist and opponent of equality

A truly vomitous figure....

Thanks for your faithful article....

Rob
Alabama, USA
24 December 2012

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