Regarding Swans: Dear Swans, Please include me in your subscription list. Regards, and congratulations on a superb site. Mark McEvoy Belfast, Ireland Gilles d'Aymery answers:Mr. McEvoy's subscription request and kind words are music to our ears. We travel a low-key journey, much under the radar screen. We do no marketing. We do no advertizing. We travel by word of mouth. Do not take us wrong. We know about marketing. We know about advertizing. We also know about money and the lack thereof. We are neither naïve nor stupid. What we know above all is that if the "system" needs be changed one cannot use the tools that keep the "system" dug in concrete in the first place to change it. So, PLEASE, disseminate Swans to your friends and foes alike! When we say that "it's your voice that makes ours grow," we mean it... ********** Regarding: Dear Editor: It is a pleasure to see that rational minds are emerging to rally against a U.S. invasion of Iraq. The "Open Letter To United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan and to Representatives of the Member States, on the Declared Intention of the United States to Commit Aggression Against Iraq," by David Peterson, Edward S. Herman, Anthony Arnove, and Rahul Mahajan, calls for the UN member-states to step up and act according to the UN Charter and international law. I hope it makes an impact. While it's a potential tragedy that the UN member-states are silent on the issue, it's not surprising. When the President of the world's only superpower, who can invade any country he desires without approval from Congress, puts the world on notice that 'you're either with us or with the terrorists', is the lack of dissention really a surprise? The U.S. President wields a deadly club that's unchecked, and has proven time and again that he'll use it in disregard of the principles this country was founded upon. It's about time that the American people speak up and put a stop to this, by forcing Congress to uphold the Constitution and end their decades-long neglect of duty. With pressure on Congress and the UN, maybe the people can bring some rationality and honor back to U.S. foreign policy. Attached is a copy of a letter to my Congressional representatives. If you see fit, please disseminate it. Hopefully it will inspire others to endorse it and get it to their Congresspeople, or to write letters of their own. David Lamb Media, Pennsylvania [Ed. David Lamb is a former command-level human rights investigator, International Police Task Force (IPTF), UN Mission in Bosnia-Herzegovina (UNMIBH); and a former Pennsylvania police officer.] ********** My fear and of course it takes a thinking person to understand this....( there seems to be a severe shortage of those in this administration, with the exception of Colin Powell) is that by engaging in an unprovoked attack on Iraq we will succeed in doing what Osama was unable to do...and that was to arouse the entire Arab world in a holy war/jihad against the west. I firmly believe that if we do attack Iraq our country will become filled with suicide bombers and no American will be safe anywhere in the world...So...please...keep up the dialogue and let's hope that Bush 41 will cut the crap and stop using surrogates to speak to his son....who in his own way has been very fortunate in his lifetime..."Unfortunately" for us our country and the rest of the world are subject to the whims now of right wing zealots who seem to have no understanding of the word compromise. Again...keep up the work...and don't let up. Don Perry Charlotte, North Carolina ********** I do not want war without end. I believe with all my heart that if Al Gore would have gotten to be President, which he duly earned in Election 2000, that we would not be having this conversation now. President Bill Clinton would never have had such a bellicose idea. We should NOT be going to war with Iraq. We should NOT be engaging in an unprovoked war or going to war on the offensive. There is no dignified excuse for going to war for unprovoked reasons. That would be beneath the dignity of a nation which should be promoting peace and should be a light of freedom to the rest of the world. It is beneath the dignity of the world's only Super Power, or any Super Power, for that matter. I do NOT want to send my five young nephews to fight in an unprovoked war. Nor do I want my nephew-in-law to go, nor do I want anyone else to go. Innocent Iraqi and American blood should NOT be spilled. No blood should be spilled in an unprovoked war that does not have to happen. I believe that war with Iraq would lead to Armageddon in the very worst sense of the word. Also, in other times in history, Hitler's Third Reich used the glorification of war as an excuse to cover up unthinkable war crimes such as the Holocaust. There are already signs it could happen here in America because the current administration seems to be taking lessons from those of the Third Reich. If we stoop to such mentality and we let similar scenarios become a part of our history, we will be seen as the most blasphemous nation in the earth's history and will never again be respected as the impeccable nation of hope and freedom that we once were to the rest of the world. We will have lost our credibility in the world community and with future generations. We will have fallen from grace as a great nation and an example to the world. For those who think that an apocalyptic war is necessary to get a beautiful world tomorrow and that calamities must be a part of the equation, I have news for them. It will never happen that way! We have already had enough of Armageddon because of September 11, 2001, and because of merely talking of war with Iraq and because of talk of war without end. The time for war with Iraq is past. We had a chance to contain Saddam in Operation Desert Storm under the first Bush administration, but did not carry it out, when we could have done it. Now it is too late. A war with Iraq now would be counter productive and would likely bring a devastated and impoverished future for those in the world who do survive. I am not using the following quote as an attempt to preach religion. The final destiny of man will be through the peacemakers and meek of the earth, not through war mongers who cry "war without end." The following quote (from the Book of Isaiah) is classic and it is very appropriate to our times. We should work to see its fulfillment in our lifetime, "And they shall beat their swords into plowshares and their spears into pruning hooks. Nation shall NOT lift up sword against nation. Neither shall they learn war anymore!" I repeat, I want to see it in my lifetime. I want my nephews and their children to grow up in a world of universal peace and goodwill in perpetuity, NOT war without end! Marilyn Dinger Kaysville, Utah ********** I am outraged that President Bush thinks that he can declare war without the people's consent. He has taken away the freedom that our forefathers fought for. We are practically under a police state. I resent this! Barbara J. Walsh Missoula, Montana ********** I wish that the USA would not go TO WAR. It would be wrong to do so. Andrew A. Amarante Baldwin, New York ********** Regarding Enduring Enmity, Radio And America: Field Marshall Lord Kitchener (1850-1916) - by Milo Clark In regard to this informative piece, there were other bastards too, Lord Roberts, and the civilian High Commissioner, and one of the leading civilian "Liberal-Imperialist" theorists of the day, just like Richard Perle and Zbigniew Brzezinski today. In fact he was responsible a few years later from 1908 for exporting these jolly theories to the USA, financing the "circles" set up to promote Geopolitical theories and "Anglo-Saxonism," which became the Council on Foreign Relations, as Milner was the trustee of the Rhodes Foundation. It was absolutely crucial for geopolitical strategic reasons to take over the Boer Republics. So the most brutal and ruthless methods were used. Why? Gold was a crucial strategic material because of the gold standard. It wasn't used for money, it was money. The British Empire and the City were in financial trouble, Britain having just gone though the Great Depression of 1873-1894 (which didn't seem to effect anyone else) because of a lack of supply of gold for money. They came up with a theory -- "Strategic Denial Theory." You must take over these strategic areas of the world and prevent other powers from entering. You must get rid of any native populations which cause trouble for you. All this comes right down to the reasons for the actions of Bush II and his pals today. Oh, and just one other thing, there was a deal. Britain would support America over Cuba and the Spanish-American War in return for American support over the attack on the Boer Republics. American diplomatic support and "benevolent neutrality," especially by Theodore Roosevelt, were crucial to holding off the European powers. Richard Roper United Kingdom ********** Regarding Zimbabwe Under Siege - by Gregory Elich See Wholly Derelict Journalism - by Alex Jay Berman And read Elich's response, My Journalistic Dereliction ********** We appreciate and welcome your comments. Please, remember to sign your e-mails with your real name and add your city, state, country, address and phone number. If we publish your opinion we will only include your name, city, state, and country. We are for real. Please be for real. Thanks. (Letters may be shortened and edited) |