Date: Wed, 26 Sep 2001 13:45:55 -0400
Subject: Re: Reply to Richard Dawkins, "Religion's Misguided Missiles"
From: "bob brown" <vacirca-AT-charm.net>


thanks once more margaret for  for injecting some reality into the debate 
over sept. 11 and terrorism. i amazed and very suspicious at how quickly the
bush team put a whole anti-terrorist, rightwing patriotic campaign in place.
it feels like a cultural coup d'etat; the aggressive demand for patriotic
unity and sacrifice to go to war, forcing everyone to choose sides or be
declared the enemy, the media's uncritical parrotting of the bush propaganda
line. Ever since the vietnam war mainstrream white middle america has been
notoriously skittish about going to war unless it could be done with out
casualties.the rightwing hardliners led by cheney, are trying to change all
that.
key to this ideological struggle is to control the public debate over
terrorism, blocking any discussion of US state terrorism in the media. Many
average americans have this unreal, almost surreal picture of the last 50
years of world history, they have an inverted picture of the US as the
defender of freedom and democracy and rule of law, opponent of violence and
terrorism, when in fact it is the US that is the most terroristic and
violent threat to freedom and democracy and social justice in the world.
unless the left can puncture this 1984ish  american doublethink  and educate
the mass of ordinary americans about what us foreign has really been about
we're in for very hard times. sept11 has both given the right a boost and
recreated an anti-war movement at the same time showing that mass
attitudesare are still fluid and not as monolithic as the media portrays.

 As shocking as it may sound i suspect that the cia and the fbi let sept 11
happen so that they could create a war psychosis in the country. we know
from history that roosevelt and the military knew about pearl harbor before
it happenned and let it happen so that they could break the anti-war
isolationist mood of the american people. all the calls to go back to those
times of national unity and "heroic" self-sacrifice after     Pearl Harbor
make me very suspicious. its all too pat and convenient.
Finally, if people really want to make war on terrorism and its roots, and
make heroic sacrifices then i suggest they start by trying to figure out how
the take out the US miltary machine, its financiers and US gunrunners, (the
main source of weapons in the world today.) bob brown
"solidarity means sharing the same risks" - Che
( la solidarita significa correre gli stessi rischi)

----------
>From: Margaret Trawick <trawick-AT-clear.net.nz>
>To: postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
>Subject: Re: Reply to Richard Dawkins, "Religion's Misguided Missiles"
>Date: Wed, Sep 26, 2001, 1:54 AM
>

> LTTE stands for Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam.  They were labeled by
> Madeleine Albright, when she was Secretary of State, as a terrorist
> organization, along with 30-some-odd organizations, that are banned from the
> US, which means it is illegal to send them material support from the US.
>
> They are fighting the Sri Lankan government for an independent state,
> consisting of that part of Sri Lanka inhabited mostly by Tamils.  Tamils are
> the largest minority ethnic group in Sri Lanka, constituting about 12% of
> the population.  The majority ethnic group are the Sinhalese, who constitute
> about 70% of the population.  About 16,000 members of the LTTE have died in
> their conflict with the Sri Lankan government since 1983.  Nobody really
> knows how many civilians have died, but estimates are at about 70,000.  The
> total population of SL, at last count, was about 13 million.
>
> The war in Sri Lanka is fierce and terrible, but few people even know about
> it.  Thanks for asking.
>
> MT
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Rebecca Fenton <rebecca.fenton-AT-excite.com>
> To: <postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu>
> Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2001 5:05 PM
> Subject: Re: Reply to Richard Dawkins, "Religion's Misguided Missiles"
>
>
>> What is LTTE?  I mean, I asume from what you wrote towards the end of your
>> post that it is a Tamil group?  What does it stand for?
>>
>> Rebecca Fenton
>>
>> On Wed, 26 Sep 2001 13:18:35 +1200,
> postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu
>> wrote:
>>
>>   Okay.  I cannot keep quiet about this anymore.
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________________
>> http://inbox.excite.com
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>      --- from list postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
>>
>
>
>
>      --- from list postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---
> 


     --- from list postcolonial-AT-lists.village.virginia.edu ---