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Rick Ingrasci sent this piece, sent to him by
Michael Hathaway:
FIVE STAR
PIECE: Calm Down a
Little, Stephen
Huyler -- June 3,
2002
Suzanne's comments: I was concerned about
passing this piece on. A nuclear incident is such a serious prospect that it
perhaps isn't appropriate to bandy about this individual's two cents, that
runs so counter to the prevailing understanding. However, this letter, about a
media-hype regarding the imminence of the threat from India and Pakistan, was
written by a friend of a friend -- Michael Hathaway says, "Stephen Huyler is
originally from Ojai, California, where our families have known each other since
the mid-fifties." Seeing as I know it comes from a credible source, it seems
like a valuable contribution. "I am appalled by the approach of the American
media to the current violence in Kashmir. It is deeply irresponsible,
sensationalistic and condescending for our headlines and reports to emphasize
the 'likelihood' or 'extreme possibility' of nuclear war between India and
Pakistan."
Other
quotes drawn from the piece:
I have been in close contact with Indian
friends over the past days and weeks. According to them, there is no call for
the use of nuclear weapons in India or Pakistan...The nuclear weapons that they
now have are intended to be used for detente, not for mass destruction. As one
of my friends remarked: a nuclear war will virtually wipe out Pakistan and kill
as many as 100 million Indians, not to mention the effects it will have on the
rest of South Asia and the world. No one would consider that as a feasible
choice...
Let us focus our energy where it is most needed: on our own
country and our own responsibilities with regards to exactly what damage we are
causing in Central Asia and what is the truth in our relationships with Saudi
Arabia, the Bin Laden family, and multinationals, among other things. The
sensationalistic manipulation of our news media can easily divert us from
present necessities.
There is a feminine voice that is
distinctly recognizable in the
following two pieces. The power of
it has prompted me to
create a "Womenspeak" section
on our Five Star Pieces page [http://www.theconversation.org/fivestar.html].
I've pulled three older Five Star Pieces into the section, and I encourage
you to read them all (they are fairly short) and to get back to me with what
effect they have on you. One of the pieces, "More Shock and
Horror" [http://theconversation.org/shock.html],
says, "If we women don't get very busy, very organized, and very strong -- very
fast -- it will probably be correct to say, just a little while from now, that
the men of our species finally killed us all off." If I ran the world,
I'd assemble some outstanding women
and see what they would come up with. This is a first step in that
direction.
FIVE
STAR PIECE: Terror's Prognosis, Jill Rachel Jacobs -- June 3,
2002
Suzanne's
comments: I am so resonant with this piece -- it's what I
have been posting about, brought up to the present moment, and eloquently
expressed. The writer is not only articulate, but also is female, and the agony
of our times comes out especially poignantly in the women's voices that are
crying at this time. "...dividing the world into good and bad, returning to
domestic spying tactics from the last half-century -- is reminiscent of the Cold
War. This reflex to look backwards for strategies and responses comes at a real
peril. Such easy answers to complex problems verge on denial and tend to
minimize the severity of our current plight. They also keep us removed from the
world's current ills...Without insight and foresight, I'm afraid our future
prognosis is bleak, perhaps, even terminal."
Other quotes drawn from the
column:
Like a cancer
left untreated, the seeds of hatred are sown long before violence occurs, and
when ignored, options for survival are drastically reduced. Much has already
been said about this administration's failure to address, let alone acknowledge,
the role that U.S.-fed disparities in wealth and political power contribute to
the seeds of hate around the world. The administration's diagnosis of the
problem, summed up as, "We are good. They are bad" has hardly been a panacea.
But now, with the just-announced FBI makeover and the Department of Justice's
resurrection of domestic spying on political activists as a 'new' tool, it seems
as if the prognosis is anything but promising.
...until we deal with
federal law enforcement's apparent inability to trace terrorists -- we will not
be safe. The never-ending terror warnings from federal cops will simply become a
self-fulfilling prophecy. Yes, we'll be hit again.
FIVE
STAR PIECE: Under the Nuclear Shadow, Arundhati Roy -- June 2,
2002
Suzanne's
comments: Another cry of agony from the female side, this
from the outstanding Indian writer, Arundhati Roy. ("The Algebra of Infinite
Justice," widely circulated last September, is in our Quotes
section [http://www.theconversation.org/quotes.html#arundhati].) With apologies to the wonderful men
who are out there, how can we bear what the others are doing to us? "Isn't nuclear war a
real possibility? It is, but where shall I go? If I go away and everything and
every one, every friend, every tree, every home, every dog, squirrel and bird
that I have known and loved is incinerated, how shall I live on? Who shall I
love, and who will love me back?"
Other
quotes drawn from the piece:
...on TV the
old generals and the eager boy anchors talk of first strike and second strike
capability, as though they're discussing a family board game...
Tony
Blair arrives to preach peace -- and on the side, to sell weapons to both India
and Pakistan. The last question every visiting journalist always asks me: "Are
you writing another book?"
That question mocks me. Another book? Right
now when it looks as though all the music, the art, the architecture, the
literature, the whole of human civilisation means nothing to the monsters who
run the world. What kind of book should I write? For now, just for now, for just
a while pointlessness is my biggest enemy. That's what nuclear bombs do, whether
they're used or not. They violate everything that is humane, they alter the
meaning of life.
________________________________________
IN DEPTH
ACCOUNTS:
John
O'Neill -- The Counter-Terrorist, Lawrence Wright
[http://www.truthout.org/docs_02/06.03A.oneill.nyer.htm]
Suzanne's comments:
Our William Rivers Pitt Five Star piece, "Hell to Pay" [http://www.theconversation.org/pay.html], cuts to the chase of the
tremendous loss it was when O'Neill, someone who might have been able to avert
9/11, left the FBI before that -- "...his investigation was hindered by the Bush
administration's connections to the Taliban, and by the interests of American
petroleum companies...In essence, the Federal agent who knew more about bin
Laden than any living American was kept from investigating terrorist threats
against this country." This fascinating account of his life and times
tells you about him and the inner workings of our government. "O'Neill
became the bureau's most committed tracker of Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda
network of terrorists as they struck against American interests around the
world. Brash, ambitious, often full of himself, O'Neill had a confrontational
personality that brought him powerful enemies. Even so, he was too valuable to
ignore. He was the point man in the investigation of the terrorist attacks in
Saudi Arabia, East Africa, and Yemen. At a time when the Clinton Administration
was struggling to decide how to respond to the terrorist threat, O'Neill, along
with others in the F.B.I. and the C.I.A., realized that Al Qaeda was relentless
and resourceful and that its ultimate target was America itself. In the last
days of his life, after he had taken a new job as the chief of security for the
World Trade Center, he was warning friends, 'We're
due.'"
Suzanne's comments: This exquisitely
scholarly piece about the Crusades, which gives us a historical
context for terrorism, will be news to most people. "[After
9/11] I was frequently asked to comment on the fact that the Islamic world has a
just grievance against the West. Doesn't the present violence, they persisted,
have its roots in the Crusades' brutal and unprovoked attacks against a
sophisticated and tolerant Muslim world? In other words, aren't the Crusades
really to blame? Osama bin Laden certainly thinks so. In his various video
performances, he never fails to describe the American war against terrorism as a
new Crusade against Islam." Well, get a history lesson here, to find out
something different.
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