LETTERS
letters On "Democratic Vistas" and the Gulf War We received this letter from a writer and political scientist who wished to explain why he was declining to sign the "Democratic Vistas" statement...
...It is a sad but politically inescapable fact that some people in our tiny, democratic left supported the war and were in harmony with the overwhelming majority of Americans...
...Obviously not...
...Letters will not be returned to senders unless they are accompanied by stamped, self-addressed envelopes...
...q 606 • DISSENT...
...It is patently absurd to continue referring to Saddam Hussein as if his expulsion from Kuwait were the inevitable international priority of Fall 1990...
...payrolls...
...But a small, left magazine has more of a responsibility to keep alive moral principle and historical truth than to try to exert immediate political influence...
...Letters must be kept to about 500 words, typed, double-spaced, and carry the full address and name of the sender...
...Michael Walzer finds it "good news" that tens of thousands of Iraqis were annihilated, and Baghdad not quite levelled...
...The fact is, equally destabilizing, illegal, and unjustifiable invasions happen rather frequently— Panama and Grenada are but two examples...
...Similarly, murderous tyrants are (sadly) not difficult to find—in fact, many are directly or indirectly on U.S...
...Those of us who found the war monstrous from the outset, and who refused to separate Bush's response to the invasion of Kuwait from the Reagan/Bush policies that helped generate that invasion (not to mention the longer history of Euro-American imperial interventions in the region) will not be able to put our names to your otherwise admirable statement...
...So if you want to write about something that you like, or dislike, in or about Dissent, please do it quickly...
...EDITORS: Kudos to Brian Morton for his assessment of the Gulf War's impact (Dissent, Summer 1991...
...I cannot join in signing a statement that calls for a renewal of the democratic left by finessing that fact...
...Would a journal as serious as Dissent refer to the former British Prime Minister as "Maggie...
...Through what mechanism did your writers become on a first-name basis with Mr...
...EDITORS: The overpowering, immediate, political and moral fact of this past year has been the war in the Persian Gulf...
...It was placed there because the obvious repugnance of the invasion coincided nicely with the needs of an international elite—principally, the United States and its allies...
...It is simply not enough to assert a dubious common ground, and that in a brief, introductory paragraph, as if to get the embarrassment out of the way, when what we are supposed to share evades the central meaning of the war itself—the human devastation, the retrograde regional political developments, and the great strengthening of an American military presence, materially and culturally, in the Middle East and at home...
...We are unable to acknowledge letters...
...EDS...
...In that context, the invasion of Kuwait was not significantly worse than fairly common world events that elicit neither unanimous U.S...
...letters On "Democratic Vistas" and the Gulf War We received this letter from a writer and political scientist who wished to explain why he was declining to sign the "Democratic Vistas" statement that appears in this issue...
...Or write on Soviet economic reforms as instituted by "Mikhail," or even "Mike...
...Unfortunately, it seems to be an image Dissent writers have internalized marvelously...
...Hussein's invasion was placed at the center of the international agenda deliberately...
...Part of the project of placing the invasion on the international agenda involved creating an Iraqi enemy that was inhuman...
...And throughout the Gulf War analysis, writers refer to "Saddam...
...It is hard to believe that others who opposed the war will not feel the same way...
...Hussein...
...To Letter Writers • We welcome succinct letters from our readers...
...But because we have a long "lead time" for each issue, you have to send us your letter within three weeks after getting an issue of Dissent in order to get it into the next issue...
...We reserve the right to edit letters down to fit our space and to choose which shall be printed...
...condemnation nor massive American firepower...
...That makes for enormous difficulties in a left democratic renewal, and I understand your desire to wish away the war, to try to reunite those divided by it...
Vol. 38 • September 1991 • No. 4
