LETTERS TO THE EDITOR

LETTERS to the Editor Readers Comment on Persian Gulf Intervention Iam deeply grateful for The Progressive's editorial, "Bring the Troops Home" (Comment, October issue). It corroborates much of...

...What was Bush telling Kuwait, either directly or through our friends in Saudi Arabia, that might have contributed to its foolhardy reversal of policy...
...Must The Progressive echo traditional American arrogance by "claiming" these actions as exclusively American policy...
...Charles C. Reynolds Linwood New Jersey The editors welcome correspondence from readers on all topics, but prefer to publish letters that comment directly on material previously published in The Progressive...
...We have entered a knee-jerk emotional state that permits no thinking and no dialogue...
...It was by far the most brilliant, cogent, and lucid analysis of the crisis in the Persian Gulf I have read...
...Security Council's support matter...
...Greg Bechle Missoula, Montana Correction As a retired newspaper editor who has fended for years with coverage of the Miss America Pageant, I must point out an error in your No Comment column (October issue...
...It is not "a deterioration of the nerves," nor is its only symptom inability to walk or snaking—"the palsy...
...oil, however, is not just a matter of gasoline prices for the car-crazy American motorist but an issue that affects the economic well-being of the entire world and the survival of many Third World populations...
...It corroborates much of what I had been thinking and feeling about the "Gulf crisis," and has left me feeling less alone...
...As for upholding the principle of nonaggression, anyone who still remembers Panama, Nicaragua, and Grenada can only laugh at this explanation for our Government's actions...
...All the salient points were admirably covered...
...In the widely used Parkinson's Disease: A Guide for Patients and Family, Roger C. Duvoisin notes that parkinsonism has a characteristic set of symptoms—trembling of the limbs (palsy), muscular stiffness or rigidity, and slowness of movement...
...The Progressive fails to mention what gives President Bush's policy legitimacy: the international abomination for Saddam Hussein's outlaw regime...
...Iraq had already declared that a continuation of the old policy, which had been so damaging to Iraq's economy, would be considered an act of war...
...I see in the pages of The Progressive no criticism of Iraq's invasion of Kuwait, no comment on the atrocities being committed by Iraqi forces, no mention of hostages held or hostage children cynically displayed on television to pressure Western governments...
...We wrap ourselves in the American flag and rationalize our own acts of inhumanity in the most simplistic, thoughtless jargon...
...Bertell Oilman New York, New York We need to question whether the Administration's actions in the Persian Gulf were a colossal cover-up...
...Did the American Government set a trap for Hussein...
...We are supposed to be securing our oil supply but, as even articles in The New York Times have shown, a war in the Gulf will make this supply far less secure than the actions taken by Iraq ever did or could...
...Edward T. Cutter Philadelphia, Pennsylvania The two main reasons given for our current military buildup in the Persian Gulf simply don't make any sense...
...If the conquest of Grenada, our shabbiest military venture ever, could boost Ronald Reagan's popularity, George Bush's move against Iraq could make him a shoo-in in 1992...
...You erroneously attributed the comment and the misbehavior to Leonard Horn, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of the national Miss America Pageant organization...
...Given the exigencies of putting troops in harm's way, it is incumbent on any President to refrain from disclosing everything about a military operation...
...It was Don B. Magness, recently ousted chairman of the Miss Texas Scholarship Committee, who made those stupid comments to Life magazine about "sluts" among contestants and who reportedly subjected them to "improper advances...
...David Paul Seattle, Washington When President Bush ordered our armed forces into the Middle East, the servile mainstream media and the craven Congress fell into lockstep behind the President...
...Before killing perhaps millions of people, burning hundreds of cities, and destroying oil installations throughout the Middle East, before triggering events that may bring starvation to hundreds of millions and economic chaos to the rest of the globe, we need to get an answer to this question...
...True, it required the issue of oil to unite the civilized world behind actions countering Iraq's aggression...
...Aggression is aggression...
...Dwight Welch Miles City, Montana While I disapprove of America's recent buildup in the Persian Gulf, The Progressive's editorial, "The Juggernaut" (Comment, November issue), is unfair to President Bush...
...They have conducted expensive mineral surveys attempting to locate gold deposits...
...This is not, as you indicate, the latest attempt by the United States to preserve its "empire"—as if America ever had a colonial past...
...Israel has been threatening a first-strike attack against Iraq for months...
...And true, Iraq has claims against Kuwait that merit serious consideration—but does The Progressive condone a murderous occupation as the means to press such claims...
...Emmet P. O'Neill Columbia Falls, Montana Iam not, and cannot imagine myself to be, a George Bush enthusiast...
...Finally, President Bush has been looking for a way to recapture the headlines from stories on the savings-and-loan scandals, the deficit, unemployment, home-lessness, and recession...
...The United States is merely a member, albeit the predominant one, in a world coalition against an international law-violator...
...And the deposits sought by the people of the reservation are similar to those at the nearby Pegasus mine and would be exploited using the same cyanide-type gold-extraction process...
...First, there is Israel's need to readjust a military balance of power that has gradually swung against it with Iraq's victory over Iran...
...When I ask about all the lives that will be lost if we go to war—lives of Iraqis, refugees, Americans—and whether those lives matter, I don't seem to get an answer...
...And here is a case of The Progressive's knee-jerk isolationism...
...Like a high-priced defense attorney, The Progressive chooses to ignore facts that might complicate its argument...
...Something more was needed—like an Iraqi invasion of Kuwait...
...The American people could not be expected, of course, to spend blood and treasure fighting a war because it was good for Israel, the military-industrial complex, or the political fortunes of George Bush...
...Paul Deals West Newton, Massachusetts The author replies: Webster's Collegiate Dictionary calls Parkinson's disease "a chronic progressive nervous disease of later life...
...True, one can hardly praise the government of Kuwait for its enlightened rule—but neither can one call Saddam Hussein a humanitarian...
...Carol Chapin Brooklyn, New York Thank you for having the courage to stand up against a Middle East war...
...In fact, the people of the reservation have tried desperately over the last several years to initiate large-scale gold mining...
...One could hardly find a word of protest, dissent, or criticism anywhere for this impetuous, belligerent, and despotic exercise of Presidential power...
...Doesn't it matter that an international force has been assembled to underpin the sanctions...
...There are, however, three reasons which, taken together, would account for our military buildup...
...It is so easy to blind ourselves to the realities...
...Within a few days, Kuwait broke the agreement...
...Here is a case of the Administration working to build an unprecedented international consensus on the proper course of action...
...Perhaps it is finally time to look at the truth of who we have become as a nation, time to see the homeless and disenfranchised lying beneath our feet, time to recognize the demons of hopelessness and despair within our own land...
...Doesn't the U.N...
...And yet, as a progressive who has opposed every American intervention since Korea, I can only express my astonished approval of the Administration's response to the Gulf crisis...
...Nowhere did my article suggest that shaking and inability to walk are the only symptoms...
...It is treated by neurologists, but not as deterioration of the nerves...
...Given the influence of the Zionist lobby in our country, it would not be the first time that Israel's interests have become American Government policy...
...Bechle's thesis—that the people of the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation are environmentally conscious and thus unhappy neighbors of the Pegasus gold mine—is seriously flawed...
...Iraq's anger over Kuwait's role in forcing down oil prices through overproduction was long-standing, but an agreement was reached on this matter in mid-July...
...It also turns public attention away from the political and economic mess here at home...
...Here is a case of indisputable aggression on the part of a stronger power against a small country...
...militarism...
...We seem to think that our nation can do anything with impunity...
...Second, with the end of the Cold War, our military establishment badly needs another widely accepted rationale to keep the money flowing...
...You intimate that decisions are being made by some sort of cabal: "The President and his closest advisers make the decisions behind barred doors and then present them to the people...
...I have heard all too few voices challenging the saber-rattling of Congress, the President, and the press...
...They have invited half a dozen major mining companies (including Pegasus) to conduct their own mineral-assessment surveys on the reservation...
...Therefore, what a relief it was to read the November issue of The Progressive...
...Arthur E. Rowse Chevy Chase, Maryland Mountains of Cyanide Greg Bechle's "Mountains of Cyanide" (On the Line, September issue) was so full of half-truths and mistakes that in the end it was misleading and inaccurate...
...they are green with envy...
...George E. Delaney Chelsea, Massachusetts Parkinson's Disease In an otherwise insightful article on "Medication Inflation" (October issue), Arthur E. Rowse begins with imprecise information about Parkinson's disease...
...Clearly, when the people of the Fort Belknap Indian Reservation gaze across their borders at the Pegasus gold mine, they are not green with environmentalism...
...My profound thanks for your comprehensive account of this latest episode of U.S...
...as an accomplished fact...
...It's painful to look back at the time when we had a two-party system...
...All letters may be edited for clarity and conciseness...
...I'm appalled at the Democratic Party's leadership for going along with Bush 100 per cent...
...What scares me is that except for such publications as The Progressive, no debate is being presented to the public...
...Chris J. Rog Rhinelander, Wisconsin The author replies: This summer, people on the Fort Belknap Reservation voted two-to-one against allowing core drilling for gold on the reservation...
...To reduce those words to "deterioration of nerves" still seems reasonable to me...
...Complete candor would put American troops in peril...

Vol. 54 • December 1990 • No. 12


 
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