Airing It Out
Rothschild, Matthew
Editor's Note Matthew Rothschild Airing It Out Erik Gustafson, the executive director of the Education for Peace in Iraq Center, paid me a visit on March 15. I've known Erik for more than a...
...It is, therefore, the duty of everyone living on that chosen spot to fight, kill, and die in the attempt to impose his superiority upon all others...
...I remember interviewing him on the radio and being impressed with his commitment to peace and his concern for the Iraqi people...
...Solomon's views mirror my own...
...Along with rightwing fundamentalism, nationalism is one of the most pernicious forces at play in the world today, so I'm thrilled to have Howard Zinn's piece this month...
...This is the age of rightwing fundamentalism...
...Those who had the fortune of being born on some particular spot consider themselves better, nobler, grander, more intelligent than the living beings inhabiting any other spot...
...And it brought to mind a favorite quote from Emma Goldman: "Patriotism assumes that our globe is divided into little spots, each one surrounded by an iron gate...
...I'm not neutral on this question at all...
...It's right on the mark, and the trajectory is beautiful...
...the costs are already too high, Bush's motives too low...
...After Erik moved to Washington, D.C., he helped establish EPIC, and he was a reliable critic of the economic sanctions that were taking such a toll on Iraqi civilians...
...I highly recommend her essay to you...
...This month we let him expound his view...
...I feel strongly that the United States must get out of Iraq by the end of the year...
...He said he was in a difficult position...
...You have Osama bin Laden, Al Qaeda, and the Wahhabi strain of Islam, and the Shiite mullahs in Iran with their own brand...
...Pope Benedict XVI, just twenty-four hours before his anointment, delivered a homily that condemned Marxism, atheism, and liberalism itself...
...When Saul Bellow died, I was struck by the hagiography that accompanied him graveside.We turned toAnne-Marie Cusac, our investigative reporter and a published poet, to assess Bellow's work judiciously...
...He wanted The Progressive to consider his side of the argument...
...He even scorned the "winds of teaching...
...You have fundamentalist Hindus in Gujarat, India, who went on a rampage against Muslims a few years back...
...He's a Gulf War vet, and he was living here in Madison for a few years afterwards, gradually becoming more outspoken...
...I've known Erik for more than a decade now...
...You have James Dobson, Tom DeLay, and George Bush, and their blend of primitive capitalism and Christian Social Darwinism...
...But some others on the editorial staff, concerned about what might happen to innocent people in Iraq if the United States just up and left, lean toward Gustafson's view, so we wanted to air it out...
...On the other side, we give you the perspective of Norman Solomon, executive director of the Institute for Public Accuracy...
...We've stayed in touch, on and off, since then, and so when he called to tell me he was coming back to town and needed to see me, I was happy to get together...
...And you have Mel Gibson, Antonin Scalia, and now Pope Benedict XVI, who cloak the Catholic Church in the most confining garbs...
...While he had opposed Bush's Iraq War, he had come to the conclusion-unpopular on the left-that it would be disastrous if the United States left Iraq precipitously...
...You have Jewish settlers in the West Bank and Gaza who claim holy parchment as a deed...
Vol. 69 • June 2005 • No. 6
