Excerpt: (W)e can watch, on one channel, various national and international leaders patiently strive to work through peaceful diplomatic channels in search of just, compassionate solutions to deadly conflicts, or we can flip over to another channel and watch Rumsfeld, Cheney, and Bush lambaste these same statesmen as unpatriotic pacifiers, appeasers and sympathizers. Excerpt: How could it be in our best interests for our leaders to refuse to talk with the very enemies whom they’ve told us to hate, because (as they’ve also told us) they hate us. If hate and fear are so dangerous—and they certainly are—why wouldn’t we try to improve such relationships by listening to their grievances and hearing their suggestions for peaceful solutions? Excerpt: Wars are never initiated by popular pressure, never fought from the bottom-up, but always from the top-down, at the whims of leaders who work hard to maintain their intricate ideological justifications. Excerpt: The Defense Department is currently attempting to manipulate our freedom of the press by demanding equal time for its pro-war propaganda. Happily, our free press neither answers to nor agrees with such self-serving ideas about what the job of the press should be. Excerpt: One would think the Defense Department would find our state of constant war sufficient public distraction from the embarrassing truth that we may have as much to fear from an administration capable of embracing its foes with nuclear arms, as we have from their confusingly shape-shifting enemies. Excerpt: Perhaps they hope that once we finally have a clear “enemy” to hate and fear, maybe we won’t notice that a significant contributor to our state of national insecurity is our unrepresentative, repressive, empire-building government. Excerpt: No one can avoid suffering some injustice in this well-armed and very frightened post-9/11 world, but the risk of injustice should not rush us into pre-emptive wars which always only add to the sum of the world’s injustices, while creating ever more enmity and dangers…. Continue reading →