NOT AT ANY PRICE

Some people suggest that we are gullible because we believe everything the government tells us (see “Should we give peace a chance?” Oct. 19-25). I suggest that those who believe none of what our government tells us are equally naive and gullible. It is incumbent upon us to think for ourselves, but more importantly to get the facts that allow us to think clearly. I think Bussell and “Veterans for Peace” are guilty of always believing that our government lies to us and is morally bankrupt.

It may be that the Vietnam War was wrong and badly waged. But the US had reason to think of the Soviet Union as an expansionist threat. Consider the following countries: Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Poland, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, North Korea. In 1939 the Soviet Union attempted to annex Finland. In Cuba it had missiles aimed at US. The Soviet Union (Stalin+) is said to have killed roughly 54.7 million between 1917 and 1987. If one tried to exercise freedom of speech, association, or religion in the SU, one was likely to be one of the millions sent to work camps in the arctic regions.

Communist regimes have killed the most people in the 20th century, followed by Nazi Germany, which killed more than 16 million people between 1933 and 1945. China killed 35.6 million between 1949 and 1987. The United States has doubtless made policy errors in supporting countries — errors that seem most egregious in hindsight. But we have tried to be a more open society, enlarging our freedoms over the years.

In some ways that policy has perhaps turned out to be a mistake, as our openness and freedoms were the very thing that the terrorists have used as tools to hurt us. Bussell claims that we sent chemicals to Iraq. I urge you to go to the Center for Proliferation Studies on the ’net at 6ttp://cns.miis.edu/research/wmdme/flow/iraq/index.htm. Study this closely and see that while we may have sent chemicals to Iraq, we did not send them the means to mass produce or harvest them — other countries did that. This is an important distinction and goes to our motive. As to Bussell’s claim that theýUS policies on sanctions are illegal — I am not sure on what ground he is making this claim, but to the issue of “millions of children dying because of US sanctions” there is serious controversy about this. It is not nearly as black/white as he would have us believe.

The blame for children’s deaths is his own, not ours. BBC News reporting on the effect of sanctions — (Mttp://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/middle_east/newsid_1501000/1501327.stm) shows that sanctions on Iraq actually *helped* the Kurds. The reason? The money was not administered by Saddam but by the UN. Saddam has spent his “food and medicine money” to continue building and manufacturing weapons of mass destruction. The following is the State Dept. position on sanctions — updated 1999 — but still very relevant: ;ttp://usinfo.state.gov/regional/nea/iraq/iraq99.htm#impact

“Child mortality figures have more than doubled in the south and center of the country, where the Iraqi government — rather than the UN — controls the program. If a turn-around on child mortality can be made in the north, which is under the same sanctions as the rest of the country, there is no reason it cannot be done in the south and center.” This report provides photos to document how Hussein is using revenues from smuggled oil to build palaces for himself and his regime cronies at a cost of billions of dollars.

This section shows another way that Saddam Hussein spends money that he controls: on state-sponsored terrorism. I fear that Bussell will not accept an article from the State Department because he suffers from what I mention above — an absolute belief that our country lies to us at will, to cover up heinous moral crimes — in this case the murder of innocents in Iraq. Yet where were the voices of Veterans for Peace when Iraq was lobbing Scuds into Israel — possibly with nuclear or gas warheads?

As for the UN being particularly helpful, what happened when Saddam threw out the UN weapons inspections teams? They couldn’t leave fast enough when Nasser told them to get out because he wanted to wage war on Israel. There is evidence that they were complicit in the abduction of Israeli soldiers near the Lebanon borders. The Council on Racism was a farce.

Take a look at who is sitting on the Human Rights Council: Sudan, of contemporary slavery fame, where millions have died from ethnic fighting, and who regularly call for Jihad on the West. The United Nations has become corrupt, and the United States should certainly not leave its moral decisions to that world body. Terrorists would have us believe that we are wrong and that they are victims of the policies of United States. I do not accept this. Peace is a great thing, but not peace at any price. Not at the price of truth or freedom.

Juanita DeMello

Kezar Falls, ME

p.s. — I want to vote for the controversial Lance Tapley article. It was excellent! Good job, Tapley.

 

 

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