America goes to war for the same reasons as Vladimir Putin: for the aggrandizement of the leader, and to give the masses a sense of common cause with its ruling elite. Yet America has fought three “good” wars.
The Revolution was fought against “tyranny.” King George’s constitutional monarchy was not that (and Canada’s path-not-taken proved prosperous and content). But the Founders pledged their new nation to self-rule ahead of their own self-interest.
The Civil War was fought for Union. President Buchanan was right that the Constitution was never a pledge of allegiance. But Lincoln was right that the people were primed for war. And he appended Abolition to draw some useful benefit from the carnage.
World War II looked like a sequel to the horrific Great War, in which flesh and valor surrendered to mechanized murder. Our grounds for war were so flimsy that Frank Capra (“Why We Fight!”) explained it was “to get the job done!” Not until the liberation of the death camps did we discover the enemy.
Our signature wars became “good” through post hoc explanations. But they were more than “good”; they were good. They were necessary. Decisive. Instructive. They were lines in the sand against privilege, racism and fascism. We asserted the world’s common humanity against cruel men asserting their superiority.
Putin’s scorched-earth aggression in Ukraine must be met head on. This is the spearpoint of burgeoning fascism. Belarus and Hungary are gone down the rathole. China is consolidating Hong Kong and Taiwan. Autocrats have the upper hand in Brazil, India, Israel and Saudi Arabia. France and America are poised on the brink.
We need a reckoning. Give Joe Biden credit for “threading the needle,” for aiding Ukraine so calibrated as to not bring two nuclear powers into direct conflict. (But his Republican critics never will. Biden’s assistance is too weak! Putin’s denunciation was too strong! Wahhh!) Biden may think this is just another proxy war bleeding the Russians, and without direct consequence to the US. But when Putin next moves on the Baltic states (they’re NATO) we will have to decide whether nuclear powers can, go to war.
Biden needs to come before Congress and ask for a declaration of war. This is red meat patriot stuff. But Republicans can’t afford to make Joe a war president and lock up the midterm elections for the Democrats. Furthermore, Republicans have lost the will to attach themselves to any sort of policy. That’s what Democrats get beat over the heads with. But maybe Congress can still function, to hammer out a war resolution of a scope and objectives to unite the people behind. We need that reckoning.
A decisive war to keep the world safe for liberal government is worth taking on. Yet the outcome is by no means certain. Sixty years of military-industrial(-congressional, per Eisenhower’s draft) complex lobbying may have suborned military readiness to district politics. Furthermore, our tech-heavy weaponry might represent a soft underbelly to be attacked by pimply, soda-swilling cyber nerds. We need that reckoning.
Finally, there is the sore temptation for a nuclear bully, backed into a corner, to make the defeat universal. I’m pretty sure an American president would decline that tantrum. And I’m guessing Putin could be persuaded to accept exile with his kleptocratic billions.
That’s the great reckoning. I’m up for it. Look, I’m not saying we won’t get our hair mussed …
M. WARNER, Minneapolis Minn.
Juan Cole’s parallels between Vladimir Putin and Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi of ISIL (“Zelensky Says Russia is the New ISIL: Top 3 Ways He May Be Right,” 5/1/22 TPP) are very suggestive and help us, at least partially, understand the ruthlessness and disregard for humanity and suffering that each leader has engendered. But the attempt to distance Islam from the curse of all mass religions — hatred and ultimately violence toward those not in the fold — fails, as it should. ISIL finds plenty of help in the Koran.
In the after world, Islam promises eternal, excruciating suffering for all non-Muslims (“We have in store for them heavy fetters and a blazing fire, choking food and harrowing torment.” (“The Mantled One,” Penguin Classics.)
“They shall drink stinking water: they will sip but scarcely swallow. Death will assail them from every side, yet they shall not die. A dreadful torment awaits them.” (“Abraham,” Penguin Classics.) No matter what their thoughts and actions, inner spirit, or secular beliefs, it simply denies their common humanity. (Muslims—the men that is—get pretty dark-eyed virgins. (“The Merciful” Penguin Classics.) Or “… boys graced with eternal youth who in the beholder’s eyes will seem like scattered pearls.” (“Man” Penguin Classics.) Islam encourages violence against unbelievers. (“They shall be slain crucified or have their hands and feet cut off.” (Surah 5:33.) “…slay the unbelievers wherever you find them, and besiege them and lie in wait for them in every ambush.” (Surah 9:5.) “When you meet the unbelievers in the battle field, strike off their heads.” (“Muhammed” Penguin Classics.)
It does not behoove a progressive and intelligent author like Professor Cole to finesse the issue of the retrograde legacy of organized religion. It is, along with military might, police-state brutality, and ideological duplicity, a formidable weapon of our common enemy.
ED BELLER, The Bronx, New York City
I want to give letter writers Ted Tripp from Apalachicola, Fla., and Jim Sawyer from Edmonds, Wash., a big thank you for their insight regarding the proxy war the US is currently engaged with Russia. It’s for sure Ukraine has become America’s newest imperialist scapegoat.
I am currently reading an older published book titled “With Enough Shovels: Reagan, Bush & Nuclear War” by reporter Robert Scheer. It is about insanity (those who think a nuclear war is winnable).
This nation is currently embarking on a spending spree to modernize our tactical nuclear capabilities that is projected to cost $1.4 trillion over the next decade. That, my friends, is the mark of imperialist psychopaths considering the fact the world is facing an existential threat climate change.
I recommend a newly published book for all free critical thinking Americans its titled “The United States of War” by David Vine. It is about America’s endless conflicts from Columbus to the Islamic State. It might add the premise of the book is about the spreading of America’s imperialist reach through fortress building and much much more.
LARRY GINTER, Rhodes, Iowa
As to Adam Kinzinger’s statement that he knows he’s “just not a Democrat,” (see “Adam Kinzinger’s Plucky,” by Don Rollins, 5/15/22 TPP), perhaps a clarification from Webster’s Dictionary might help him understand the matter more clearly. The roots of the word Democrat are two: Gr., demokratia, based on demos, meaning, the people; and kratein, to rule, or kratos, authority. The Democratic party believes in government wherein the people retain authority and delegate it to representatives (usually) who carry out the will of the people (usually), who don’t have the leisure or wherewithal to do the lawmaking themselves. The Democratic party eschews all thoughts of privileged class (such as one that can accept illegal dark money from capitalists or foreigners, or declare that illicit electors can replace legitimately elected ones if a Republican legislature (or a President) desires it. Adam’s work on the Jan. 6th Committee (like Liz Cheney’s) underlines what small-d democracy ought to look like and how it should behave. Both share democratic principles, and are as determined to expose elitists (and liars) as any Democrat on that body. It would be capital if he would return to the Capitol as the democratic individual he is, even if (1) He does not yet realize his true essence and (2) he were to run as a Democrat.
Actions speak louder than party names, especially when the Republican one has deserted and tried to overthrow the Republic!
BARBARA SHER TINSLEY, Ph.D., historian, novelist, poet, Los Gatos, Calif.
“War is not the answer,” declared Dr. King on April 4, 1967. nnAs the destruction and human and planet carnage enters its third month in Ukraine and eastern Europe, the President and Congress continue to pour weapons into the mayhem. Diplomacy should replace the weapons.
Dr. King’s truth continues to percolate, despite our political leaders having Cro-Magnon attitudes about coexistence on our planet.
Kudos to Ted Tripp, “Stop the War in Ukraine,” and Bernard Dalsey, “Don’t Believe What You See in Ukraine,” letters in 5/1/22 TPP.
WILLIAM CULLEN, Dubuque, Iowa
Jim Hightower’s article “Supreme thieves disguised in robes of ‘justice’” (5/1/22 TPP), prompts me to ask this question: After the failed insurrection of Jan. 6, 2021, Is the legal transfer of power now safe in our nation?
In a recent speech, former Vice President Mike Pence assured the nation: “There is no idea more un-American than the notion that any one person could choose the American president.”
Let’s don’t forget, however, that on Dec. 12, 2000, five Supreme Court justices ignored their duty of judicial impartiality when they invalidated the vote of 50 million Americans and illegally installed George W. Bush in the White House because they wanted a Republican president to further their own political ideology.
Those felonious justices were: Sandra Day O’Connor, Clarence Thomas, William H. Rehnquist, Antonin Scalia, and Anthony Kennedy.
In my opinion, Dec. 12, 2000, was far worse than Jan. 6, 2021. Whereas the Jan. 6 mob was only a confederacy of dunces who were led (from the rear) by an overweight orange dunce, the treasonous act that took place on Dec. 12, 2000, was a power grab by five Supreme Court justices who sold their integrity to the GOP.
In his book, “The Betrayal of America,” the renowned attorney Vincent Bugliosi has this to say about the Supreme Court’s judicial coup d’état in their Bush v. Gore decision of Dec. 12, 2000: “That an election for an American president can be stolen by the highest court in the land … has got to be one of the most frightening and dangerous events to have occurred in this country.”
And what could be more frightening than the possibility that it could happen again?
DAVID QUINTERO, Monrovia, Calif.
Unify and Glorify ‘We the People’
Unity and togetherness denotes being from the heart, while division, separatism and segregation drives us apart. The hateful ignorance of separate Black and White is clearly heinous as the reality of day and night — wrong and right.
Each is essential of the other, as well as human life a time for activity and a time for rest to heal our daily strife. These are the opposites in meaning and deed, the clarion call for our nations fortified. Human creed united we stand, divided we fall, Red, Yellow, Brown, Black and White equates to equity, compassion and societal betterment for all. Via inclusion, America shall stand tall.
FRANK ROHRIG, Milford, Conn.
From The Progressive Populist, June 1, 2022
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