Hooray for heresy
Thank you, thank you, thank you, for Ted Rall and “Tom Tomorrow.” I shudder to think what might happen to my poor brain if its inarticulate fury at the Commander-’n’-thief and his oily cohorts were not clarified and expressed for me by Ted ‘n’ Tom. Dissenters, doubters and questioners are our only hope for some semblance of democracy while mega-corporations control our access to information. The mainstream media are in lock-step behind the Pentagon, the White House and Exxon. So, please, keep the heresy coming.
Amy Espie
Esmont
How does it feel?
This is regarding John Borgmeyer’s review of Ted Rall’s “performance” [“Meet the mouth,” Fishbowl, April 1]. I’d like to hear what Mr. Rall and all of you who attended have to say now, and I don’t want clever slogans or rehearsed rhetoric. I want to hear what your heart says—how you feel. How do you feel about a hospital bearing Red Crescent markings but containing hundreds of chemical weapons suits and antidote injections? A school where pre-made homicide bomber vests were hidden? A vast network of labs hidden beneath the nuclear power “research” facility at Al Tuwaitha? Mobile biological/chemical labs buried in the sand?
How do you feel when you close your eyes and think about what they did to our POWs? The courage those young people showed on the outside and the raw terror they must have been experiencing on the inside? The thousands of innocent Iraqis who have passed through these very same “interview rooms” over the years? The buildings where people were brought in but who never came back out?
How do you feel about soldiers who grab women and children out of their homes to be human shields in front of them? Soldiers who pretend to surrender and then open fire? Who hide their weapons in mosques, schools and hospitals?
I am reminded of the words attributed to Edmund Burke (1729-97): “The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good people to do nothing.”
I’m listening. France? U.N. Security Council? Charlottesville Center For Peace and Justice? Senator Daschle? The people waving signs at various local intersections? Mr. Rall? Those of you with the perfectly coordinated blue and white lawn signs? City Council?
The President was right about everything. He asked us to believe him and to trust him. Some of us did. Are you capable of putting aside your seething hatred and resentment of him to acknowledge that every one of your dire predictions has so far been wrong? I doubt it.
John Payne
Afton
Rall is right
In the April 15 Mailbag, Margaret Anderson takes issue with Ted Rall, who some detractors see as a venomous buffoon, despite the possibility that this Ivy League graduate/Pulitzer finalist might have some valuable insights from his extensive travels in Afghanistan, Uzbekistan and the war-torn Kasmir Province.
Anderson says that Rall “outright lies” (about Afghanistan, I assume). She contends that liberated Afghan women are now attending school. I don’t fault Anderson. This is the impression we’ve all been led to believe by the media and our representatives in Washington. Sad to say, she’s not exactly correct. In fact, Afghan women’s rights groups say just the opposite. Rall is often guilty of hyperbole (as is his metier). But he got this one right.
“Despite promises to liberate Afghans, particularly Afghani women, the country remains highly unstable with warlords, private armies, a return to fundamentalism and a weak U.S.-backed puppet in power,” says Sonali Kolhatkar of the U.S.-based Afghan Women’s Mission (AWM). According to the AWM, the Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan (the oldest women’s organization in Afghanistan) and the umbrella Afghan Women’s Network (AWN), comprising 24 Afghan NGOs, the burqa is back and attacks on women’s rights continue unchecked in Afghanistan.
This would add validity to Rall’s claim that today’s Afghanistan is “like it was under the Taliban, but without law and order.” Indeed, while the Bush administration praises its campaign in Afghanistan as a model of success for Iraq, reports suggest that Afghanistan is actually worse off than before “Operation Enduring Freedom.”
Kolhatkar goes on to say, “The truth is the war is still going on in Afghanistan and it is crucial we link the issue of war in Iraq with war in Afghanistan. In fact, if you want to know what to expect in Iraq, pay attention to Afghanistan.”
One likely result of Iraq’s “liberation” could be a turn toward Islamic fundamentalism (which is their free right). Interesting to note, that as a secular nation, Hussein’s Iraq—though inexcusably cruel to both sexes—provided, by many accounts, the highest level of women’s rights in the region. In toppling Iraq’s tyrant, we may have just welcomed in what the West has typically demonized—the sexist repression of Islamic fundamentalism and the “tyranny” of the burqa.
Brian Wimer
Charlottesville
Handle the truth
I don’t mind Ted Rall’s rants—shooting your mouth off at anyone who will listen is what the First Amendment is all about. However, I do mind his use of half-truths to support his personal opinions. Does C-VILLE not employ a fact-checker?
Take the April 15 AfterThought, for instance, in which Rall makes it seem like our troops are begging on the streets when they’re not regretting that they have only one life to give for their country. Rall finds a new way to decry the American government by feigning concern for our troops, specifically the low pay they get for their high-risk service.
To the first point, Rall limits the benefits of service (for an Army private) to a $13,000 starting salary, “PX privileges, health care, and in some cases, small tuition grants,” neglecting to mention that the military also pays for a soldier’s food and housing, on base and off. Married soldiers and soldiers with kids get more money—what other profession increases your pay if you have dependents?
There are also dozens of important freebies that eat away at civilian wallets: legal advice, marriage counseling, financial counseling, interest-free loans, emergency cash and even job counseling and networking upon departure from the military. And the tuition grants are not small or rare—the military will pay three-fourths of your tuition when you’re on active duty, and every soldier qualifies for the GI Bill, which usually provides enough money to put them through a public college in their home state.
As a former Marine Sergeant I can tell you that the military takes care of its own—we are not “a few poor men.” And if Rall had spent any time in the service himself he would know that intangibles like direction, self-discipline, and a sense of integrity gained from a stint in the service are more than worth the mediocre paycheck. If enlistees were in it for the money, they would be snatching up those plush Burger King jobs Rall so highly touts.
Not to say he does not sometimes make good points. This circus of an administration deserves a good Rall-ing, and having attended college (with my $15,000 GI Bill) at Rall’s alma mater, I have long followed and admired his outspoken writings. But when Rall supports his arguments with partial facts, he is no better than the administration he decries for their partial truths.
Chris Smith
Charlottesville