Letters

Our Colonial War
Re: “Apocalypse Now” by Hal Crowther (May 19-25)

I was pretty offended by Hal Crowther's article. Like most liberals, Mr. Crowther "knows it all" and of course he must be right and the rest of us either wrong or just too stupid to matter. While this idiot is lamenting the abuse of some Iraqi prisoners, he ought to be reminded that these prisoners were not Boy Scouts picked up for jaywalking. Most likely they are there because they were trying to murder American troops. I find it interesting that a man like Crowther is dead silent when Saddam tortured, raped and brutalized his own people for decades. And this kind of torture goes on daily throughout the Arab world.

As for his assertion that Ariel Sharon is "abominable, a vile tub of blood and corruption who recently used air-to-ground missiles to assassinate a paraplegic in a wheelchair": First of all, Mr. Crowther should be sued for slander. Why is your paper printing such vile trash? Sharon was democratically elected after Arafat began his temper tantrum (the "intifadah"), after Arafat rejected the offers of Bill Clinton and Ehud Barak, and after the violence started. Sharon is a war hero. As for the poor paraplegic in the wheelchair, Mr. Crowther conveniently leaves out the fact that "Sheik" Yassin ordered countless suicide bombers to murder innocent civilians. He was the leader of Hamas, which our State Department has designated as a terror organization. He was a mass murdering terrorist and the world is a better place without him. One can only insinuate from his prejudiced article that Crowther is a hateful anti-Semite. Such hatred and racism has no place in your newspaper.

I hope that Mr. Crowther goes into a state of deep depression after President Bush is reelected in a landslide. Crowther is certainly free to exercise his right to go live in any of the freedom-loving Muslim countries, as he clearly hates America. I hope that in the future the editorial staff of your paper will show more discretion and maturity than to give your editorial space to a very angry and very partisan crackpot.

—Stephen Schoenfeld
Sarasota

Leave it to Hal Crowther to go where so painfully few journalists have dared to tread (presumably simply because he has more guts than they do). I applaud his marvelously impassioned writing. I hope like hell many, many more will do the same, for without truly honest writing such as Crowther's we are doomed to another four years of chaos, backward thinking and amoral "government," the likes of which Orwell himself could not have imagined.

Thank you for giving Crowther, and those of us who agree with him, a voice.

—David Espinosa
Clearwater

It's all the more harrowing to see the worry, doubt and fear I have for our country so skillfully committed to print. But, thank you for this article nonetheless. If this kind of plain speaking can't galvanize the electorate into the modern day equivalent of storming the castle gates — pitchfork, torch, voter ID in hand — well then, the numb, obese, complacent or (God forbid) totally disillusioned electorate gets exactly what it deserves. You can't blame it all on Diebold or hanging chads. Damn shame about the consequences to the rest of the world. They don't get a vote.

I heard Jon Stewart suggest that the country was so polarized that "we expect a 41 percent turnout in this election." I don't think it was a joke. We gotta get off our asses. It's not too late.

—Rob Douglas
St. Petersburg

I just wanted to write a short note praising the article by Hal Crowther. I am a registered Republican, but one who agrees with this article. It describes things in a way that people who are opposed to what he is saying could still read it and hopefully begin to understand some of what has been happening these last few years. I hope that people read this and pass it on to their friends or relatives who are Bush supporters, as I will. I believe it just may do the trick to get some voters to open their minds to more information.

—Patrick Wayne
St. Petersburg

Thank you for running Hal Crowther's recent rundown on all that is wrong with the Bush regime. I have concluded that in order to be a "good Republican" you must be in a state of absolute denial. And good Republican now equates with "good German."

As far as the atrocities committed at Abu Gharib, as a veteran (four years U.S. Navy, honorably discharged) I have to say that no soldier, sailor, airman or Marine does anything without the direct order of his superiors. These people did not think this up on their own; they were told. As always, follow the chain of command.

Not only should Rumsfeld resign, he and this whole crew should be put on trial. We should not be thinking about an election, we should be having an impeachment.

To quote another letter writer, "Where is the outrage?" What will it take for people to demand some accountability, some decency, some truth, some ethical behavior?

—Sam Moffitt
St. Petersburg

The abuse of Iraqi prisoners by American soldiers bears a striking parallel to our abuse of animals in factory farms and slaughterhouses. In fact, the May 5 Washington Post notes that some of the photos showed a cow being skinned and gutted and soldiers posing with its severed head. All this is merely a manifestation of our culture of violence and insensitivity to the suffering of those we view as "the others."

Punishing a dozen soldiers and apologizing to the Arab world merely places a band-aid on this cultural scourge that will rear its ugly head again and again, whenever otherwise normal people feel they have the license to unleash their violent and insensitive leanings. The only effective long-term solution is to instill in our children the notions of kindness and sensitivity to all suffering. A good time to start is when they first ask where hamburgers come from.

—Graham Melrose
Tampa

This article appears in Jun 3-9, 2004.