More on Pearl Harbor
Stephanie Kraft’s article “The Art of Selling War” [January 5, 2012] is historical revisionism at its worst, perpetrating the dishonest myth that the Japanese were the innocent victims of World War II. One wonders how the souls of the millions of Chinese, Koreans, Vietnamese, Filipinos, Malaysians, Burmese and others who were murdered, raped, mutilated, prostituted and enslaved by the Japanese militarists during the war would react to that.
The Japanese weren’t “goaded” into attacking Pearl Harbor. It was part of a strategy to neutralize the United States Navy, seen as a major impediment to their plan to conquer resource-rich Southeast Asia. The idea that President Roosevelt would deliberately allow the American fleet to be destroyed at Pearl Harbor is a conceit ridiculed by every legitimate historian.
American military planners were indeed concerned about a war with Japan because at the time, the Japanese were conducting a brutal invasion and conquest of China. The cutting off of oil and scrap iron, both war-making materiel, made sense as a tactic to check Japanese aggression.
I suggest Kraft read The Rape of Nanking by Iris Chang, which documents the holocaust perpetrated on that city in 1937 by the Japanese army, which murdered 300,000 civilians, subjecting them to atrocities that would have embarrassed the Nazis.
Speaking of which, the Nazis justified their launching of World War II by declaring that they were “provoked” by Poland, a claim that makes about as much sense as our nation being at fault for December 7, 1941.
Daniel A. Brown
Greenfield
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I enjoyed Stephanie Kraft’s article about U.S. tactics of provoking other countries into war. I see the same pattern happening with Iran. What amazes me is that when I suggest that 9/11 may have been an inside job, most people look at me like I’m off my Prozac.
The evidence just stares you in the face. You have to be blind not to see it. We’ve all seen the explosions. We’ve all seen the pyroclastic dust that could only have happened with explosions. We’ve all seen the three World Trade Center buildings fall in a way identical to planned demolitions.
And we’ve seen unbelievably fishy behavior on the part of our fearless leaders, such as producing Patriot Acts that were written before 9/11 and attacking countries that had nothing to do with the incident, attacks that were planned way before 9/11. And why are they so afraid to put suspects on trial? How did they identify them so fast? And how do “pilots” who flunked Cessna school manage to take over huge commercial airplanes and head for precise targets doing maneuvers that would be impossible for Blue Angels?
Never, ever before have disgruntled Muslims pulled off such a sophisticated operation. Their modus operandi has always been suicide bombs, car bombs, motor boat bombs, crude homemade rockets. Then out of the blue they plan this from a cave in the mountains of Tora Bora? It only shows me how easily the masses of people can be fooled.
Charlotte Burns
Palmer
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“Anatomy of an Action”: Travelogue?
In no way does the author [of “OWS: Anatomy of an Action,” January 5, 2012] ever give this reader the impression he has “closely observed” this movement. This article strikes me more as a travel journal than an attempt at analysis or reporting. I would be happy to entertain this piece as an opinion column or as the author’s personal blog post, but nothing here succeeds, in my opinion, in escaping the same trappings as any other short-sighted mainstream media’s habit of expecting corporate campaign-style architecture from an authentic anarchist movement.
Are we to believe that Occupy is unique in its internal dissent and chaos? An expose of any organization will reveal its human side, and the very soul of Occupy is that it is exceedingly more “human” in nature than most.
For the author to play with such passive-aggressive conclusions as “I couldn’t help but wonder if Occupy Wall Street was in danger of losing its audience and its significance” is naive at best. The movement has expanded beyond the boundaries of Wall Street: occupying foreclosed homes, influencing the tone of national debate, lending support to various labor and affinity groups, reinvigorating the culture of civil disobedience in this country. The minutiae about which the author writes is hardly a drop in the bucket of [what is] a more complex movement and sea change than he cares to admit.
Seth Gregory
via Internet
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“Please, given the sensitive nature of our discussion, we ask that you respect the privacy of our participants and please not take any pictures.” That seems like an intensely frustrating interaction, especially given the extent to which the NYPD and other agencies have impeded journalists’ attempts to cover the OWS movement. I wouldn’t assume this particular working group’s request for no photos speaks for OWS at large, but it’s still disappointing to hear.
Greg Saulmon
via Internet
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Shake Up Congress
Every poll says you, the American voters, are fed up with Congress and the entire federal government. Instead of taking action that could make a difference, most people are falling prey to the distraction that is the presidential election. It is a circus purposely performed to keep you from paying attention to the election that could break the gridlock in Washington.
The president is one person with limited authority. The House of Representatives consists of 435 people who make the laws. It is so named because the Founding Fathers insisted on having representatives of the people.
The problem today is that the candidates you choose from are picked by a party and backed by big money. I’ve found a way to make a difference. Join me and thousands of others who are excited about the possibility of picking true citizen representatives to the House. Learn how at www.goooh.com
Irving B. Welchons III
Charlotte, N.C.
