takeo
08-31-2003, 04:55 PM
Matt Taibbi / TRJ
Early this morning, I received a vitriolic letter from a 30 year-old Wall Street stockbroker who took issue with an article I'd written in the States about the anti-war movement. When he finished calling me a Marxist and a disgruntled socialist - not one or the other, mind you, but both - he let me have it with his real complaint.
"I have no problem with those of you who think the war is wrong, but still say America is the greatest country in the world," he wrote. "I'm trying to understand people who are anti-capitalist and feel that we are such a bad country. I have done well and as you can see I am no rocket scientist."
That, folks, is America in a nutshell these days. It can't imagine what the rest of the world is complaining about.
After all, what could be wrong with a place where dumb people can get rich?
With the war on, America's dumb are now officially in a feeding frenzy.
If one believes the latest polls (and I'm not sure I do), huge majorities of the American population are now in favor of bombing some three-quarters of the earth's surface. Preliminary surveys are already being taken to gauge public support for military incursions into Syria and Iran.
About the only countries in the world that have been spared our hypothetical wrath in the past weeks are castrated neo-colonies like the British Isles and Jeffersonian paradises like Uzbekistan. Oh, and Estonia. Apparently Estonia is O.K. lately.
Which brings us to Russia. The news reports that Russians had sold GPS jamming equipment to the Iraqis were received by most Americans as an open invitation to besiege St. Petersburg.
Here is an excerpt from an editorial called "Moscow's Betrayal" in that Bible of dumb America (if you don't count the actual Bible), the New York Post: "Let's be frank: This is not a trade dispute. Or even merely a quibble over U.N. sanctions against Iraq - which these sales clearly violate. This is aiding the enemy. Materially.
"'It's the kind of equipment that will put our young men and women in harm's way,' Secretary of State Colin Powell said. 'It gives an advantage to the enemy, an advantage we don't want them to have.'
"The Russian actions, in other words, could cost American troops their lives. And that deserves a response by America in adequate proportion."
The Post didn't really specify what that "adequate response" might be. But it doesn't take a genius to figure out what they're hinting at.
Fortunately, Russia has nothing to worry about. One of the few salutary aspects of the current administration is its utter cowardice. As long as Donald Rumsfeld, George Bush & Co. are in power, we will never, ever so much as raise our voices to any country with the capacity to fight back. There isn't one man among this group of pious draft dodgers who wouldn't run screaming from so much as a hooker with a butter knife.
Nuclear-armed Russia is safe, for the time being. It's us sane Americans who aren't safe. We have already been occupied.
And there is no one out there to liberate us.
http://www.therussiajournal.com/index.htm?cat=9&type=2&obj=36534&sid=0161732601357248274464525
Early this morning, I received a vitriolic letter from a 30 year-old Wall Street stockbroker who took issue with an article I'd written in the States about the anti-war movement. When he finished calling me a Marxist and a disgruntled socialist - not one or the other, mind you, but both - he let me have it with his real complaint.
"I have no problem with those of you who think the war is wrong, but still say America is the greatest country in the world," he wrote. "I'm trying to understand people who are anti-capitalist and feel that we are such a bad country. I have done well and as you can see I am no rocket scientist."
That, folks, is America in a nutshell these days. It can't imagine what the rest of the world is complaining about.
After all, what could be wrong with a place where dumb people can get rich?
With the war on, America's dumb are now officially in a feeding frenzy.
If one believes the latest polls (and I'm not sure I do), huge majorities of the American population are now in favor of bombing some three-quarters of the earth's surface. Preliminary surveys are already being taken to gauge public support for military incursions into Syria and Iran.
About the only countries in the world that have been spared our hypothetical wrath in the past weeks are castrated neo-colonies like the British Isles and Jeffersonian paradises like Uzbekistan. Oh, and Estonia. Apparently Estonia is O.K. lately.
Which brings us to Russia. The news reports that Russians had sold GPS jamming equipment to the Iraqis were received by most Americans as an open invitation to besiege St. Petersburg.
Here is an excerpt from an editorial called "Moscow's Betrayal" in that Bible of dumb America (if you don't count the actual Bible), the New York Post: "Let's be frank: This is not a trade dispute. Or even merely a quibble over U.N. sanctions against Iraq - which these sales clearly violate. This is aiding the enemy. Materially.
"'It's the kind of equipment that will put our young men and women in harm's way,' Secretary of State Colin Powell said. 'It gives an advantage to the enemy, an advantage we don't want them to have.'
"The Russian actions, in other words, could cost American troops their lives. And that deserves a response by America in adequate proportion."
The Post didn't really specify what that "adequate response" might be. But it doesn't take a genius to figure out what they're hinting at.
Fortunately, Russia has nothing to worry about. One of the few salutary aspects of the current administration is its utter cowardice. As long as Donald Rumsfeld, George Bush & Co. are in power, we will never, ever so much as raise our voices to any country with the capacity to fight back. There isn't one man among this group of pious draft dodgers who wouldn't run screaming from so much as a hooker with a butter knife.
Nuclear-armed Russia is safe, for the time being. It's us sane Americans who aren't safe. We have already been occupied.
And there is no one out there to liberate us.
http://www.therussiajournal.com/index.htm?cat=9&type=2&obj=36534&sid=0161732601357248274464525