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   Vol. 69/No. 8           February 28, 2005  
 
 
Letters
 
Iraq coverage is wrong
The Militant’s coverage of the Iraq has grown increasingly superficial and inaccurate.

A few points: Sam Manuel and the Militant apparently feel that 45 Iraq deaths are “relatively minor.” This reflects, unconsciously, an American-centered mindset that Iraqi lives are less valuable than American. You fail to note that a British transport plane was shot down on election day, killing 10 soldiers.

You also state that: “Wealthy Sunnis were the backbone of support for the Hussein regime.” This is inaccurate.

So-called secular Shiites and Sunnis both played a role in the Baathist regime. Allawi, himself a former Baathist assassin, is a Shiite.

Kurdish separatism is not something unexpected by Washington. Their unofficial vote for independence was tacitly backed by Bremer, as a way of encouraging the breakup and factionalization of Iraq. The destruction of Fallujah, a poor backwater in Al-Anbar, was also designed to enflame Sunni chauvinism.

Only by encouraging sectarianism can the U.S. hope to continue occupying the region. An Iraq united under a nationalist movement could toss out the undermanned U.S. forces within a year.

Lastly, you have failed to mention the many reports that Kurdish paramilitary forces are training with Israeli special forces.

Ben Roberts
San Francisco, California
 
 
Clinton and right to choose
Senator Hillary Clinton’s call for pro-choice activists to seek “common ground” with opponents of legal abortion, which has been enthusiastically endorsed by some liberal commentators, is not a new idea. Some years ago, leaders of the National Organization for Women sought a meeting with anti-choice groups to seek “common ground” for reducing the need for abortion through such means as promoting access to birth control and better services for women who choose to carry their pregnancies to term. The meeting ended in bitterness when the anti-choice groups refused to discuss anything at all except outlawing abortion.

Some feminists mistakenly believe that it is a contradiction that abortion opponents also oppose birth control and any other means of reducing unwanted pregnancies. In fact it is not a contradiction at all; both positions are part of their overall reactionary program. Calls for seeking “common ground” with opponents of legal abortion politically disarm women by presenting these forces as being genuinely concerned with women’s lives, when in fact they are the shock troops of the war on women’s rights.

Carol Sholin
Castro Valley, California
 
 
KKK in Sweden
On February 5 American Ku Klux Klan leader David Duke spoke at a meeting in Stockholm, which gathered 60 racists. The location of the meeting was at a boat clubhouse of the Hammarby sports club. Hammarby clams that they didn’t realize who was renting the building from them that night and a spokesman says that the man who picked up the key “was wearing a suit and looked like a business man, not a racist.” The police were notified but decided not to intervene in the meeting.

Hammarby has published a statement on its webpage apologizing.

Per Leander
Stockholm, Sweden

The letters column is an open forum for all viewpoints on subjects of interest to working people.

Please keep your letters brief. Where necessary they will be abridged. Please indicate if you prefer that your initials be used rather than your full name.  
 
 
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