Letters from our readers
22 December 2012
On “Israel considering attack on Syria”
It is clear that, like the Libyan scenario, “victory” in Syria is going to lead to a chaotic situation with many disparate militias, including Al Qaeda. So why is the US pushing for this?
The answer must be that that is what they want—a weak Syria. They don’t have to win an outright victory with only “the good guys” in charge, just so much chaos and confusion that Syria cannot possibly consider attacking Israel, Turkey, or even supporting Hezbollah in Lebanon.
The same thing is being done in Egypt, with western media giving heavy coverage of protests against Mursi, despite him doing well in the constitutional referendum.
Then the stage will be set for the attack on Iran, without the worries of retaliation by Israel’s immediate neighbours.
Palloy
18 December 2012
On “Obama announces task force on gun violence”
Your analysis, as usual, is dead on. I have long thought, as your publication has long insisted, that the two-party system in the US is merely a “good cop, bad cop” facade for oligarchical rule. Thank you for exposing the false mass media frame of this tragedy.
Paul G
20 December 2012
On the Connecticut school shooting
Re: your recent excellent articles on the Connecticut school shooting: I just read today in the LA Times, “Adam Lanza’s family had kept a watchful eye on him.”
They report that a family friend who visited the Lanza home saw a basement room “where (Adam) Lanza spent a lot of time playing video games. As Wlasuk’s father described it, the room had posters of military weaponry, and Lanza would be playing violent video games such as ‘Call of Duty.’”
This cannot be surprising and certainly supports your main points regarding this tragedy.
It’s American militarism, endless multiple wars, out of control police violence and murders, the drugging of untold numbers of children and teenagers and the overall grotesque debasement of human values and positive culture that are primary causes of this continuing horror.
Richard R.
Hawaii, USA
20 December 2012
On “Media, politicians obscure social roots of Connecticut shooting”
It is the same Bloomberg, during Sandy, who cut off all the water supply and heat from working class neighbourhoods, while he made sure that barons of Wall Street not be irritated by the power cuts.
Sathish
19 December 2012
On “Kathryn Bigelow’s Zero Dark Thirty: Hollywood embraces the ‘dark side’”
Once again through the WSWS, Bill Van Auken has lifted the veil that masquerades this film. In plain view, it exhibits the deception and the essential rationale for its production. The perpetuation of wealth and privilege requires naked barbarism and repression; no way to disguise it. Those that have eyes see.
EB
20 December 2012
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This film sounds like a form of “torture pornography.” Just the description in the article is sickening. The fact that the likes of Bigelow are glorifying violence and torture and patting themselves on the back for it, claiming it is some sort of “journalistic” presentation, is an obscenity.
We can no doubt expect more mentally ill emulators of the protagonists in this film, while the likes of Obama and others shed crocodile tears over the slaughter of innocents that will result.
The fact that Bigelow and her ilk have made millions out of such perversion is an outrage. If I believed in hell, I would hope that there was a very special place in it for the likes of these filmmakers.
Carolyn
San Francisco, USA
20 December 2012
On “Obama proposes Social Security cuts”
Another fraud being perpetrated against the working class. In order to find savings to prevent an immediate fiscal crisis, Congress seems poised to change the way the cost of living is calculated. But it will save only about $225 billion over the first 10 years, half coming from Social Security.
At the same time, with imminent fiscal doom approaching, Congress wants to appropriate $88 billion for another year of war in Afghanistan. Changing the way the cost of living is calculated isn't about the “fiscal cliff,” it’s about cutting benefits and weakening the social safety net for the working class—a safety net that is meaningless to most members of Congress and other inside-the-Beltway toadies.
MZ
Maryland, USA
20 December 2012
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