Asia Times

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background="/web/20030811092359im_/http://www.atimes.com/images/f_images/top_bg.gif" valign="top"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tr align="middle" valign="top"> <td width="25%"> <div align="center"><a href="/web/20030811092359/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/archive.asp"><img border="0" height="18" src="/web/20030811092359im_/http://www.atimes.com/images/f_images/archive.gif" width="110"></a></div> </td> <td width="25%"> <div align="center"><a href="/web/20030811092359/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/about.html"><img border="0" height="18" src="/web/20030811092359im_/http://www.atimes.com/images/f_images/about.gif" width="110"></a></div> </td> <td width="25%"> <div align="center"><a href="/web/20030811092359/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/contact.html"><img border="0" height="18" src="/web/20030811092359im_/http://www.atimes.com/images/f_images/contact.gif" width="110"></a></div> </td> <td width="25%"> <div align="center"><a href="/web/20030811092359/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/advertise.html"><img border="0" height="18" src="/web/20030811092359im_/http://www.atimes.com/images/f_images/advertise.gif" width="110"></a></div> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tr> <td width="10"> </td> <td align="left" valign="top" width="510"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tr> <td valign="top" width="64%">Letters</td> <td width="36%"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tr> <td align="middle" height="51" valign="center"> <div align="right"> <script language="javascript"> function showDate(){ var monthArray=["Jan", "Feb", "Mar", "Apr", "May", "Jun", "Jul", "Aug", "Sep", "Oct", "Nov", "Dec"] var days=["Sunday", "Monday", "Tuesday", "Wednesday", "Thursday", "Friday", "Saturday"] var d=new Date(); var month=d.getMonth() var day=d.getDate() var year=d.getYear() // document.write("Today is " + days[d.getDay()] + " ") document.write(monthArray[month]) document.write(" ") document.write(day) document.write(", ") if(d.getYear()<2000){document.write(year+1900)} if(d.getYear()>2000){document.write(year)} } </script> <script language="javascript">showDate()</script> </div> </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> <table align="left" border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="100%"> <tr> <td valign="top" width="65%"> <table border="0" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" width="406"> <tr> <td width="406"> Please write to us at <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20030811092359/mailto:letters@atimes.com"> letters@atimes.com</a> Lengthy letters run the risk of being cut. <hr> The article by Jaewoo Choo, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20030811092359/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/EC04Dg02.html" target="_blank"> A matter of principle</a>, Mar 4, has little evidence. China's so-called non-intervention principle is only on paper. China does not respect another's sovereignty, especially [if] it is an Asian country. China has encouraged revolts in Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Cambodia and Vietnam. The reason for Chinese inaction on North Korea is only that she has no leverage in North Korea. To the contrary, she has many leverages in Japan, and directly influences Japanese domestic policies. China has been intervening [in] Japanese domestic policy frequently, so frequently that Japanese people start to think she acts hegemonically and are irritated by it. Any journalist discussing China policy should analyze her actual behavior and not depend only on propaganda from China. Wada Tokyo (Mar 4, '03) [Regarding] Spengler's article <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20030811092359/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EC04Ak01.html" target="_blank"> Bush's nerve is going to snap</a>, Mar 4. First sentence, second paragraph: "Had Washington attacked Iraq shortly after September 11, that would have been that." Spengler is an idiot, and a dangerous one too! There has never been any proof that Iraq orchestrated the September 11, 2001, attacks. None. How does he justify such a rash and dangerous statement? Attack with no proof? Is that how he sees the world? Incredible. T Lombardi New York City (Mar 4, '03) The destabilization of the Mideast is well under way before America has even invaded Iraq. We certainly can't afford chaos in Turkey! What a mess this Bush administration is making! RT Carpenter Florida (Mar 4, '03) In response to L Marcusson's letter [below], the Nationalists' former occupation of Taiwan is on the same moral plane as the CCP's [Chinese Communist Party] illegitimate claim of sovereignty over Taiwan. I have never heard anyone argue that the Nationalist conquest enhances China's claim on Taiwan, so I had no reason to mention the KMT. Marcusson bizarrely equates my views with American policy. My advocacy of Taiwan's right to self-determination is far removed from America's misguided policy supporting the "one China" fiction. When you strip away Marcusson's ad hominem anti-Americanisms, contradictions and banalities, you are left with exactly nothing. No argument for or against Taiwan's right to self-determination. The point is not, as Marcusson asserts, the tiresome platitude that "there are no angels in world affairs". The point is: Why deny Taiwan's right to self-determination? Geoffrey Sherwood Towaco, New Jersey (Mar 4, '03) DP below is letting his imagination and antipathy for any non-Chinese views run riot. He accuses India of aiding the CIA's attempts to remove the Chinese from Tibet. I certainly hope India would have done that, at least that would have kept the Chinese out of illegally occupying Tibet and succeeding in destroying an entire civilization and its culture. Now all Tibet has is Mao clones. Maybe DP could also explain how come indigenous Tibetans have dwindled into a minority in their own land, overtaken by the hordes of mainland Han Chinese. That certainly has not happened in any of India's states, Jammu and Kashmir included. I guess it's what we in the civilized world called freedom and democracy and the respect of individual rights. I am sure such exalted privileges are beyond DP's myopic imagination. Kumar Parekh (Mar 4, '03) [Henry C K] Liu, in my humble opinion, I think your statement about the "tyranny of mostly Western intellectual property rights" you refer to as "a threat to global economic development" is a line of male bovine excrement [<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20030811092359/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/EB25Dj01.html" target="_blank">Power and the new world order</a>, Feb 25]. It's a really lame excuse for the failure of other countries to adopt political systems that encourage politically free thinking, promote globally responsible scientific development and demonstrate respect for religious and cultural differences. As for your New York location, you've obviously shown you prefer the US system to others. Jody Barr Shanghai (Mar 4, '03) I wouldn't dare venture to disabuse "DP" [letter below] of his pet political theories, since that would require undoing the intoxicating effects of madrassa education and the spicy Pakistani media. However, he should be glad that of late India has improved relations with his second-favorite country - China. Bilateral trade is growing at around 40 percent. On the other hand, the few pre-[September] 11 Pakistani traders are now turned back on the Karakoram highway to China. Like Chiu [letter below], I welcome this new, tentative phase in Sino-Indian relations. Stubborn but maturing Asian countries like India and China will be forced to explore relations in their neighborhood now that the 800-pound American gorilla is throwing its weight around in our part of the world. As rational countries, India and China can sort out their problems once deep mutual suspicions are allayed by confidence-building measures. For this, greater honesty is required. So, one small correction in Chiu's letter - the India-China border dispute is a legacy of the erstwhile British and Chinese empires. Only, India is free while Tibet doesn't yet have any measure of autonomy. Carl (Mar 4, '03) It seems that history is lost for the convenient - how many today would be speaking German but for the British and American lives lost for whatever freedom you have today? And when you have your freedom challenged America and Britain will be there. But do not think you can kill your neighbor and cry wolf. Richard USA (Mar 4, '03) There are reasons why Iraq should not be attacked, and reasons why it should be. Iraq should not be attacked just because Saddam Hussein is a tyrannical megalomaniac, or because he indiscreetly tortures and murders opponents. Iraq should not be attacked just because its leader flouts United Nations resolutions, or because he has weapons of mass destruction: chemical, biological, nuclear. Iraq should not be attacked simply because its leader came to power by unorthodox means, or because he enriches his minority cronies at the expense of the majority impoverished. Iraq should not be attacked just because it invades other countries, [because it] slaughters civilians, or because its leader is a bellicose liar. Iraq should not be attacked simply because its leader is an oaf without vision or sense of consequence, and suffers from delusions, both of grandeur and of adequacy. Iraq should not be attacked simply because its leadership would bestow upon its populace sorrowing beyond tragedy, tragedy beyond hope, and hopelessness beyond redemption. If Iraq were invaded for these mundane reasons, then so many other countries would justifiably either be invading others, be invaded themselves, or simultaneously both be invading and invaded - it could bring to pass that notorious "Mother of All Battles!" Moreover, to invade Iraq just because of the untoward practices of Saddam is to ignore the obvious: that his reign and regime represent a huge, huge success story for the venal policies of successive US administrations, and criminal practices of US agencies like the CIA. Of course, UN resolutions should hold accountable all countries, not just some countries. So too should international law, human rights, the banning of weapons of mass destruction matter for all, equally; not for some countries, conveniently! In the meantime, notwithstanding the fact that there are no sensible, decent, democratic reasons why Iraq should be invaded, it should still be invaded, because ... well, because it does not export ... Olive Oil! No Olive Oil? No Olive Branch! Iraq should be invaded because, too, the populace will only be further traumatized, and an additional 100,000 men, women, and children (possibly more) merely killed. Iraq should be invaded because, logically, since there was a Bush War I in 1991, there should also be a Bush War II in 2003; a Bush War III in 2004; Bush War IV in ... Finally, invading Iraq to oust Saddam represents a reversal of US policies towards him. In acknowledging this change, George W Bush came closer than he has ever done - if inadvertently - to speaking the truth when, during his 2003 State of the Union message he claimed for yet another invading US force the role of "Liberator" ... not this time of the Philippines, of Grenada, of Nicaragua (16 times), of Haiti (twice), of Vietnam, of Laos, of Cuba, of Panama, of Afghanistan, of Canada (once so far) ... but of Iraq. Bush might have completed this reversal, in which US forces will ostensibly do a takedown on Saddam - once the prime US-backed enforcer in the region - by also apologizing to the terrorized Iraqi people for past US support that aided and abetted yet another US-backed thug, but one now so much out of favor; one now so soon out of options! In this context, all we are saying is, bloody well give "War, Glorious War", yet another chance ... to garner unseemly profits! Lennox Farrell Toronto (Mar 4, '03) Geoffrey Sherwood in his letter [below] attacks [Henry C K] Liu by stating "it has been over a hundred years since Taiwan paid tribute to unelected despots in China (under threat of slaughter)". It has not been a century, but rather three years since Taiwan was ruled by despots from mainland China. Taiwan was ruled by nationalists for 50 years. The KMT was unelected and despotic, and even allied with the Japanese against fellow Chinese during World War II. When they arrived in Taiwan, they immediately slaughtered the locals who opposed them. Certainly the communists in mainland China are no angels. But the point is, there are no angels in world affairs, a point thoroughly lost on many Americans. It is disturbing how so many Americans view themselves and their policies as saintly. Sherwood balances his ignorance and immature view of history with a large dose of empty moralism. L Marcusson Netherlands (Mar 3, '03) Maybe Henry C K Liu should just relocate to Hong Kong and/or Shanghai, because his detractors never seem to realize that his views are the same whether he lives in the US or not. The detractors, rather than debate on US foreign policy of disallowing global prosperity and freedom from hegemony, seem hung up on his US-based location. Roy USA (Mar 3, '03) This article [<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20030811092359/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EB28Ak05.html" target="_blank">Arabs wash their hands of Saddam</a>, Feb 28] asserts as a truism that Americans look down on Arab people. Not at all true. Come over here and see how equality works. Same goes around the world. Randy Egan Naples, Florida (Mar 3, '03) Just so that you also understand, this book [Pakistan: In the Shadow of Jihad and Afghanistan] by [Mary Anne] Weaver is an orientalist, racist depiction of Pakistan [<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20030811092359/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/EC01Df03.html" target="_blank">Pakistan: The world's next failed state?</a> Mar 1]. It is no wonder there are so many misunderstandings about different cultures in the world when the least effort is not given to having a Pakistani author who actually knows and understands Pakistan to perform such critical analyses. This book is built on divisiveness and fundamentally an anti-Pakistani, isolationist view where Pakistan is viewed as a threat to global security. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Pakistan is filled with millions of the most intelligent and culture-rich people who are searching just as much for a better life as elsewhere. Umer Ahmad Parsippany, New Jersey (Mar 3, '03) I read the article by Aijazz Ahmed, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20030811092359/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/EB19Df02.html" target="_blank"> Pakistan's wonderlands with little wonder</a>, Feb 19. I can say that for the first time since the [September 11, 2001, attacks] in New York, I as a Christian feel there is hope. If more Muslim intellectuals take responsibility like Ahmed and step forward to speak the truth about the current sad state of affairs in the Muslim world, then maybe we do have a chance to exist in harmony. Anon (Mar 3, '03) You have some good writers and I enjoy reading what they have to say. I do get annoyed, however, with worn expressions such as "step up to the plate" as used by Marc Erikson in his verbal chastisement of China [<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20030811092359/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/China/EC01Ad03.html" target="_blank">China's self-defeating North Korea gamble</a>, Mar 1]. So what I would like is for Erikson "to step up to the plate" (ie, "take responsibility") and use better English. The English-studying people in South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and Australia - perhaps even some of the French - will surely be appreciative. Charles Sacramento, California (Mar 3, '03) Thank you [Aijazz Ahmed] for a well-written article on mosques and their role in Muslim society [<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20030811092359/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/EB28Df02.html" target="_blank">In Pakistan, sermons and signals</a>, Feb 28]. It was very helpful to my understanding of the current mess. Wade Nelson (Mar 3, '03) Re the article by Ian Urbina, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20030811092359/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EC01Ak01.html" target="_blank"> The other air war</a>, Mar 1. While reading this article, I could not help myself and chuckled a few times. I have heard that a good meal starts with good ingredients. Now hypothetically assume that the Arabs are the ingredients and their media [are] the meal. Here is the question: Would you eat that meal? Could the reverse be true in this case? As Urbina suggested in the case of al-Jazeera, it is quiet possible and true. He pointed out the measure of success enjoyed by al-Jazeera by alienating several Arab governments. In this case alienation, simply put, means that al-Jazeera is doing its job. The introduction of a new media channel makes the above point (alienation) very clear, as it was stated in Urbina's piece, through a statement made by Arabiya's to-be director general, "We are not going to make problems for Arab countries. We'll stick with the truth, but there's no sensationalism." In the Arab world to tell the truth means making problems. "Sensationalism", to the Arab governments, means when people express their true feelings with all their emotions about the incompetence of their so-called non-elected leaders. (Note: By the word "Arab" I mean the government, not the population, since my usage may convey a pejorative connotation.) Riazati Kesheh (Mar 3, '03) It is with a feeling of reasonable relief [I] read all your articles re Iraq, for the simple fact that they reflect a balanced perspective. But one sticking point in the whole spectrum of comments lies in the alleged justification of destruction of al-Samoud missiles of Iraq that can have a range of over 93 miles. One can see the motive easily, but the logic is painfully absent ... If American missiles on ships anchored 200 miles away down the Gulf can reach the heart of Iraq in battles, then American ships shall be out of range of Iraqi missiles. Is this what the United Nations wants? Or is there any party so naive as to ignore the absurdity? Of course, [US President George W] Bush can say to the UN or to Iraq or to the world: "Theirs is not to reason why, theirs is just to do or die." It happened in Bosnia when the Bosnians were ordered by UN military commanders to surrender their weapons, and the Bosnians obediently did. What did happen thereafter: the Serbs attacked or were allowed to attack the Bosnians before the very eyes of UN personnel. This is not what fairness is. Asian Observer (Mar 3, '03) In response to Scott Russ's letter [below], the "slap their hands and turn them loose" policy you champion has miserably failed throughout our history. If there is no sound penalty, there is no viable reason for criminals to cease their practices. If a potential drug dealer sits and waits for the drop to go down and contemplates his pending crime, knowing the worst he'll get is a few months in jail, he will deem it worth the risk. On the other hand if he knows it's automatic life imprisonment or death, I can't help but think he would adhere to better judgment and pursue a worthwhile career. We may "answer to a higher power" as you put it, but civilization demands and needs laws to protect its positive citizens from the negative ones, and the only way that protection will ever work is to institute gravely severe penalties for infractions. The politicians you refer to with "blood on their hands" I believe understand that it is better to spill a little criminal blood in an effort to alleviate the suffering and indignities these criminals spew on society, than to just slap their hands and watch them repeat the process over and over. B Akre Minnesota, USA (Mar 3, '03) Kumar Parekh's letter [below] is revealing in its disingenuousness and historical revisionism. India did more than give refuge to "Tibetan dissidents"; it aided and abetted the America CIA in its sponsorship of these insurgents, for reasons of realpolitik, not humanitarianism. This is despite the fact that India itself has continually repressed the "dissidents" of occupied Assam, Nagaland, and Kashmir for decades. Moreover, China certainly has greater historical linkage to Tibet than India has claim to Sikkim, which it seized and colonized in 1975, or to Nagaland which India similarly "incorporated" and occupies today. Furthermore, China would be foolish not to help Pakistan develop its military capabilities as deterrence against Indian militarism. It is India which seized upon the "war on terrorism" to mass its troops on the Pakistan-India border last year and threaten to trigger a nuclear war. And it is India which has been desperate to act as regional gendarme of the USA as part of its anti-China containment policy. Judging from Parekh's bellicose rhetoric that "China is India's main enemy", etc, it's obvious that Indian elites are intent on mimicking the militaristic and imperial delusions of their Western overlords, and threaten nuclear war not only with Pakistan but China as well. DP (Mar 3, '03) Perhaps the unintentional nuance of my previous letter went over [Henry C K] Liu's head. In my attempt to point out that Liu [<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20030811092359/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/EB25Dj01.html" target="_blank">Power and the New World Order</a>, Feb 25] is complaining in vain about America's hegemony, my point was that America's reaction to world events should be expected. Liu can complain all he wants - and in fact, he is welcome to complain; that is his right here in the United States, where his speech is protected by the constitution - but he should "get used to" the fact that hegemonic powers act like hegemonic powers. Now that America is one, this is the reality we will live with for awhile. Why he thinks my pointing out of the obvious is "arrogant", I do not understand. As for Liu's calling my view of the poor "pompous", well, this is yet another bit of name-calling that baffles me. In taking a page from Liu's forbear, Confucius, I am engaging in rectification of names (zheng ming). By stating the obvious - that the poor have no assets - am I not simply ascribing to the poor the very quality that leads us to call them poor to begin with? Perhaps the "arrogance" that Liu ascribes to me stems from my audacity to engage in a debate with him. G Edwin Anderson San Francisco (Feb 28, '03) Allow me to respond to G Edwin Anderson's letter posted Feb 25. History also records, let me remind him, that (1) Kings who belligerently asserted their divine right to rule ended up having their heads removed from their bodies on the execution block and (2) power-crazed intransigent governments, insensitive to the rights/aspirations of ordinary people (whoever they are) and (wherever they may be) will - as did the Bastille - fall; however, I agree, he is partially correct when asserting that, today, the oceans can no longer protect the USA from the wrath of the rest of the world. And it is precisely for that reason the USA should learn the true lessons of history. If, like Charles I and Louis XVI after him, she refuses and fails to conform to civilized rule, the innocent blood of millions his country has already shed, since the ending of the World War II, will demand a like sacrifice from her. Mark these words. AP England (Feb 28, '03) What does Henry C K Liu think inflated oil prices will accomplish accept worldwide economic recession? Recession will only hurt the world's working poor, the group Liu claims to champion, not the rich. Chris Mackey USA (Feb 28, '03) Thank you so much for providing so many well-written and thoughtful pieces. As one of the unfortunate Americans stuck watching helplessly as our Mad Cowboy mucks up the world, I rely on your publication to enhance my perspective. Josephine Wallace (Feb 28, '03) Powerful Zionist forces have taken control of America's governing authority. [George W] Bush's weak statement about ending settlement activity after peace progresses was disgusting in its craven obedience to Likud instructions. Thanks for your report [<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20030811092359/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EB28Ak02.html" target="_blank">Bush shares dream of Middle East democracy</a>, Feb 28]. American Enterprise Institute, my eye! R T Carpenter Panama City, Florida (Feb 28, '03) I came across your site today and I am thoroughly impressed. The articles are well written and give a healthier perspective of world events in my view. Keep up the good work. Scott Webber (Feb 28, '03) I read with interest the article [<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20030811092359/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Korea/EB28Dg01.html" target="_blank">China's role in the Korea crisis</a>, Feb 28] by [Jaewoo] Choo. What Choo fails to take into account is the double game being played by China. According to reliable intelligence, China has asked North Korea to open a second front in order to discourage the West from attacking Iraq. In fact, North Korea is the puppet dancing to Beijing's tune. Almost 70 percent of North Korea's fuel and food supplies come across the Yalu river. That's unparalleled leverage that China possesses. Why it does not use this leverage has puzzled strategic experts in the West. For the answer, we have to look at the long-term effect the Iraq war will have on the geopolitics in Asia. A subservient puppet regime in Iraq is China's worst nightmare come true. Approximately 60 percent of China's energy supplies come from the Middle East. Iraq's oil is a large part of this pool. Any foreign power that controls Iraq's vast energy reserves will have unacceptable leverage over China's economic growth. Indeed China believes the Iraq war is inevitable, so its contingency plans are under way. It has requested the Russians to build an oil pipeline to pump Russian oil into China's northern provinces. This would offset most of the anticipated leverage the West would have possessed. The problem here is that the Russians are in no hurry to comply. So China is doing everything it can to delay the Iraq war. The Americans have taken notice. Hence [Secretary of Defense Donald] Rumsfeld warned North Korea that the USA is capable of prosecuting two wars simultaneously. Looks like the Middle Kingdom's plans are beginning to unravel. Rahul Prabhu (Feb 28, '03) Henry C K Liu prescribes a double-shot of moral mojo for America (<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20030811092359/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/EB25Dj01.html" target="_blank">Power and the New World Order</a>, Feb 25): First, make those confounded Taiwanese put the kabash on pro-independence murmurings. Stress the moral rationale: Though it has been over a hundred years since Taiwan paid tribute to unelected despots in China (under threat of slaughter), once a people pay a mighty force a thousand miles away not to slaughter their children on a whim, they are forevermore beholden to the unelected descendants of those despots (under continuing threats of slaughter). Second, accept responsibility for the nuclearization of the Korean Peninsula. This is a little too deep for me, but I'll hazard a guess that it means that being the largest food donor to North Korea provokes violence. Americans should personally prepare the meals for everyone in North Korea who has not yet starved to death to show our peaceful nature. China has no moral burden to bear in Korea because it magnanimously intervened in the Korean War and ensured the survival of the Kim dynasty. For 50 years, North Koreans have been free to starve with dignity, knowing that they have been bestowed Henry Liu's gifts of "equality, equity and non-exploitative development". The Chinese love them so much that when they errantly wander north across the Yalu they send them right back to nirvana. What a lovely neighborhood. All those Japanese, Taiwanese and South Koreans suffering under the oppression of temporarily "stagnant" globalized economies are green with envy. Geoffrey Sherwood Towaco, New Jersey (Feb 28, '03) It is my finding and opinion that the US is the greatest warmonger, and its aim is to dominate the world. The US will eliminate one small country after the other; the US makes the statement [that this is] in order to bring democracy to the people. What do we see in Afghanistan? The US after World War II started to rule and control the Western world - as long as there was the USSR the US had an opposition. The war on Iraq has nothing to do [with protecting] the American people; Iraq is no threat to the US at all. I know how the US works and how the US is treating Canada; I say it is a disgrace. Should the US ever require Canada抯 water or natural gas and if we do not give it willingly the US will march and take Canada over. Presently the US is in a very serious situation at home, no work, corruption, the health care is falling apart, and many people have no food and shelter. But most of all there are more dollars in circulation [than] there should be. A war is the best cover-up and there is a scapegoat to blame all the ills on: Iraq and others. The UN must prevail; so must peace. In order to settle this disaster, offer UN troops to Iraq to safeguard Iraq from the US and the US from Iraq, let the inspectors look for what ever they like. In my opinion ... let all nations disarm, [starting] with the US. Henry W Freitag A man who survived World War II (Feb 28, '03) I totally agree with Henry C K Liu's opinion and comments on the statement made by G Edwin Anderson [see letter below]. Please write more such enlightening articles when you can spare the time, Mr Liu, to tell people of the world the truth. Robert McPhee (Feb 27, '03) Thank you for the in-depth article about Iraq [<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20030811092359/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EB20Ak01.html" target="_blank">The constancy of chaos</a>, Feb 20]. But you could really go deeper when writing about who was not present at the summit in December: "Those who did not participate were the Iraqi Communist Party, the Socialist Party and the pro-Syrian branch of Iraq's ruling Ba'ath Party. The radical Shi'ite Muslim al-Daawa Party also did not attend ..." Also not in attendance were the women on any side of this conflict. It's not much of a difficult stretch for governments that run roughshod over half their people to then run roughshod over other people's governments. Kathleen Peabody Michigan (Feb 27, '03) Ehsan Ahari missed the point when he described [Secretary of State Colin] Powell's move towards the neo-conservative camp to support the war as a change of heart [<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20030811092359/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EB27Ak03.html" target="_blank">The re-education of Colin Powell</a>, Feb 27]. As a member of the [George W] Bush cabinet Powell must convey Bush's policy, not the voice of his heart at the UN. He still can be the moderate and the most respectable of Bush cabinet. Long P Pham Mission Viejo, California (Feb 27, '03) Whether he is aware of it or not, G Edwin Anderson's arrogant letter [below] serves as a clear validation of criticism of US arrogance of power. The reality is that with all its military and financial power, the US seems to be having some difficulty defending its homeland and is seeking help from the rest of the world. So Anderson is correct: "Get used to it," for terrorism is the natural outcome from an arrogance of power. As for Anderson's view of the poor, it's too pompous to warrant a serious response. Henry C K Liu (Feb 26, '03) [Osama] bin Laden has already won [<a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20030811092359/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EB26Ak01.html" target="_blank">The US plays into bin Laden's hands</a>, Feb 26]. Of course the UN is crumbling. Europe, the "debating society", is divided and we have not yet seen the last of this story. Henri Wibault (Feb 26, '03) More than a century ago when the young and vigorous United States attacked the decrepit Spanish empire, Leo Tolstoy compared the attack to a young boxer knocking down an old man. (Theodore Roosevelt angrily responded by calling Tolstoy a moral and a sexual pervert). This time around the power differential between the two countries is even more enormous. Tariq Ali (no doubt yet another "pervert") has compared the situation to a Bengal tiger pouncing on an emaciated mouse. No amount of brilliant public relations can disguise the fact, increasingly obvious to the entire world, that the United States is behaving in the manner of a greedy, cowardly bully. Those opposing the power-mad US policies are not being "anti-American" but simply clear-sighted. Imperialists have never been popular, for obvious reasons. The attack on Iraq is intended as part of a series of imperial wars that will consolidate plutocratic control over people both within and without the US borders. It is correctly perceived by many as a profoundly insidious assault against freedom and democracy. Not only will it kill great numbers of innocents and make the United States seriously detested, it may also launch the nation and the world into a downward spiral of violence whose ultimate end may be too cataclysmic to contemplate. Today is a very good day to pull back from the descent into disaster. Let us stop this hideous imperialist bloodbath by every peaceable means at our command! Dr Zeljko Cipris University of the Pacific Stockton, California (Feb 26, '03) The preposterous letter written by I J Dhlamini [below] appears to lay all of Africa's past and current problems at the feet of the USA. Dhlamini, please explain for us how the people of the USA are taking advantage of the poor in Africa. I am intrigued. Perhaps a better question would be, what have the people of Africa done for themselves over the last 30 years? Africa is dead last in health, education, sanitation, economic policy and political stability. Any insults the USA adds to this toxic brew have to be hardly noticeable by comparison. The remedy for Africa's woes will have to be born within the continent. All the billions in economic aid the West has lavished on Africa basically went down a black hole of corruption. Africans need to pull themselves up by their own bootstraps and quit blaming the rest of the world for their problems. Vernon South Carolina, USA (Feb 26, '03) I predict that Roh [Moo-hyun]'s presidency will seriously backtrack Korea to isolationism and ignorance from the global community. Clearly he is a back-stabber to his former supporters. Look at the former Hyundai chairman and even the US. As you know, he is known for using anti-Americanism to win his election, then appealing to the US during [his] inauguration by saying how crucial the American-Korean alliance is ... He won his race by the votes of the most ignorant and spoiled young generation of Koreans. Young people there are all about a trend. I was in Korea this winter and heard one 26-year-old woman saying, "I'm going to vote for Roh. Everyone else is. It's the trend." How frequently I heard this and how excited "kids" were to go just to vote. The "young" generation in the past had the lowest voting turnout. Historically, they have never educated themselves properly or had an interest in politics. I feel so sorry for Korea. Either Korea "pre-qualifies" its voters next time or starts reforming its social and educational goals. Clearly Korea would have been as powerful as Japan if it fixed some of these splinters ... Cho Soo Yun (Feb 26, '03) Re Stephen Blank's article, Feb 25, <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20030811092359/http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Middle_East/EB25Ak04.html" target="_blank"> The (US) case for NATO</a>: Today, the former Soviet republics in Central Asia are among some of the most depressed places on the planet. Their leaders are former henchmen of the former Soviet Union and practitioners of cruelty and wastefulness and they are being wined and dined by United States, at the expense of American taxpayers. Any help they receive from the US in the forms of loans/aid is not building institutions of stability, but prolonging the misery of their citizens and [creating] a hotbed of resentment for years to come and future wars. The Shanghai Five Protocol between China, Russia, and three of the five Central Asian republics to foster peace and stability, among some of its goals, could not guarantee or give assurance to the dictators of Central Asia. The lack of that assurance made it possible for the US to make inroads in the name of the fight against terrorism. The UN is a product of World War II and later it was an instrument of the Cold War. It was never designed for a unipolar world. Only since the demise of the Soviet Union in the late '80s has its role and function been challenged. That is because in the Cold War each country fell under the influence of either the Soviets or the American-dominated West. Under the old system each hemisphere contained the actions of its subordinates. The UN is driving under the influence of Cold War rules, and its total incompetence in the realities of today has finally come to a head. UN is in need of checks and balances, and unfortunately not one is in sight yet. 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