Dialogue

TATOO VIEWS

Real nice article from the “progressives” at the Observer (“The Skins They Carried,” March 21). Why did you leave out the photos of guys with ear necklaces?

Arch Stantonvia e-mail

Perhaps it would be appropriate for George Bush to have the names of all the killed and injured troops indelibly imprinted on his body. Whatever gets these wonderful humans through their tour(s), I’m all for.

Janet Duainevia e-mail

OUR BAD?

The editorial appearing in the March 21 edition (“Deadly, Unjustified, and Dishonorable”) included this comment: “The war on terror will never end with a peace treaty …” Shame on you.The big lie of this era is the ludicrous “Global War on Terror.” Many have already noted the absurdity of declaring war on a tactic. But worse, the big lie serves to distort both history and reality in a manner most helpful to the aims of those who have seized the reins of power in this country. Terror is a tactic not confined to radical movements, be they the Red Brigades, the IRA, or al-Qaida. Terror was the unequivocal aim of the firebombing of Dresden, the nuclear bombing of two cities with no military targets, the “shock and awe” of the invasion of Iraq, and the longest occupation in the modern era, the occupation of the Palestinian lands. Terror comes not just in the form of a suicide bomber in Baghdad, but from the belly of an F-16 or the barrel of an Israeli tank.Not only has the Orwellian big lie fueled two wars, but it has also been the foundation for the companion propaganda campaign to demonize all of Islam. The fires of racial and religious bigotry that are fanned by the big lie are pervasive, cropping up in the most unlikely of places and from the mouths of those who portray themselves as enlightened and progressive. It has reached such proportions that something so trivial as a name, Hussein, becomes the basis for castigating a U.S. senator, an accomplishment that evaded even old Joe McCarthy and his big lie of the 1950s.The criminal acts of 9/11, attributed within hours of the event to 19 men from Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and elsewhere, were terrifying to those in New York City and across the nation. That malignant, crazed, delusional individuals seized upon that event to propagate the falsehood of a “Global War on Terror” has, as you suggest in the editorial, done enormous harm to the people of Afghanistan, Iraq, U.S. service personnel, and the fabric of our republic. But to sanctify that lie by blandly regurgitating it as you did in your editorial simply serves to perpetuate the falsehood and extend the propaganda.In our political arena today, all candidates feel the compulsion to pay homage to the big lie. For the Observer to join in that tragic deception-however well intended-does a disservice to the heritage of the publication.