[lbo-talk] No Evidence ...

Jose Rodriguez & Sally Everson pepor at caribe.net
Fri Sep 19 05:15:16 PDT 2003



> Presumably, US Blacks and non-US citizens are also products of the
> same biological evolution as the fuzzy-minded (= the overwhelmingly
> Republican, disproportionately white, and largely male portion of US
> citizens). Why don't they believe in the AQ-Saddam connection?
> --
> Yoshie
>

Yes! I also wonder about this 70% - who are they polling? Nearly no one in my immediate family graduated high school and when I was up in the states last month on a visit I was surprised how skeptical they were about the reasons for the war, and the fact that most of the 9-11 terrorists have been identified as Saudi and not Iraqi -- as my brother-in-law said to me: "Why the hell aren't we bombing the shit out of Saudi Arabia? We have the wrong guys." Two other sisters ditto. My brother (who did graduate h.s - and is a staunch Democrat) is also against the war - but more anti-Bush than anything. But all these people are really suffering over the bad economy -- one sister is out of work and trying to collect -- and more importantly: they all have young sons and daughters - who for now are not in the military, but are tempted by the money, glory and future benefits as a vet. In fact, one nephew is trying to enlist because he is 20 has a baby and is out of work. The problem is he has a giant tattoo on his neck so they rejected him (My sister was so happy for that tattoo now). So I'm sure if you polled the parents or families of military personnel, you might get different responses -- they are following the news and really have something at stake here. The rest of the people (rich people whose kids or relatives are not tempted to enlist or aren't over there as a grunt) have really no interest except pumping up themselves by identifying with US military power. Among even educated, liberally-minded euro-americans who are trying to think criticially about the war -- from my observations - they seem most confused. Maybe becuase they know how to deconstruct a text and think for themsleves ;-) Ones I talked to recently said they just "know" stuff the government is not telling us: they do not believe they are being told the truth -- so they come up with their own. They have no real framework for thinking about what could be happening and why, and little inclination to research, etc. ALso: I think we can't forget the racially or ethnically or religiously bias -- Saddam is arabic/islamic so are the Saudis, so they are all in it together - this is East versus West - first we get Iraq then the others .... Here in Puerto Rico -- as you mention Yoshie -- the atmosphere is *quite* different. It is an anti-war atmosphere in general -- probably in part due to the high rates of Puerto Ricans (and Latinos) in the front lines. But then again, people who have been on the other side of US aggression perhaps find it a bit harder to cheer it on. I find none of this illogical. For this reason, I think the "Bring the Troops Home Now" campaign has the best chances of ending the Iraqi occupation, rather than trying to go for popular appeal - the people on those polls seem clueless to me. In fact -- does anyone know where I can get a bumper sticker on bring the troops home, now? Smething in Spanish would be even better.

Sally Everson



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