THE DAILY STANDARD welcomes letters to the editor. Letters will be edited for length and clarity and must include the writer’s name, city, and state.
*1*
I attend graduate school at Carnegie Mellon, home to a large international population of French students (Fred Barnes, How Many Frenchmen Does It Take . . .). In fact, my best friends are French. Recently, we had a discussion about the Iraq situation and mostly it involved their surprise that I would have no problem serving in the military campaign against Iraq if my service was needed.
Their sentiments were so alarmingly pacifistic that I asked a very telling question: surely, I said, they would have taken arms against Germany in World War II? They answered, “Maybe . . . it depends.” I couldn’t make this up.
–Jason Thornton
*2*
Do Americans have the slightest idea how ignorant and pretentious they seem to many citizens of the world ? I suspect not, but then Americans aren’t all that self-aware in the first place.
Well, I’m sorry, I know how important it is for you to fill the tank of your cars. Let’s be quite honest, you’re not talking about human rights of saving poor Iraqi farmers. We’re talking about petrol and money. I’m sorry to see that some great journalist like Fred Barnes forgot that in front of the White House, so close of the “most powerful man in the world” there’s the statue of a Frenchman. Remember, the nation’s capital was built by a Frenchman. Some brave Frenchmen helped your parents build America. But how to explain to some Americans who killed the original native-Americans and put chains to Africans? Yes, how to explain to a country which killed two presidents and thousands of Japanese with a nuclear bomb that millions of people all over the world just don’t want this war?
Please travel! Go take a croissant in Montmartre or a cappuccino in Florence, learn some foreign language and open your mind! Don’t think that your way of life is the best, it might be the most convenient for you but it’s not the best for the rest of the world. We, the French people, think that war is just not good enough for gas. We won’t help you to fill the trunks. Au revoir.
–Florian Launette
*3*
Does America deserve to be called the country of freedom? I doubt it! Who is the bad guy, Saddam or George W. Bush? Why this war against Iraq? This time Iraq has not attacked any country. Did any country declare war on the United States because of you killed the Indians (who were in America first)? The truth is, American governments have always loved weapons, just like cowboys couldn’t do without their gun. Bush has lots of weapons (his low-IQ-kid toys) and can’t bear the idea of not using them.
Many people in Europe view Bush junior as the new Hitler. The United State’s army is far more dangerous than Iraq’s. Iraq doesn’t compel other countries to think like they do. America does, and we’re fed up with it.
–A French worm (and proud to be since nobody told him to be), Olivier Hauquet
*4*
Wow! When did anti-Semitism become the great sin that places it above all other forms of hate(David Brooks, It’s Back)? There can be neither dissent nor debate on the barbaric nature of this administration because of the Policy Point-Men? At what point does being anti-Semitic mute the right to question the cost to humanity.
I would like to have heard from the grandmother from Minnesota. What gives David Brooks the right to censor her?
–Otis Barlow
*5*
I’m sorry David Brooks has been experiencing anti-Semitism. I am a Bible-believing Baptist and I want Brooks to know that there are many of us who dearly love the Jews (even if we don’t personally know many). We know the Jews are God’s chosen people. I support Israel and pray for it daily.
–Jessie Snow
*6*
My favorite part of Laura Billing’s article was when she said Dustin Hoffman had credentials for speaking out against the war (David Skinner, Stardumb: John Cusack). And why did he have the credentials? Because he had starred in “Wag the Dog.” Does this mean William Shatner has the credentials to run NASA?
–Joy Mott
*7*
If David Brooks erred, it was to underestimate the power of hate–they “hate” Jews in the same way Islamofascists hate America (and Israel). It’s an excuse for their own inability to succeed. Obviously, since their failure cannot be their faults, it must be the “other”–those damn Jews and / or those damn Americans–who conspire to frustrate and defeat them.” They are oppressed by people of (this faith) (this ethnicity) (this class) (you may select one, two or all three of these to justify your status).
The Marxist Chinese Menu of repression. If it wasn’t so pathetic, it would be funny.
–Edward Vitello,
*8*
As a Presbyterian minister whose denominational leaders are viciously anti-Bush, just know that I, for one, pray regularly for Israel and wear the Star of David emblazoned on my preaching robe. Hang in there, David Brooks. I’ll add you to our prayer list.
–Edwin Bernard
*9*
Not being Jewish, I never took the whole campaign to stamp out anti-Semitism that personally. But as an occasional Christian who spent the last few months in Kuwait, I was flabbergasted by the unanimity of everybody I met–from all over the Arab world and Europe–on the subject of Israel and the Jews. That was the only thing they all agreed on: The Jews are evil. They generally ascribed superhuman powers, coordination, and intelligence to the Jews who control the world in a very sophisticated conspiracy that knows no bounds.
I realized that anti-Semitism is a much bigger and more urgent problem than I previously thought. Otherwise intelligent, thoughtful people seemed to lose their senses when it came to the subject of Israel. The hatred for Jews is palpable, even among Christians and Europeans over there. The ease with which they equated the behavior of Israel and the Palestinians defies logic. It made me fear for the future of Western civilization because it demonstrated how easily people could let hatred overcome their appreciation of things like the rule of law and individual freedom.
–Alan Huth
*10*
In regard to Stephen F. Hayes’s Dangerously Unserious, if the United Nations existed at the Pearl Harbor attack, we would still be looking for the “root causes” of Japan’s dislike of the United States.
–Eli Kallet
