The American Spectator

Reader Mail

Museum Pieces

4.17.03 @ 12:01AM

(Page 3 of 3)

It's bad enough we have to watch our backs at the U.N. but sometimes it seems as though our own State Department is as much of a problem. Sometimes I think State operates like a fifth column in our country. And there is nothing we can do about it because it is staffed by unelected bureaucrats who do not appear to be accountable to anyone. That place needs a major overhaul.
-- Dick Melville
Ozone Park, NY

THAT WAS CNN
Re: John Corry's Pressing the War:

When you think about it, CNN also had a lot to hide as the papers documenting their collaboration will soon be revealed. They have "come forward" to detail their tolerance of the brutal regime to keep ahead of the story breaking from Baghdad. They joined with France and Germany in their efforts against the war, in my opinion.
-- Joan Cain

ROADS NOT TAKEN
Re: Jed Babbin's Kill Ratios:

I hope President Bush does not make the mistake of his father -- who failed in 1991 to take Baghdad and topple Saddam Hussein -- by failing in 2003 to address and undress the evil empires in Damascus and Tehran.
-- Sam Levine
San Diego, CA

HILLARY HIRELINGS
Re: Re: To Hillary With Love, To Hillary With Love, Part Deux, Reader Mail's Booking Title and Reader Mail's Serious Candidates:

There are so many good ones that I couldn't read them all for the tears in my eyes from laughter. How about "Out, Damned Spot"?
-- Richard Renken

I realize that I am probably much too late, but a title just came to me: "Hillary, Dillary, Dock: How I Ran Out the Clock."
-- Robert Murphy

How about the title "Ricochet" (oops, pardon my French)?
-- Larry Niemotka

BATTLE OF THE BULGER
Re: Michael Craig's The Lawful Truth:

Michael Craig's comments in "The Right to Shut Up" are every bit as traitorous as anything coming from the Anti-American Left or Koranic Islam, perhaps worse. While the Left and Koranic Islam are eternally at war with Western Civilization, he attacks the very basis of civilization itself!

If the 21 dead are part of a "faceless mass" to Mr. Craig, I can assure him that they are not to their families. I would also like to point out that if these families despair of obtaining justice through the process of law, they will reclaim that right for themselves. Surely the execution of William Bulger by one of these families would settle the score -- for that family, other families would of course have to hunt down other members of the Bulger clan.

Does he not recognize that the lawlessness of the mob is entwined with its "omerta"? That it is precisely this silence which gives the members confidence to operate as if there were no law -- and fear to do otherwise?

As a veteran, I can assure him that the families of soldiers, police, and firemen constantly sacrifice on behalf of that "faceless mask". So he presumably is the one man in America that does not "support the troops"? After all, to him, since they are not family, they are part of that "faceless mass."

Mr. Craig would to well to examine the various parts of the world where central authority has weakened in favor of clan loyalties, to build a nice summer home -- I hear that pretty much every one is now desperately in need of hard currency. Moreover, I expect that he could repeat the process at least annually, as the locals tend not to be particularly concerned about the rights of the new non-family member on the block.
-- Nathan Zook

Michael Craig replies:
Dear Nathan: You misunderstood my argument, which has nothing to do with the families of the victims, the Koran, being anti-American, or support for our troops. I'm saying that if it was me, I'd go to prison before ratting out my brother. Either you don't have a brother, or he's very, very careful about what he lets you know about himself.

Letter to the Editor

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