Letters to the Editor, September 14, 2003

While it may appear that "American lives are infinitely more valuable than all others" as William Hardiker of Australia (09/13/2003) points out in his article "The US must accept the consequences of its actions" there are some American lives who don't even get honorable mention in the US press. For example Rachel Corrie who gave her life protecting a Palestinian home from an Israeli Bulldozer. Indeed there are US citizens who are killed protecting the environment or just being poor that are not mentioned or valued at all.

I believe that the lives of those regardless of nationality that support the economic and world view of the power elite are the lives that the corporate media values most. Sour grapes maybe but it appears so to me.

Sincerely,

William Stahl

I recently found your site on the web and I have to say thank you for providing information that is not so readily available via the media in the US.

As I watched several specials on the second anniversary of 9/11 on television stations such as Discovery Magazine, it is becoming more apparent that we the people are searching for answers other than the ones so tenderly presented to us. It was comforting to see that people of the Middle East do not see the general people of the US as the enemy and maybe NOW we can begin to focus more as a Nation into what our government has kept shielded from us for a very long time " Foreign Policy".

I understand that in the big picture, my few words are but a pebble in a pond, but at least now I can say that they are mine based on the information that I have chosen to seek out. Thank you again.

Sincerely,

Andrew S Lester

Stop Abuse of our Military & Veterans

Are you as disgusted as I am regarding the following report of mistreatment of our U.S. Soldiers and Veterans, who have actually made a sacrifice, and are in the hospital? If so, please send an urgent e-mail to Congress to halt these obscene exploitations of our U.S. Military personnel, on http://www.congress.org .

Matt Bivens reports in his "Daily Outrage" at "The Nation": "Eight Dollars Per Day" on http://www.thenation.com/outrage/index.mhtml?bid=6 :

"Our current political leaders have committed so many, well, outrages that it's actually refreshing to come across one that's been around for 22 years [Reagan]. Would you believe that we bill wounded soldiers for their hospital food? We charge $8.10 a day. It's a decades-old practice, and as The St. Petersburg Times reports, if the bill isn't paid within days we throw that soldier to the collection agency wolves. C.W. Bill Young, the House Republican from Florida, has introduced a bill in Congress to end this loathsome practice.

"Meanwhile, medical care for veterans, at least, is still free -- even if the Bush Republicans don't want veterans to know that, and have tried to cut the budget for veteran health care (by an amount less than what's set aside for Halliburton), and also want to cut combat danger pay, and to gut family separation leave, and reduce re-enlistment bonuses, and to strip away education funding for children of military families ... Oh, and they oppose increasing the $6,000 payment to families of soldiers killed in action; and have pretty much stolen money (again, for Halliburton) that American courts say belongs to American POWs who were tortured by the Saddam Hussein regime during the 1991 Gulf War; and they're skimping on everything else imaginable, from basic pay raises to military housing to sensible military-targeted tax relief.

"So when Dick Cheney promises, "Help is on the way!", that an $8.10 a day will buy you a cup of cold hospital coffee."

Perhaps, Dick Cheney, who is being paid $1 Million Per Year by Halliburton to whom the Bushies have awarded obscene no-bid, no-cap, no-audit contracts in Iraq, and other Bush Regime War-Profiteers, Corporate Robber-Barons, and, the richest-of-the-rich, given massive "tax welfare benefits", should pitch in and make some sacrifices along with the rest of us.

Sincerely yours,

Regina Milhouse

Earth, a planet hungry for peace

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).

Opinions expressed in various sections are the sole responsibility of their authors and they may not represent Al-Jazeerah's.

editor@aljazeerah.info