Letters to the Editor, February 18, 2004

The Chicago chapter of the International Solidarity Movement and Northwest Suburban SUSTAIN (Stop U.S. Tax-Funded Aid To Israel Now!) need the assistance of our Muslim friends to arrange free screenings of the powerful video "The Killing Zone" at local mosques.

We have included a link below where you can read about this powerful vide from Channel 4 news in England that documents gross human rights abuses by the Israeli military against both Palestinians and internationals inside the occupied territories of Palestine.

Please contact us at the phone number listed below or via e-mail at either address indicated below. We are also looking for Muslim contacts in Peoria, Springfield, Bloomington, Champaign-Urbana and central Illinois to assist us with showings in their communities.

This offering is extended also to churches, temples, community groups and political organization for their gatherings.

George W Bush & make believe.

Can any of us really imagine the George W Bush that we now know quite well being rated as an OUTSTANDING F-102 Delta Dart pilot?

If, as I suspect a surrogate was being used, and Turnipseed had really served in the Texas ANG just previous to serving in AL then you can bet that Dubya avoided him like the plague.

Willard West

US SHOULD NOT HINDER FREE ELECTIONS AND FREE CHOICE TO IRAQIS TO WRITE THEIR OWN CONSTITUTION

The US is dithering on holding elections in Iraq and is bent on not handing over the country back to its people, without first making sure that Iraq does not get a constitution, that has any commitment to Islam.

Both goals get no legal support for its declared or undeclared objectives and are against all democratic norms that Bush has started boasting about. How can US introduce democracy in the Middle East, if it is faltering in Iraq itself?

The crux of the matter is that the people of Iraq are themselves sovereign and free to decide what shape their future should take.

Now that Kofi Annan is brought in to smoothen the transfer of power and sovereignty from the occupying forces to the people of Iraq, UN should strictly abide by the aspirations and legitimate rights of the Iraqi people and try to surmount all technical problems, to hold free and fair elections, to win laurels of the world for the institution of the United Nations, which had been severely damaged by the US/UK’s illegal invasion of a member state.

In a way, this should be a preferred policy of the Bush too, as any distortion that he introduces into Iraq at this juncture will directly inflame passions and give further legitimacy to the so-called terrorist forces now openly active in Iraq.

The Iraq war and the quest for peace in the trouble land, will directly impact Bush’s reelection prospects.

So any bigoted moves using temporary advantage to win dubious long-term leverages in Iraq, will risk further bloodshed and disruption and may result in more US soldiers dying in the process, which is the last thing that Bush will need in an election year. Any wrong move and the whole Iraq will explode.

An enlightened policy for the US will be to help Kofi Annan go through the election and first bring peace to the nation, before making fresh effort to win the hearts and minds of the people with peaceful diplomatic moves. The time for ill-advised aggressive initiatives is now gone and would only be counter-productive.

Bush should move with the tide and try to forget why he started the war in the first place.

It was a bad dream and now he should wake up to the real world. More and more people in the world, like Bishop Desmond Tutu, may be willing to give him a second chance to prove he is not as evil as Saddam had been, if he make genuine and generous amends.

GHULAM MUHAMMED, Mumbai, India