More Suskind Info

http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/8/5/172840/1570

An interesting analysis of the Suskind claims about the forged letter.

Adam Curry played a track by the rapper Paris on the Daily Source Code that was simply a section of Jeremiah Wright's famous "Chickens Come Home To Roost" sermon, set against a beat. I've been thinking about it ever since I heard it this morning.

Andrew Sullivan posted the complete text, back when it was still hot news.
http://andrewsullivan.theatlantic.com/the_daily_dish/2008/03/the-wright-post.html

The excerpt from the track is this:

"...what Malcolm X said when he got silenced by Elijah Mohammad was in fact true, America's chickens are coming home to roost. We took this country, by terror, away from the Sioux, the Apache, the Arrowak (phonetic) the Comanche, the Arapajo, the Navajo. Terrorism--we took Africans from their country to build our way of ease and kept them enslaved and living in fear. Terrorism. We bombed Grenada and killed innocent civilians -- babies, non-military personnel. We bombed the black civilian community of Panama with Stealth Bombers and killed unarmed teenagers, and toddlers, pregnant mothers and hard working father. [fullest voice] We bombed Khadafi, his home and killed his child. Blessed be they who bash your children's head agains the rocks. [fullest voice] We bombed Iraq, we killed unarmed civilians trying to make a living. We bombed the plant in Sudan to payback for the attack on our embassy -- killed hundreds of hard working people --mothers and fathers, who left home to go that day, not knowing they'd never get back home. [Even fuller voice] We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon and we never batted an eye. Kids playing in the playground, mothers picking up children after school -- civilians not soldiers. People just trying to make it day by day. We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and South Africa and now we are indignant? Because the stuff we have done overseas is brought back into our own front yard. America's chickens are coming home, to roost. Violence begets violence. Hatred begets hatred, and terrorism begets terrorism."


Is thst untrue? It's harsh, sure. Hard to listen to, yes. But is it untrue? Did we or did we not do those things?

Yes, obviously, the intent of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was to end a bloody, awful war. Yes, Israel has a right to defend itself. You could say that the difference between this American terrorism and 9/11 is that our intent was good. Sometimes. But dead people are just as dead when you mean well as when you mean ill.

And didn't the hijackers think they were doing good, too?

No, there isn't a direct link between Nagasaki and 9/11. But I think Wright is arguing here that there is a moral link, a spiritual link, and that it is hypocritical for Americans to decry terrorism when we have perpetrated it. He doesn't have any good answers, nor do I. I can think of times when violence is called for, and I think the Western armies do try to avoid killing civilians.

But ignoring what we've done-the blood spilt by my tax dollars and yours, even if we had the best of intentions-doesn't answer anything either.