OUT OF IRAQ

January 16, 2009

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/01162009/watch.html

BILL MOYERS: Welcome to the JOURNAL. First, a word about my comments last week on the carnage in Gaza. What I had to say drove hundreds of you to your keyboards to tell me what you thought.

DON DEMBOWSKI: Your comments on the Israeli - Palestinian conflict were most welcome. Such thoughtful analysis is hardly ever heard on TV. The US has to show Israel some tough love to get the situation out of the impasse it has been in for so many years. -- Don Dembowski

LORNA BOSNOS:I'm a Jewish woman and am shocked once again by Israel's choice to destroy a territory and devastate a population. At first, I was swayed somewhat by the cries that Israel must have the right to defend itself, that Hamas has been firing rockets unceasingly, but this? --Lorna Bosnos

SAMUEL GINSBERG: I ask you, Mr. Moyers, what is a sovereign state supposed to do when its neighbors launch thousands of rockets aimed at its cities and its innocent women and children? What is an army supposed to do when its enemy uses its women and children as human shields? What is a humane, advanced civilization to do when it is confronted with a culture that embraces hatred and death as a way to sanctify life? -- Samuel Ginsberg

LEONARD BOASBERG: You imply a moral equivalence between Hamas and Israel, but in pointing out that Hamas is committed to eradicating every Jew in Israel, you neglected to add that Israel does not wish to eradicate the Palestinians, but only wishes to live in peace with them. --Leonard Boasberg

HAROLD COHEN: How utterly naïve you are! The Hamas government, freely elected by the Arab populace of Gaza, is directly responsible for the Israeli onslaught. If you were faced with possible death to your family because of continuous rocket attacks, I don't believe you would "turn the other cheek" and wait for some vague attempt at finding a cease-fire agreement. Your first effort would be to destroy the source of these attacks, so that you and your loved ones can exist in peace. --Harold Cohen

BILL MOYERS: There's a lot more, all on our Web site at pbs.org, including my exchange with the National Director of the Anti-Defamation League. Your letters remind me of a time during the Vietnam War when I asked a reporter, just back from the frontlines, "Who's telling the truth out there?" "Everyone," he said. "Everyone sees what's happening through the lens of his own experience."

And so it is goes. When I decry the death of civilians in Gaza as Israeli troops try to stop the missiles fired by Hamas terrorists, I'm accused of being too hard on Israel. When I point out Israel's right to self-defense, and remind viewers of Hamas' leaders who have pledged to kill every Jew in Israel, others think I'm being too soft on them.

Some of you were offended by my comment that "god-soaked violence" has become "genetically coded." Those words were obviously not sufficiently precise, I was not talking about a specific people but of the violence in the DNA of the human race, as the Bible itself so strongly attests.

So here's the lens through which I see things. From my days in President Johnson's White House onward, I have defended Israel's right to defend itself, and still do. But killing innocent people is wrong, whether in Vietnam, Israel, Iraq or Gaza. Sometimes a candid critic is a country's best friend.

As the former Israeli soldier turned journalist, Jeffrey Goldberg, wrote in the NEW YORK TIMES this week, Hamas cannot be bombed, nor cajoled, into moderation. "Tanks cannot defeat deeply held beliefs," he wrote. No. Waging war on an entire population guarantees one thing: the radicals get what they want, and the innocents, on both sides, suffer.-

"Of course the people don't want war. But after all, it's the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it's always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it's a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger."
-- Herman Goering, April 18 1946 , Nuremberg

Here in America we are descended in blood and spirit from revolutionist and rebel men and women
who dared to dissent from accepted doctrine.
As their heirs may we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion.

-Dwight D Eisenhower

Ike Was Right

The escalating violence in Iraq's civil war is now earning considerable attention as we pass yet another milestone -- U.S. occupation there, in two weeks, will exceed the length of the Second World War for America. While the news media have finally started to grapple with the colossal amount of killing, a number of misunderstandings persist. Some are willful deceptions Ten Fallacies About the Violence in Iraq

The time for more U.S. troops in Iraq has passed. We do not have more troops to send and, even if we did, they would not bring a resolution to Iraq. Militaries are built to fight and win wars, not bind together failing nations. We are once again learning a very hard lesson in foreign affairs: America cannot impose a democracy on any nation - regardless of our noble purpose. Leaving Iraq Honorably -Chuck Hagel

Of the lessons learned as we grow up to be "good citizens", tell the truth and do not kill are cornerstones. As adults we learn to expect that many people forget these cornerstone lessons. What we don't expect is that our leaders, those we trust with powers we give them, will lie to us and then send us to kill or be killed to promote their own agendas and cover their lies even against the voiced concerns and wishes of the very people that have empowered them. Lies only breed more lies and recovery from lying is often harsh and brutal, but recover they must, or we as a nation shall all be doomed. This administration needs to come clean-tell the truth-stop the killing-stop the lies.