No apologies
In reply to Sam King's letter in GLW #580 regarding my description of Amanda Vanstone: Political cartoons in a sense "denigrate" the bodies of all politicians, male and female — look at the gift Howard is to the cartoonists, as was Mrs Thatcher in her prime; fat Ariel Sharon and Bush (with that nose) are sitting targets. Vanstone appears in cartoons exactly as I have described her. I can't draw, so I have to make my cartoons with words.
All cartoonists comment (often cruelly) on politicians' bodies. It has nothing to do with "physical attributes of women".
Rosemary Evans
St Kilda, Vic
Palestine
Since the dispossession of their homeland over 50 years ago it has been an uphill battle for the Palestinians seeking to obtain justice and support against considerable distortions and bias in the Western world. Most people only took serious notice of the plight of the Palestinian people and investigated the facts of the Palestinian problem after the first intifada (uprising). This led many people to change their ideas and attitudes substantially on this issue over the past decade or so and recognise the legitimate rights and justness of the Palestinian cause.
Many people who were once confused or knew little about the situation have come to clearly distinguish between who is the oppressed and oppressor in the case of Palestine. This has brought the Palestinians the empathy and solidarity they deserve.
And Israel, which had a monopoly on virtue since 1948, found it had to defend its past violent history and actions. This has resulted in a shift of emphasis and a concerted campaign by Israel and its supporters abroad to focus on the subject of Palestinian "terrorism". While all warfare and its consequences are horrifying, any assessment of the conflict will show that Israel's record on terror and carnage is more methodical and on a greater scale than anything Palestinians have resorted to. And Palestinians have the legal and moral right as an occupied people to use any means at their disposal to resist the invaders of their country.
Israel and its supporters are now trying desperately to convince people that various tactics used by some Palestinian factions make their struggle illegitimate and beyond backing.
This notion that the Palestinian resistance is an exception is ridiculous. The Palestinians are not unique in the methods of armed struggle they use. In fact, the Palestinian forces use exactly the same methods utilised by various indigenous and subjugated peoples for centuries, including the American Indians, Aborigines, Algerians, South Africans, Kurds, Latin Americans, Vietnamese and others who have fought anti-colonial wars and national liberation struggles, as well as the anti-fascist forces in Europe and Asia during the 1940s.
Steven Katsineris
Hurstbridge, Vic
Cuba blockade
As an Australian living in Havana, Cuba, for the better part of four years, George Bush's promise to liberate the Cuban people by tightening the cruel economic blockade and supplying an additional US$60 million to the CIA and various anti-Castro terrorist dissident groups in Miami, has me extremely concerned.
A version of this promise surfaces every election time and is promulgated to secure the support of the politically powerful right-wing Miami Cubans, whose tactics include assassination attempts on the life of Fidel Castro, killing of innocent women and children, sabotaging tourist hotels and the destruction of a Cuban airliner.
It's a "deal" — the US president gives them money, they deliver the vote for the State of Florida.
On May Day, I stood with over 1 million people in Havana's Plaza de la Revolucion and heard them once more catergorically reject this gratuitous offer. An even greater roar of approval came, however, when Fidel stated that the Cubans have no wish to fight American soldiers and have as always offered their hand in friendship to the American people but, let it be understood, that "we will defend our country and our revolution to the last drop of blood".
On that day all over the island, more than 7 million people took to the streets to joyously celebrate (as only Cubans can) their special brand of socialism which has given them among other things, the best health and education system in the Third World and arguably in the developed world as well.
It was more a case of May Day mambo than May Day march when the good natured crowd left the plaza calling out "Viva Fidel" and "Viva la Revolucion". There could be no doubting their total support for what had been said that day.
Manfred Noa
Havana, Cuba [Abridged]
Julius Caesar
I take issue with Phil Shannon's review in GLW #570 of Michael Parenti's The Assassination of Julius Caesar. I feel with this review of Parenti's book, you don't know if the views expressed are Parenti's or Phil's. I find this a problem with a lot of Phil's reviews.
If we look at Julius Caesar through sources, such as Suetonius' The Twelve Caesars, we see him as a ruthless and ambitious politician, who made all his decisions based on how he could advance his own interests. Now, if that meant making reforms and putting on spectacular gladiatorial events and handing out the corn dole, he would do it. He was a dictator, which was what he appointed as by a terrified Senate, after the bloody civil war he carried out that destroyed the Roman republic.
The point that Phil makes is that Caesar was better than those who killed him. His assassination at the hands of his fellow Romans was just before his planned expedition to conquer the Parthians' empire in the Mesopotamia (modern day Iraq). The Parthians had defeated Caesar's friend and financial backer Crassus and his army nine years earlier. It was Crassus who defeated Spartacus' army of slaves and crucified the 6000 survivors along the Appian Way road to Rome.
Let's get it straight what the Roman empire was — brutally imperialist, notoriously corrupt and violently undemocratic; no wonder people compare it with United States.
If people think it is abstract to be talking about ancient Rome, I would like to point out that some commentators in the United States establishment compared the pre-emptive strike on Iraq with the pre-emptive Roman attack on Carthage, which is known as the Third Punic War. Anyone who has studied ancient history will tell you that it wasn't a war, but a one-sided slaughter based on racism, vengeance, political opportunism and imperial bigotry. The comparison with the invasion of Iraq in 2003 is like two peas from the same pod. Who says history doesn't repeat itself?
John Tognolini
Katoomba, NSW
Iraq
US Secretary of State Colin Powell has told the world that his country will withdraw from Iraq if the new Iraqi government asks them to after June 30. This is yet another cynical attempt by the US to demonstrate that the people of Iraq want them to occupy their country.
The US expects the world to believe that an Iraqi government that is handpicked by the occupying power would have the temerity to request that its benefactor and protector leave voluntarily. If this is supposed to convince the world that the Iraqi people really want the US occupation, the US is demonstrating the same stupidity they did when they invaded Iraq.
June 30 is a political ploy, nothing more. There will be no handover of power. There will be no independent Iraqi government. There will be no choice for the Iraqi people. The US will continue to occupy Iraq without justification, and their troops will continue to be legitimate targets for the resistance.
Adam Bonner From Â鶹´«Ã½ Weekly, May 26, 2004.
Meroo Meadow, NSW [Abridged]
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