grassrootspeace.org

November 2, 2007: This website is maintained by Charles Jenks, who created it 10 years ago and has authored all of its web pages and nearly all of its multimedia content (photographs, audio, video, and pdf files). As the author and registered owner of this site, his purpose is to preserve an important slice of the history of the grassroots peace movement in the US over the past decade. He is maintaining this historical archive as a service to the greater peace movement, and to the many friends of Traprock Peace Center. Blogs have been consolidated and the calendar has been archived for security reasons; all other links remain the same, and virtually all blog content remains intact.

THIS SITE NO LONGER REFLECTS THE CURRENT AND ONGOING WORK OF TRAPROCK PEACE CENTER, which has reorganized its board and moved to Greenfield, Mass. To contact Traprock Peace Center, call 413-773-7427 or visit its site. Charles Jenks is posting new material to PeaceJournal.org, a multimedia blog and resource center.

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Re: "The War for Liberalism"

Letters Editor
The Weekly Standard
1150 17th Street, NW, Suite 505
Washington, DC 20036-4617

To the Editor:

William Kristol ("The War for Liberalism," April 7th) asserts that the "Dominique de Villepin" American left hates John Ashcroft so much that we hope terrorism will succeed. Mr. Kristol attributes to us not only heartless malice but also unpardonable stupidity. We know well that another terrorist tragedy would give the enemies of civil liberties their perfect pretext.

Mr. Kristol also implies we "hate" (his word) Donald Rumsfeld and conservatives so much that we support Saddam Hussein. Our real fear is not that the Bush administration will triumph over a repulsive petty tyrant who is the enemy of convenience, but that it will fail even to combat our true enemies. By abandoning arms control and non-proliferation, the administration guarantees the spread of weapons of mass destruction, no matter how many "rogues" it bombs or invades. By neglecting climate change and global poverty, it invites a century of strife. By scorning international law, it incites generalized lawlessness and terrorism.

Mr. Kristol's Manichaean terms virtually brand dissent as treason. It makes one wonder whether in sending American democracy to Iraq, he does not intend to exile it there. Even liberals -- and conservatives -- who do not share our views should reject this rhetoric of coercion.

Sincerely,

David Keppel
Davidkeppel@earthlink.net

Page created March 22, 2003 by Charlie Jenks