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Title

Bizarro World

Description

The latest issue of <a href="http://adbusters.org">AdBusters</a> published <a href="http://adbusters.org/magazine/39/whatcould.html">What Could Have Been</a> - The Speech that was Never Made. It's a fake speech that could also have been delivered by our nation in response to the September 11th attack. <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/">Common Dreams</a> published <a href="http://www.commondreams.org/views01/1203-05.htm">A Letter from America</a>, an interview between America and a foreign policy therapist, who responds: <span class="quote"><q>Yes, there are some among your current enemies who can no longer be reached by reason. Yes, there are some who are crazy. But most are not. Most people are not insane. If you do change, it is inevitable that over time people will know that you have changed, and their feeling about you will also change, and the safety you seek will become a possibility.</q></span> Also on AdBusters is <a href="http://adbusters.org/magazine/39/worldwar.html">Our World War</a> contrasting the rationing that went with other wars with the exhortation to buy that accompanies this one. <span class="quote"><q>There's more here than a different war. There's also a different America at war ? a nation that acts as though it can consume its way to security and virtue. The sad part is our leaders can't think otherwise. What they call freedom has become a relentless necessity to keep the growth machine churning, by whatever means and whatever the consequences to our global neighbors, our future and ourselves.</q></span> Hampshire College comes forward as the first college or university to officially oppose the war in Afghanistan. The president of the college gave <a href="http://www.hampshire.edu/news/1010gregcommentary.shtml">the address on October 9, 2001</a> on WBUR radio. A portion of the (short) speech is transcribed below: <span class="quote"><q>You can accept simple answers - our country is at war against evil doers - or you can accept that the reasons for violence are more complicated. Just as with medicine, you must look for root causes, not simply symptoms. ... If you, as some in my generation would have you do, turn your back on the complexity of the modern world, you will have insured that the world is not different because of September 11. But if you seek a broader perspective; if you lead this country to understand how others may perceive us as a threat to their way of life; if you have the courage to approach even painful questions with an attitude of skeptical reverence for the accepted wisdom, you will have helped build a fitting memorial for the innocent victims of these terrorist attacks, and you will have insured that the world will never be the same.</q></span> Makes sense to me.