An Open Letter to Amy Klobuchar, Democratic Candidate for US Senate
Hopefully you'll see this in the Minneapolis Star Tribune as well...
An Open Letter to Amy Klobuchar, Democratic Candidate for US Senate
Dear Amy Klobuchar,
I am a 23-year-old post-graduate student of Middle-Eastern Studies from Stillwater, MN. Although I am currently studying in the Arab world, I have been following your Minnesota campaign closely and was seriously considering coming back from the Middle East in September to help with your campaign.
One of the issues that is most important to me is the foreign policy of the United States. Like many Americans I have been extremely disturbed by America's "go-it-alone" attitude under Bush, especially when (in the case of Iraq) it's clear that what we did (alone and preemptively)made a bad state of affairs worse, both in Iraq and in terms of our relations with the rest of the world. Mark Kennedy's unthinking and unwavering support of Bush in his foreign policy (and other things) has disturbed me. It was thus with great pleasure that I found that your stance was different, advocating that as a country we think through our actions beforehand, and make sure that we "do what we believe is right, not merely what is politically expedient".
It was thus to my great astonishment when I read several days ago in the Star Tribune of your complete agreement with Mark Kennedy and President Bush over the war in Lebanon. Your statement that "Israel has a right to defend itself, and it's doing exactly what our country would do if Iranian-made rockets came down on Wisconsin or Iowa or Minnesota" is inordinately simplistic and completely ignores the long and involved history of the region including Israel's past (and continued) blatant abuses of power in the area. [For a brief history, check out the many UN Resolutions that Israel has not fulfilled - it leads the world in this category].
In addition, in stating that we would act exactly like Israel, you insult America by identifying her with a country that has acted with disproportionate force with far superior weaponry, killing over 700 civilians, wounding over 1500, displacing well over 750,000, and systematically destroying the infrastructure of an entire sovereign nation in just under 3 weeks. This is incalculable damage to Lebanon, especially when Israel alleges that it is at war with Hizballah alone, not with Lebanon. This of course is in addition to various incidents like the killing of 4 UN observors by an Israeli air-raid (vigorously condemned by Kofi Annan), and the further bombing of 2 Red Cross ambulances, both struck in the middle of the red cross by the Israelis (the subject of a recent article by Robert Fisk).
Much of the recent conflict, both between Israel and the Palestinians (especially in Gaza) and between Israel and Lebanon/Hizballah, started with the kidnapping of three Israeli soldiers. One naturally feels sympathy for the families of the three Israeli soldiers recently kidnapped, but the question that is asked throughout the Middle East is why these three soldiers who are now prisoners are somehow worth so much more than the 9000 prisoners that Israel continues to hold, many of them women and children, and many of them not even charged with a crime.
Why are the lives of a relatively small number of Israeli soldiers worth more in our eyes, in the eyes of America, than the lives of 9000 mainly Palestinian prisoners, the lives of 700 Lebanese civilians, the lives of civilians in Gaza routinely killed by massive Israeli bombs intended for "terrorists", and the lives of millions more who suffer under Israeli policy and rule? Or as Prime Minister Fouad Siniora of Lebanon recently asked: "Is the value of human life less in Lebanon than that of citizens elsewhere? Are we children of a lesser god? Is an Israeli teardrop worth more than a drop of Lebanese blood?"
I don't need my BA in Mathematics to tell me that the value of human life in Lebanon and Palestine counts for little. People in the Middle East see this too, and are appalled when America only worsens the situation, supporting the devaluation of Lebanese and Palestinian life by hurrying up the shipment of additional weapons to Israel and opposing a cease-fire called for by the UN.
Palestinians and Lebanese are indeed treated as children of a lesser god (despite the fact that many of them are Christian), not deserving of elemental human respect. How else can you explain the actions of Israel in bombing the International Airport in Beirut (as silly as bombing the Minneapolis Airport because some of the 9/11 planners originally landed here). How else can you justify the actions of Israel in jailing thousands of Palestinians because their brother, or friend, or (in the case of my Palestinian friend Wadea) their brother's friend was allegedly plotting something (as silly as imprisoning Timothy McVeigh's sister's friend for the actions of McVeigh).
In your statements, Amy Klobuchar, you are defending morally unjustifiable acts and making absurd simplifications in a complex world. As long as this is the case, I will not even consider voting for you, and as long as this is the case, America will continue to alienate and anger the entire Middle East and Muslim World, systematically destroying opportunities for a better, more peaceful world that we all, Arabs and Americans alike, desire.
Thomas Noah Loome
An Open Letter to Amy Klobuchar, Democratic Candidate for US Senate
Dear Amy Klobuchar,
I am a 23-year-old post-graduate student of Middle-Eastern Studies from Stillwater, MN. Although I am currently studying in the Arab world, I have been following your Minnesota campaign closely and was seriously considering coming back from the Middle East in September to help with your campaign.
One of the issues that is most important to me is the foreign policy of the United States. Like many Americans I have been extremely disturbed by America's "go-it-alone" attitude under Bush, especially when (in the case of Iraq) it's clear that what we did (alone and preemptively)made a bad state of affairs worse, both in Iraq and in terms of our relations with the rest of the world. Mark Kennedy's unthinking and unwavering support of Bush in his foreign policy (and other things) has disturbed me. It was thus with great pleasure that I found that your stance was different, advocating that as a country we think through our actions beforehand, and make sure that we "do what we believe is right, not merely what is politically expedient".
It was thus to my great astonishment when I read several days ago in the Star Tribune of your complete agreement with Mark Kennedy and President Bush over the war in Lebanon. Your statement that "Israel has a right to defend itself, and it's doing exactly what our country would do if Iranian-made rockets came down on Wisconsin or Iowa or Minnesota" is inordinately simplistic and completely ignores the long and involved history of the region including Israel's past (and continued) blatant abuses of power in the area. [For a brief history, check out the many UN Resolutions that Israel has not fulfilled - it leads the world in this category].
In addition, in stating that we would act exactly like Israel, you insult America by identifying her with a country that has acted with disproportionate force with far superior weaponry, killing over 700 civilians, wounding over 1500, displacing well over 750,000, and systematically destroying the infrastructure of an entire sovereign nation in just under 3 weeks. This is incalculable damage to Lebanon, especially when Israel alleges that it is at war with Hizballah alone, not with Lebanon. This of course is in addition to various incidents like the killing of 4 UN observors by an Israeli air-raid (vigorously condemned by Kofi Annan), and the further bombing of 2 Red Cross ambulances, both struck in the middle of the red cross by the Israelis (the subject of a recent article by Robert Fisk).
Much of the recent conflict, both between Israel and the Palestinians (especially in Gaza) and between Israel and Lebanon/Hizballah, started with the kidnapping of three Israeli soldiers. One naturally feels sympathy for the families of the three Israeli soldiers recently kidnapped, but the question that is asked throughout the Middle East is why these three soldiers who are now prisoners are somehow worth so much more than the 9000 prisoners that Israel continues to hold, many of them women and children, and many of them not even charged with a crime.
Why are the lives of a relatively small number of Israeli soldiers worth more in our eyes, in the eyes of America, than the lives of 9000 mainly Palestinian prisoners, the lives of 700 Lebanese civilians, the lives of civilians in Gaza routinely killed by massive Israeli bombs intended for "terrorists", and the lives of millions more who suffer under Israeli policy and rule? Or as Prime Minister Fouad Siniora of Lebanon recently asked: "Is the value of human life less in Lebanon than that of citizens elsewhere? Are we children of a lesser god? Is an Israeli teardrop worth more than a drop of Lebanese blood?"
I don't need my BA in Mathematics to tell me that the value of human life in Lebanon and Palestine counts for little. People in the Middle East see this too, and are appalled when America only worsens the situation, supporting the devaluation of Lebanese and Palestinian life by hurrying up the shipment of additional weapons to Israel and opposing a cease-fire called for by the UN.
Palestinians and Lebanese are indeed treated as children of a lesser god (despite the fact that many of them are Christian), not deserving of elemental human respect. How else can you explain the actions of Israel in bombing the International Airport in Beirut (as silly as bombing the Minneapolis Airport because some of the 9/11 planners originally landed here). How else can you justify the actions of Israel in jailing thousands of Palestinians because their brother, or friend, or (in the case of my Palestinian friend Wadea) their brother's friend was allegedly plotting something (as silly as imprisoning Timothy McVeigh's sister's friend for the actions of McVeigh).
In your statements, Amy Klobuchar, you are defending morally unjustifiable acts and making absurd simplifications in a complex world. As long as this is the case, I will not even consider voting for you, and as long as this is the case, America will continue to alienate and anger the entire Middle East and Muslim World, systematically destroying opportunities for a better, more peaceful world that we all, Arabs and Americans alike, desire.
Thomas Noah Loome
posted by tom at 3:43 PM
3 Comments:
Very well written. Thanks for posting that Thomas!
Noah,
This is Luke. That was an amazing letter, thanks for sharing your insights!!!
He makes some good points.
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