CPD antiwar statement

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

Just one last item from the Jan. 6, 2003 Nation Magazine of interest. There
is a double-page ad from the "Campaign for Peace and Democracy" that states
its opposition to both Saddam Hussein and the US War on Iraq. Among the
signers are Michael Albert of Z Magazine and Doug Henwood, who--as far as I
know--has never taken a stand on anything in public before--such as it is.

The statement is online at the Z Magazine website:
http://www.zmag.org/antiwarsigners.htm

Most of the people who signed the petition mean well, but I am afraid that
it cedes too much to the kind of ritual denunciation of Saddam Hussein that
is demanded by the social democratic and liberal left. To their credit,
however, they do oppose any war with Iraq even if it is "multilateral".

Even though I have little use for Orwell, it reminds me of "1984", with
society being prepped for "Two Minute Hate Sessions" everyday. One after
another, we are forced to line up and swear that we hate Moammar Khadafi,
Manuel Noriega, Slobodan Milosevic and now Saddam Hussein. It's enough to
drive one to bank-robbing.

The "Campaign for Peace and Democracy" is rumored to be funded by George
Soros, which wouldn't surprise me a bit considering what it costs to put an
ad of this size in the Nation. I remember putting in a 1 inch ad in the
back pages for a Tecnica event in the late 1980s. It cost $250. So figure
it out.

This outfit has been pushing a kind of aggressive '3rd camp' position for
as long as I can remember, although most of the fire has been directed at
enemies of the USA. The executive director is somebody named Joanne Landy,
about whom I know very little. In trying to track down her past links, I
was astonished to find out from www.namebase.org, a website set up to track
down exactly such associations, that she is a member of the Council of
Foreign Relations. This august body can best be described as an imperialist
brain trust. A search there corroborated namebase's allegation. Considering
some of the names on the board of directors, it is extremely puzzling why
Landy would be associated with such a body:

Peter G. Peterson (Chairman of the Board and balanced-budget hawk.
Advocates privatization of social security. Long career in investment banking)

Leslie H. Gelb (NY Times big-shot who spent time in Washington in Carter's
State Dept.)

Fouad Ajami (pro-imperialist Arab 'expert' featured on Sunday morning
television talk shows)

Louis V. Gerstner, Jr. (IBM boss)

Richard C. Holbrooke (Balkans hawk)

Warren B. Rudman (Former US Senator and fiscal hawk. Collaborates
frequently with Peterson in attacking the welfare state)

George Soros (Convicted insider trader and Landy's sugar daddy)



Louis Proyect, Marxism mailing list: http://www.marxmail.org


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