Kindler and gentler?

[Louis Proyect <lnp3@xxxxxxxxx>]

NY Times Week in Review, October 19, 2003
What It Takes to Be a Neo-Neoconservative
By JAMES ATLAS

A war against an enemy whose threat to us remains a matter of debate. The 
need to commit troops indefinitely. Growing doubts at home. As the American 
involvement in Iraq has become a commitment of unknown duration, 
comparisons to the Vietnam War are more and more common.

Whether or not the comparison proves valid, there is another historical 
parallel to the Vietnam War, one that involves a group of intellectuals 
responsible for articulating the rationale for the Iraq war. Among the 
enduring legacies of the earlier era was the split between liberals who 
opposed the war and the small splinter group that would become known as the 
neoconservatives. The group's decision to support the Vietnam War ? or at 
least to oppose those who opposed it ? was a shift that would lead them to 
a new level of power and influence.

The war in Iraq has shown signs of a similar split: a pro-war faction of 
the liberal intelligentsia has rejected a reflexive antiwar stance to form 
a movement of its own. The influence of these voices isn't to be 
underestimated. The marginality of intellectuals is a myth; even in the 
resolutely hermetic world of Washington, their voices are heard.

(clip)

Mr. Hitchens is more gung-ho than ever. In his October column for Vanity 
Fair, he reports from his latest trip to Iraq that definite progress is 
being made. United States military officers are kinder, gentler men than 
the "grizzled, twitchy" American veterans of Cambodia or El Salvador. 
"Their operational skills are reconstruction, liaison with civilian forces, 
the cultivation of intelligence, and the study of religion and ethnicity," 
he wrote.

full: http://www.nytimes.com/2003/10/19/weekinreview/19ATLA.html

===

LA Times, October 19, 2003
Marines Charged in Death of Captive
By Tony Perry, Times Staff Writer

CAMP PENDLETON ? Two Marines here face charges of negligent homicide in the 
death of an Iraqi prisoner who was left alone with other prisoners in Iraq 
after being interrogated, Marine officials said Saturday.

Six other Marines are charged with hitting and kicking prisoners and then 
lying about their behavior to military investigators.

Maj. Clark A. Paulus and Lance Cpl. Christian Hernandez are charged with 
negligent homicide in the death of a 52-year-old Iraqi prisoner who was 
found dead in June at a prisoner camp run by the 1st Marine Division near 
the central Iraqi town of Nasiriyah.

full: http://www.latimes.com/la-me-marines19oct19,1,4769944.story


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


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