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Letter to Pacifica Radio re. interview with Samantha Powers
>From : "Nancy A. Hey" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To : [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject : Interview with Samantha Powers on the March 28th edition of "On
the Margin"
Date : Mon, 15 Apr 2002 12:42:14 -0400
From: DC Coalition to Stop the War Against Iraq
To: Mr. Tony Regusters, WPFW Radio Subject: Interview with Samantha Powers
on the March 28th edition of "On the Margin"
Dear Mr. Regusters:
We at the DC Coalition to Stop the War Against Iraq
raise serious objections about the interview you aired on the 3/38 edition
of Josephine Reid's show "On the Margin", in which Ms. Reid interviewed
Samantha Powers, author of a book titled "A Problem From Hell", a book about
responding to cases of genocide in the world.
We are appalled that in the interview, Ms. Powers
shamelessly advocated American military intervention in any area of the
world where there are civil wars going on, and charges of genocide being
committed against various ethnic groups. She defended American military
intervention in Iraq, Bosnia, Somalia and Kosovo, and said that the US
should intervene militarily in other areas of the world as well, such as
Rwanda. She went on to say that she felt former President Bill Clinton
should have intervened even earlier, and with more firepower than he did in
Bosnia, Somalia and Kosovo. Her position on intervention in the Balkans was
very hypocritical, since it was American intervention in the form of support
for secessionists in the early 1990's that led to the breakup of Yugoslavia
and the resulting ethnic conflicts in the first place.
We feel that arguments such as Ms. Powers' in favor
of US military intervention are very self-righteous, in that they imply that
the United States has the moral authority to tell other countries how they
should resolve their internal conflicts, and that the US supposedly has a
"moral" duty to intervene in conflicted areas in the name of "humanitarian"
intervention.
Pacifica is a network that purports to be
progressive, and was founded by pacifists. Many people in the progressive
community such as ourselves look to Pacifica for alternative views not aired
in the mainstream media, especially those that support the kind of work that
groups such as our own do to promote peace and oppose American imperialistic
wars abroad. That is why we are disappointed that your network would see
fit to air such a pro-militarist and pro-imperialist piece as the Samantha
Powers interview. This viewpoint is heard constantly in the commercial
media, and on NPR - there is no need to give it further air time in an
alternative media source like Pacifica.
We believe that it is very dangerous at this time
of increasing militarism and war fervor for your network to be promoting and
encouraging such pro-interventionist sentiments, especially without even
offering counter arguments on the show. The ploy of couching wars in terms
of "humanitarian intervention", as Ms. Powers does is dangerous, because it
gives these wars an air of undeserved legitimacy. Bill Clinton's claims
that the war against Serbia was a war to protect the rights of ethnic
minorities, and George Bush's claims that the war against the Taliban
"liberated" Afghan women, only disguise the fact that these wars have caused
thousands of innocent civilians to die, and that the true reason for these
interventions was not concern for human rights. Rather, the war in Kosovo
was fought for the expansion of Western economic control over Eastern
Europe, and access to Caspian Sea oil, and intervention in the Middle East
and Afghanistan is done for the sake of controlling the access of competing
industrialized nations to oil and dominating a region that is at the
connecting point of Europe, Africa, and Asia.
We believe that if there are real cases of genocide
happening and people feel compelled to do something to help in these
situations there are charitable non-governmental organizations that
activists can support as individuals that will help the victims. However,
progressives should never call for the military force of the US government
to be brought down on smaller, weaker nations, and the US government should
not be the judge of what does or does not constitute "genocide", as the US
government is, itself, guilty of crimes against people that could be
considered "genocide".
In the spirit of supporting Pacifica's true mission
statement, we ask that you please use your time to air alternative,
anti-military viewpoints, rather than the pro-military propaganda that
already gets so much air time in the mainstream media.
Sincerely,
Nancy Hey, on behalf of
The DC Coalition to Stop the War Against Iraq
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