Bush is a distraction, a sideshow freak

[pynchonoid]

http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript_zinn.html

" [...] BILL MOYERS: What are the real reasons, in
your opinion, for why we're going to war? I mean we
know the stated reasons, weapons of mass destruction,
all of that. Why do you think they are so eager to go
to war? 

HOWARD ZINN: Yeah, I mean there's no doubt-- as you
say there are stated reasons. None of those stated
reasons make sense, you know? Saddam Hussein is a
tyrant-- well-- we've tolerated tyrants-- lots of
them. We've put tyrants in power. You know, weapons of
mass destruction, well we just had an example. Korea
has more weapons of mass destruction than Saddam
Hussein but we're not making war on Korea. So, if-- I
think oil is one of the important factors. But I think
that there are others. And one of them has to do with
something psychological. That macho feeling that
people in power have about the United States being the
number one superpower and determined to show it. 

BILL MOYERS: Is there any evidence they could present
or any argument they could make that would give you
second thoughts about your opposition to the war? 

HOWARD ZINN: (LAUGHS) I can't think of any. And I
think there's a fundamental reason why I can't think
of any. If we go to war, we will kill thousands, tens
of thousands, we don't know how many people. A hundred
thousand? We will kill huge numbers of people. And who
will we kill? We will kill the victims of Saddam
Hussein. If we go to war against Iraq, we are killing
the victims of the tyrant. That to me creates a moral
equation which is intolerable. 

BILL MOYERS: A moral equation? 

HOWARD ZINN: I mean-- I mean that one of the moral
principals about war and about just war you know, is
the issue of proportionality. And that is what harm do
you do in the course of a war-- in the furtherance of
some end. Even presuming the end is good. The end,
however moral it appears to be, is always uncertain.
So, when you're faced with a certain terrible means,
and uncertain end, to me it is very clear you mustn't
go to war. 

BILL MOYERS: This is the kind of war that the
terrorists are fighting right now. I mean when they
drove those airplane bombs into the World Trade Center
and the Pentagon, they were striking innocent people
for their own purposes. 

HOWARD ZINN: Exactly. Exactly. 

BILL MOYERS: Are you saying that's what we're about to
do in Iraq? 

HOWARD ZINN: Well, that's right. I mean-- there's--
it's a-- war is a form of terrorism. I know there are
people who don't like to equate-- what was done-- you
know on September 11th, 2001, they don't like to
equate that with a war that the United States engaged
in. Sure, they're different. But they're not different
in the-- in the fundamental principal that drives the
terrorists and that is, they're saying, we're going to
kill a lot of people but it will be worth it. We're
trying to do something. We're trying to accomplish
something. They-- the terrorists are not killing
people just for the sake of killing people, they have
some end in mind. To show that the American empire is
vulnerable or to make some point about American policy
in the Middle East. But they have an end in mind. We
are doing the same thing. I mean, as I say, the
details are different, but we are willing to kill a
lot of people for some political end that we have
declared. [...] "


--Doug



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