Old rants

For your reading pleasure, unsent letters to the editor:
#1
It is no doubt an unintended irony that your editorial would suggest that “international assistance to build schools and clear mines will never lead to real progress so long as the past remains un-examined...”, in Cambodia it is worth noting for the record where those mines came from: the United States, France, China, Eastern Europe, ect.... It is also worth noting what happened to the schools and infrastructure during the Nixon/Kissenger bombing campaign. There were notable abuses of power commited by Lon Nol and his cohorts (installed by the US because of King Sihanouk’s insistance on nuetrality). Will there ever be a trial investigating america’s complicity in the destruction of Cambodia? If we apply the Nueremburg principles to Cambodia the trial would be adjudicated by the Vietnamese, because they were the ones who finally defeated the Khmer Rouge, just as the judges at Nueremburg were not an international body but were made up of the victor countries. Of course, because it was the Vietnamese who pushed the KR out to the provinces, the Reagan administration compounded Nixon’s abuse of the Cambodian people by backing the KR during the ‘80s. The UN is often credited with restoring free elections after sending an international peacekeeping force in 1993 that legitimized the current dictator, Hun Sen, who clearly lost that election but was forced to share power with the actual winner, Prince Rennarid, who he later ousted in a coup. The UN troops left a black stain on Cambodia in the form of drugs and prostitution as well as forcing the economy to be based on US dollars. The UNHCR also played a role in the continuing struggle after the elections by indirectly supporting the KR when they were pushed out of their lair in Pailin and took refuge in Thailand. All these actions by the international community to meddle in Cambodia have gone “un-examined” for the past 38 years. The right course of action for the UN would be to have a tribunal to calculate the amount of money the various nations involved have spent providing mines and weapons and directly bombing this once beautiful and peaceful country, then require those responsible to pay reparations.
#2
The debate about liberal indoctrination in universities is apt for our local politics as many here believe the citizens attending UCSB have an undue left wing influence on local elections. In a recent letter, however, the writer claims to know the “truth” about liberal professors who “dish out rhetorical slogans in the class room”. In case you are not clear about what a rhetorical slogan is he provides ample examples: “the bankrupt philosophy of leftism”, “far-left dogma”, “left-wing baggage”, and “welfare/warfare leviathan state”. If it were the author’s goal to equip youngsters to think critically about any dogma being “shoved down their throats” he should refrain from using the language of demagoguery to make his fascist argument.



Or...

“Graduates...are usually so unprepared to grapple with the realities of politics that they typically end up voting for left-wing baggage like the Clintons, and supporting the welfare/warfare leviathan state” and they vote for Gore only to realize democracy is more complicated than majority rule. It’s lucky for the god fearing corporatists that these wacko-lefties’ votes don’t matter. Now if we can just put them away someplace where we don’t have to hear their whining about thier “rights”.


Or...

If David Engles screed is any indication of the ability of conservatives to think critically I am glad there are so few right wing professors.


Or...

It seems that the right would be just as capable of “indoctrinating” our impressionable young students into accepting the bankrupt philosophy of fascism if given the chance. Conservatives, representing a shrinking population of oligarchs, seem less and less willing to support democratic institutions. They would have us believe that a liberal wins the support of a majority of citizens because the voters are “unprepared to deal with the reality of politics”. Perhaps we should end this messy buisness of a national presidential vote and just let the congress and electoral college select our national leader, to avoid the input of the brain-washed masses who are under the yoke of the leftist academia-media empire.