responses to Latham v reality: the looming crisis

• 1) letter to the editor from David Spratt
• 2) Albert's response
• 3) letter to the editor from Bill James
• 4) response from Barry York

Born-again Langer must be dreamin'

Come on, Albert Langer (Opinion, 14/6), pull the other leg about America's democracy intent in the Middle East!

America wants a democratic Middle East, just like it has fashioned in its client states in Saudi Arabia, the Gulf, Egypt and Jordan. That's probably why Iraq administrator Paul Bremer vetoed a proposal from the Interim Governing Council last December for money to conduct a census so that electoral rolls could be established.

The Coalition's plans have steadfastly deferred any popular mandate, instead casting discredited exiles as leaders, appointing here, suggesting tribal chiefs there, lauding Iraqi CIA "assets" - always intent on a compliant gaggle.

Such was their strategy in Afghanistan, which has resulted in a government that controls little more than Kabul in daylight hours and somewhat less after dark.

Albert Langer supported that great democrat Pol Pot in Cambodia and opposed the Vietnamese intervention. Has he, like George Bush, been reborn - or is this that old line that power comes out of the barrel of a gun? If so, he sure is on a winner supporting current American strategic policy of "full spectrum dominance".

David Spratt, Fitzroy

Legless Lemmings

David Spratt asks me to pull his other leg about a democratic Middle East (Letters 15/6). Every Muddled-Lemmingist must agree. The Bush administration would install another Baathist military strongman to replace Sadaam. Whoops, they dissolved the entire Iraqi Army, and suppressed the Ba'athists so thoroughly almost the entire oreign policy establishment denounced it as a "mistake".

The Kurds would be sold out to Turkey and the Arab League. Whoops, a Kurdish social-democrat is Iraq's Defence Minister and a Kurdish nationalist speaks for Iraq at the Arab League.

American arrogance would destroy the UN. Whoops, the Security Council resolution was unanimous. That's three legs pulled off. How many legs does a lemming have?

Ok, I'll pull the other one. The US will insist on an Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank as well as Gaza, negotiated with a fully independent and democratic Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital.

Why am I so confident? For the same reason I took bets that Nixon was about to pull out of Vietnam during the Christmas bombing of Hanoi. As Churchill said, they always do the right thing - after exhausting every alternative.

Albert Langer, North Fitzroy

Now I've seen it all

Robert Manne attacks the United States - justifiably, as it happens - alongside Albert Langer supporting American policy (well, sort of). It's true: if you live long enough, you do see everything. Bill James, Bayswater

Nothing's changed

Yes, Bill James (15/6), Robert Manne attacks US policy in the Middle East while Albert Langer more or less supports it. The point missed is that Manne opposes US policy because he remains a conservative, against regime change, while Langer remains a leftist, who supports the overthrow of US-created tyrants such as Saddam and the broader bourgeois democratic revolution in the Middle East. Neither has changed since the 1960s, when Manne more or less supported US aggression against Vietnam and Langer supported the revolutionary forces of the National Liberation Front. Barry York, Lyneham, ACT

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