NEW REPUBLIC WRITER CALLS FOR ANTI-BUSH LEFT-WINGERS TO BE KILLED

[Guest guest]

New Republic Writer Calls For Anti-Bush Left-Wingers To Be Killed

 

Dave Zirin | February 3 2005

 

The words " libelous " and 'the New Republic " have a proud history of

walking arm-in-arm. Now, in the esteemed tradition of [former TNR

writer who peddled fiction as fact] Stephen Glass, The New Republic

has stooped to a new low, publishing a piece that calls for violence,

torture, and even death for leading leftists who dare oppose Bush's

war on terror and the slaughter in Iraq.

 

Author Tom Frank -- clearly from the Glass School of Journalism the

New Republic has made famous -- described sitting in on an anti-war

panel sponsored by the International Socialist Organization, the

Washington Peace Center, the DC Anti-War Network and other groups.

 

After having heard the 100 plus attendees cheer sentiments

like " Money for Jobs and Education Not For War and Occupation, " Frank

became so riled up, he unloaded a deranged harangue about the

suffering he would like to rain upon people daring to organize

against this war. After Stan Goff, a former Delta Forces soldier and

current organizer for Military Families Speak Out, expressed

sentiments like " We ain't never resolved nothing through an

election, " Frank's jag began. Clearly too doughy to do it himself,

Frank started to fantasize about a Teutonic strongman who could shut

Goff up.

 

Frank writes, " What I needed was a Republican like Arnold

[schwarzenegger] who would walk up to Goff and punch him in the face. "

 

As the panel continued, every cheer and standing ovation seemed to

set Frank deeper down a path of psychosis. After International

Socialist Review editorial board member Sherry Wolf asserted that

Iraqis had a " right " to rebel against occupation, Frank upped the

ante in his efforts to intimidate anyone considering entry into the

anti-war movement.

 

He wrote, 'these weren't harmless lefties. I didn't want Nancy Pelosi

talking sense to them; I wanted John Ashcroft to come busting through

the wall with a submachine gun to round everyone up for an immediate

trip to Gitmo, with Charles Graner on hand for interrogation. "

 

Later, when Wolf quoted Booker Prize winning author Arundhati Roy's

defense of the right to resist, Frank was sent into such a state of

panic, he once again dreamed of the mighty hand of state repression,

writing, " Maybe sometimes you just want to be on the side of whoever

is more likely to take a bunker buster to Arundhati Roy. "

 

Interestingly, Frank didn't have the guts to slander another one of

the panel speakers, exonerated death row inmate Shujaa Graham.

Graham, who has been moved to speak out against the torture of Iraqi

prisoners by intimately connecting their pain with his own experience

of torture in California's death row, escaped Frank's pen. I guess

it's hard to pose fantasy threats of torture and death toward someone

who has actually looked it in the face.

 

We can write this piece off as just another one of the smarmy New

Republic 20-something writers getting his jollies slamming the left.

We can say that Frank -- his entire piece an exercise in poorly

executed humor, ill-written grammar, and awkward phrasing -- just

forgot to break his Prozac in half that morning. But there is

something far more insidious at work here.

 

This piece is yet another effort to intimidate and silence people who

aren't willing to toe the " party line " espoused by Democrats and

Republicans alike that the death of 1,400 US troops and 100,000 Iraqi

civilians is somehow justified. Frank's piece is an exercise in hate

and intimidation. To be quiet in its face is to give ground in a

period when we have precious little to give.

 

Therefore, this is a call for people to e-mail The New Republic and

let them know what you think about humorous musings on killing

Arundhati Roy or torturing Stan Goff. Let them know that a disgraced

magazine will not intimidate us, especially one with the credibility

of The National Enquirer. Let them know that we will publicly debate

Tom Frank or any of their 20 something post-graduate hacks on the

merits of this war anytime and any place. This is the only way to

deal with darkness: shine as bright a light as possible -- right in

it's face.

 

E-mail letters to let them know what you think. We are also

considering a picket of the New Republic Offices, for those

interested.