Letters to the WSWS on the "The Washington sniper and the undercurrent of rage in American society"

30 October 2002

A well-done piece and, for the most part, I couldn’t agree more. If you haven’t read Gore Vidal’s book on “Perpetual War For Perpetual Peace: How We Got To Be So Hated,” it too is along the same lines. The direction this country is headed scares the living hell out of me!!!

WJM, PhD

Tucson, Arizona

28 October 2002

Thanks for this article. I was, frankly, sickened by the hand-wringing on one side and jockeying for position in the death penalty sweepstakes on the other by the people in charge of the investigation into the sniper shootings. Judging by their performances at news conferences during the shooter’s rampage, they appeared to be floundering and fumpfering around like fish stunned by dynamite. And naturally all of the pundits and flapping jaws of the television media cried out: “Woe is us! This is completely beyond our comprehension!” It is very much like what they were lamenting on September 11, 2001. It is NOT reassuring.

Timothy McVeigh, at least, was quite articulate about how the Gulf War had hardened and disillusioned him. After the fact, of course.

San Francisco

28 October 2002

This article should win an award.

28 October 2002

I just want to note that the alleged sniper/assassin may have been involved with Mohammedanism at some point in his life, but recently had taken refuge in a homeless shelter run by some Christian organisation. The question becomes, “Why didn’t he go to a Mohammedan refuge if he was such a religious person?” Especially with ties to Farrakhan. Another point is he was also known to frequent a YMC(hristian)A facility in the recent past. The same question arises.

We are fortunate enough to be able to track the “leaders’” efforts at making war and the corresponding “blowback” involving attacks on the American nation. Your article points out McVeigh’s problems as well as Muhammad’s with the Gulf incidents (about which I consider your contemporary coverage chronicled in Desert Slaughter to be remarkable). We cannot only tie the sniper/assassin’s behaviour to his own experiences some dozen years ago, but to what is happening today: déjà Bush, déjà Bush. What the two fellows’ or any others’ perceived egoistical rewards might have been or still be may be tied up in what Bush 41 promised as not being another “Vietnam,” although Iraq has exceeded that conflict by some three years now (and counting).

We only need to look at another situation: during the time that Bill Jeff Clinton was in the process of “larnin’ the Yugos a lesson or more” the events at Columbine High School transpired. I understand that there’s now a flick out, “Bowling for Columbine,” that brings this point up, one that I immediately keyed in on, immediately after the shootings, back in 1999.

28 October 2002

Once again, you hit the nail right on the head with your article. What intrigues me the most about your article is that it comes right when another deadly shooting took place in Utah by another Gulf War veteran just today!

I think it is our moral responsibility as Americans to at least think about why these incidents take place in addition to how to react to them. These issues are not being addressed and I fear violence of this sort is going to continue.

28 October 2002