Bolton and Churchill: Two Peas In A Pod
I've been thinking about writing something about Ward Churchill for some time now, but I couldn't figure out how to fit it in with the "Truth vs. Bush" theme of this blog. However, the latest outrage by the Bush Administration -- the nomination of John Bolton to be the next U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations -- has given me precisely the opening I've been looking for. Bolton and Churchill are essentially indistinguishable, despicable ideologues who deserve each other.
To recap, Churchill is the village idiot posing as a professor at the University of Colorado whose invitation to speak at Hamilton College recently caused a stir. Churchill had written an article in which he described the 9/11 murderers as heroes whose victims deserved to die, concluding, "[I]f there was a better, more effective, or in fact any other way of visiting some penalty befitting their participation upon the little Eichmanns inhabiting the sterile sanctuary of the twin towers, I'd really be interested in hearing about it."
That Churchill's remarks are detestable goes without saying; they are also monumentally ignorant. The 9/11 murderers were not social revolutionaries. They were the agents of an organization financed by oil millionaires dedicated to the subjugation of women and the establishment of a patriarchical, theocratic dictatorship. The ideology of the 9/11 murderers has much more in common with that of Eichmann than did that of the men and women who died at the World Trade Center.
The Churchill affair has been cast as raising questions of academic freedom and first amendment rights. The constitution does not guarantee a forum for stupidity. I don't know what kind of a professor Churchill is -- although I have read quite a bit indicating that his academic credentials, as well as his credentials as a Native American, are, to put it mildly, suspect -- but if his writings about 9/11 are any indication, Churchill has no business purporting to teach anyone about anything. If there's anyway he can be tossed out of the University of Colorado, I say go for it.
I had originally thought of writing about Churchill as an illustration of the fact that the right has no monopoly on stupidity, and to urge Democrats not to be seduced by any "first amendment" incantations by Churchill and his supporters. However, the Bush Administration has now come along and by nominating Bolton to be the next U.N. Ambassador, has given notice that when it comes to stupidity, it is the undisputed champion of the world and all others are mere pretenders. In Bolton, Bush presents us with an individual who is every bit as despicable as Churchill, but is, because of his access to power, a great deal more dangerous.
Bolton got his big break in right-wing circles by being a suck-up to Jesse Helms, who was originally responsible for advancing Bolton's career in the Reagan Administration. One might describe Helms as Bolton's Rabbi, but I don't think Helms would take too kindly to that. In fact, Helms once remarked, "John Bolton is the kind of man with whom I would want to stand at Armageddon." I was curious as to what Helms meant by this comment, so I went on-line to check out a reproduction of Michelangelo's Last Judgment at the Sistene Chapel. If you look closely at some of those poor souls at the bottom of the fresco being tormented by demons while they are being dragged down into the pit, I'll be damned if a couple of them aren't the spitting image of Helms and Bolton!
Bolton has regularly attacked the United Nations as an institution, ridiculing the very concept of there being such a thing as a "United Nations." At a 1994 panel discussion sponsored by the World Federalist Association, Bolton remarked, "[I]f the UN secretary building in New York lost 10 stories, it wouldn't make a bit of difference."
I suppose one could find Bolton's little ditty mildly amusing, if one happened to be living underneath a rock in complete ignorance of the historical context in which the remark was made. You see, Bolton was not just offering an architectural critique as to the appropriate height of the UN building. Less than a year before Bolton made this statement, Islamic terrorists had bombed the World Trade Center. Shortly thereafter, their leader, Sheikh Abdel Rahman, and others, were indicted for, and ultimately convicted of, engaging in a wide-ranging conspiracy that had the goal of bombing numerous New York City landmarks, including the UN building. According to Bolton, "it wouldn't make a bit of difference" if they had succeeded.
The thousands of men and women who work at the United Nations, including friends of mine, are made of the same flesh and blood as the thousands who worked and died at the World Trade Center. I see no moral distinction between the remarks of Churchill and the remarks of Bolton. They both reflect minds consumed by ideology and untouched by reason and compassion. Both Bolton and Churchill deserve to be ridden out of town on the same rail.
Please write your representatives to urge them to stop the Bolton nomination. No Democratic Senator should vote to confirm Bolton. In fact, no human being should vote to confirm Bolton.
To recap, Churchill is the village idiot posing as a professor at the University of Colorado whose invitation to speak at Hamilton College recently caused a stir. Churchill had written an article in which he described the 9/11 murderers as heroes whose victims deserved to die, concluding, "[I]f there was a better, more effective, or in fact any other way of visiting some penalty befitting their participation upon the little Eichmanns inhabiting the sterile sanctuary of the twin towers, I'd really be interested in hearing about it."
That Churchill's remarks are detestable goes without saying; they are also monumentally ignorant. The 9/11 murderers were not social revolutionaries. They were the agents of an organization financed by oil millionaires dedicated to the subjugation of women and the establishment of a patriarchical, theocratic dictatorship. The ideology of the 9/11 murderers has much more in common with that of Eichmann than did that of the men and women who died at the World Trade Center.
The Churchill affair has been cast as raising questions of academic freedom and first amendment rights. The constitution does not guarantee a forum for stupidity. I don't know what kind of a professor Churchill is -- although I have read quite a bit indicating that his academic credentials, as well as his credentials as a Native American, are, to put it mildly, suspect -- but if his writings about 9/11 are any indication, Churchill has no business purporting to teach anyone about anything. If there's anyway he can be tossed out of the University of Colorado, I say go for it.
I had originally thought of writing about Churchill as an illustration of the fact that the right has no monopoly on stupidity, and to urge Democrats not to be seduced by any "first amendment" incantations by Churchill and his supporters. However, the Bush Administration has now come along and by nominating Bolton to be the next U.N. Ambassador, has given notice that when it comes to stupidity, it is the undisputed champion of the world and all others are mere pretenders. In Bolton, Bush presents us with an individual who is every bit as despicable as Churchill, but is, because of his access to power, a great deal more dangerous.
Bolton got his big break in right-wing circles by being a suck-up to Jesse Helms, who was originally responsible for advancing Bolton's career in the Reagan Administration. One might describe Helms as Bolton's Rabbi, but I don't think Helms would take too kindly to that. In fact, Helms once remarked, "John Bolton is the kind of man with whom I would want to stand at Armageddon." I was curious as to what Helms meant by this comment, so I went on-line to check out a reproduction of Michelangelo's Last Judgment at the Sistene Chapel. If you look closely at some of those poor souls at the bottom of the fresco being tormented by demons while they are being dragged down into the pit, I'll be damned if a couple of them aren't the spitting image of Helms and Bolton!
Bolton has regularly attacked the United Nations as an institution, ridiculing the very concept of there being such a thing as a "United Nations." At a 1994 panel discussion sponsored by the World Federalist Association, Bolton remarked, "[I]f the UN secretary building in New York lost 10 stories, it wouldn't make a bit of difference."
I suppose one could find Bolton's little ditty mildly amusing, if one happened to be living underneath a rock in complete ignorance of the historical context in which the remark was made. You see, Bolton was not just offering an architectural critique as to the appropriate height of the UN building. Less than a year before Bolton made this statement, Islamic terrorists had bombed the World Trade Center. Shortly thereafter, their leader, Sheikh Abdel Rahman, and others, were indicted for, and ultimately convicted of, engaging in a wide-ranging conspiracy that had the goal of bombing numerous New York City landmarks, including the UN building. According to Bolton, "it wouldn't make a bit of difference" if they had succeeded.
The thousands of men and women who work at the United Nations, including friends of mine, are made of the same flesh and blood as the thousands who worked and died at the World Trade Center. I see no moral distinction between the remarks of Churchill and the remarks of Bolton. They both reflect minds consumed by ideology and untouched by reason and compassion. Both Bolton and Churchill deserve to be ridden out of town on the same rail.
Please write your representatives to urge them to stop the Bolton nomination. No Democratic Senator should vote to confirm Bolton. In fact, no human being should vote to confirm Bolton.
posted by democratic core at 4:02 PM
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