VIETNAM VETERANS FOR ACADEMIC REFORM
The University of Kansas Student Auxiliary
V.V.A.R.: Leading the student revolt on campus against speech codes, political correctness, multiculturalism, gender feminism, dormitory re-education, lying about Vietnam, and other instruments of academic oppression.
Leonard Magruder - Founder/President
Former professor of psychology - Suffolk College, N.Y.
Member: National Association of Scholars
CONTACT: Magruder44@aol.com - Phone: 785-312-9303
(Vietnam vet contact: General Carl Schneider (ret.) Korea, Vietnam
dukesch@aol.com, 480-595-7668)
WHAT HYPOCRISY! A SHORT HISTORY OF “THERAPY” REMARKS AFTER 9/11. ROVE ABSOLUTELY CORRECT.
June 24, 2005
By Leonard Magruder
Karl Rove in his recent remarks has called much needed attention to the fact that liberals, especially the intellectual class, have from the beginning, never understood the crisis the nation faces.The following, based on an article we released at the time, is a reminder of how they misunderstood the situation shortly after 9/11, interpreting the needed response as therapy, or “understanding” instead of military action. Liberals, especially academic liberals, absolutely did not grasp what happened on 9/11. Bush did.
from an earlier V.V.A.R. article:
Not long ago we reported that organizers of the first tribute to the victims and heroes of 9/11 at the University of California- Berkeley, planned on excluding The Star Spangled Banner as, “too patriotic, divisive, and political.” To prevent the exclusion of those who don’t believe in the American flag, there was to be no tribute to the flag, which Jessica Quindel, president of the Graduate Assembly said, “Has become a symbol of U.S. aggression towards other countries.” [the “we attacked them” interpretation.]
Then came an article in FrontPage Magazine titled, “How Not to Remember 9/11: Cornell’s Day of Disgrace,” in which student Joseph Sabia reported that at Cornell’s September 11 Memorial Convocation there was no reference to patriotism or pride in America, no reference to the West as the world’s best hope for freedom, and no mention of the evil that Islamists had perpetrated on innocent Americans. Also, the ceremony was devoid of any display of the American flag, except for a few held by a group of College Republicans. Wrote Sabia, “Any reasonable minded student had to feel trapped in a time warp, taken back to the 1960’s anti-war era.” He’s right. Cornell had joined Berkeley in marching again with the flag of the Viet Cong.
Then a group of mostly Hollywood celebrities joined in the march, according to an article in FrontPage Magazine, “Trying their best to resurrect from its coffin the old ‘60s anti-war Vietnam War coalition.” [the old “quagmire” gang.] Among those who took out an ad in The New York Times calling on the people of the U.S. to “Resist the war and repression loosed on the world by the Bush administration” were Oliver Stone, Ed Asner, Pete Seeger, Gore Vidal, and Mumia Abu-Jumal. [Alcoholics, atheists, Communists, gays, and cop killers, what an inspiring group!] The effect of the ad was to suggest that we face no danger from terrorists, that the real danger stems from our own “imperialism.”
These are the same old lies they used on Vietnam, that the “U.S. is an imperialist power bent on oppressing the poor people of the world, trying to destroy a people seeking only independence and a people’s revolution.” The ad mocked the idea of “good vs. evil” and argued that the real issue is “aggression abroad and repression at home.” Our acts of aggression, they claimed, include our “attack” on Afghanistan, the “trail of death and destruction” caused by Israel, and the blank check the U. S. government seeks, “to kill and bomb whoever they want.” They describe America as “under the thumb of repression,” a land with “free speech suppressed,” and “sitting on the edge of totalitarianism.” In other words, every toothless old hag of an argument from the 60’s they could find.
The answer, they said, is, “Refuse orders, resist a draft if instituted, support all resisters, and stop the machinery of war.” In other words, polarization, then paralysis in an hour of national crisis, then defeat, a repeat of Vietnam. Hollywood celebrities seem to have this love affair with treason, totalitarianism, and genocide. What in the world makes people as morally confused as these think their views need to be considered by the American people? This is stuff right out of One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest.
Focus! What does Al Qaeda want to do? They want to kill you. They want to kill every man, woman, and child in the United States. Bin Laden in 1998, announcing jihad: “Divide their nation, tear them to shreds, destroy their economy, burn their companies, ruin their welfare, sink their ships, and kill them on land, sea, and air...May Allah torture them by your hands.”
We are up against a people who are trained to give their lives to bring a nuclear weapon into your home town.
Here’s what was said on the University of Kansas campus as reported in the local newspaper in the first week immediately following 9/11, followed by other remarks around the nation at the time. In some cases we don’t have the speaker, but it’s in print. Collectively they reflect the illusion by liberals that 9/11 was due to “something we did to them” and the need to make therapeutic amends.
“The people with the money want to go to war. We can unite through energy, passionate dialogue.” --Cody Jackson, Nikerson sophomore.
“Tuesdays attacks were the product of years of abuse and neglect of the Muslim world by the United States. If it doesn’t involve oil, we don’t care.” --K.U. student.
“To end the threat posed by fanatical Islamic terrorists, we must end the poverty, oppression, and exploitation of the Arab world.” --Matthew Overstreet, senior, Augustas.
“There is a wide variety of interpretations of these texts in the Arab world. If we ask the question, what is it about Islam that provokes these types of actions, we are barking up the wrong tree.” –Villalon, professor.
“We should recognize that the roots of this terrorism lie in the our government’s activities in the world.” --K.U. professor.
“The Sept. 11 attacks on the East Coast were crimes - not acts of war - we are not dealing here with anything remotely resembling what is thought of as war.” [calling for indictment] --Philip Schrodt, professor of political science.
“It is time to put an end to the system of exploitative capitalism. Emphasize the value of human life and worldwide cooperation before the selfish interests of financially driven governments.” –unknown.
“The tragedy can be understood as the rhetorical symbol of the necessity of change within our country.” --K.U. professor.
“Your right to speak and to organize for vigils and memorials are protected and encouraged in America. Your right to threaten and organize for retribution and relataliation are not.” –unknown.
“The kids who crashed into those jets are just like you and me, only born under different circumstances.” --K.U. professor.
“The terrorists are frustrated with the apparent ‘arrogance’ of how the United States uses its policies, such as sanctions against Iraq or support of Isreali occupation of the West Bank.” –unknown.
“There is a growing feeling in parts of the Arab world that their lives don’t count as much as those of Westerners. It was like the little kid in class constantly getting picked on. The attackers were little kids who decided to strike back” [“self-esteem” is the therapeutic answer] -- Margaret Rausch, professor of religion.
“I think it’s a fundamental conflict and I don’t see that Americans are ready to change.”[ we need to change, not them] --Tim Miller, professor.
“Instead of attempting to artifically resolve ethnic and national conflicts, we should act with more humility and less strong-arming. Our goal should be to interact with the world more civilly and less politically. [more therapy] --K.U. professor.
“It makes more sense to bring the attackers to justice through the courts rather than on the battlefield. I think it is both immoral and impractical to be pursuing the kind of response it appears we are going to pursue.” --Deborah Gerner, professor of political science.
FROM OTHER CAMPUSES:
“Any one who would blow up the Pentagon would get my vote” --Professor Richard Berthold, University of New Mexico.
“At Lehigh the vice-provost for students affairs banned the display of the American flag.” -- newspaper article.
“The attacks are no more despicable that the massive acts of terrorism, deliberate killing of civilians for political purposes that the U.S. Government has committed in my lifetime.” --Prof. Robert Jensen, Houston University.
“This is very convenient, the Pentagon needs an enemy, now they have one.” [therapeutic insight] --American University Professor Peter Kusnick.
At Marquette students were blocked from holding a moment of silence around an American flag because the President felt it might be “offensive” to foreign students. [super untherapeutic]
Jessicas Stillman at Rutgers objected to printing a picture of the American flag in the school paper because it “shows blind support for this country and limits those un-patriotic voices.” [tons of un-patriotic voices at Rutgers.]
Lisa Mann of Wake Forest, “America is not a ‘nice’ country. We are kidding ourselves in thinking we have been wronged.”
Activists blasting America crashed vigils for the dead of 9/11 at Berkeley, the University of Michigan, and Chico State. Professor George Right said Bush seeks to “kill innocent people” in the Middle East and then “colonize” the Arab world to “seize oil for the Bush family.” [Who needs therapy?]
At Florida Gulf Coast U. faculty members were told to take down”Proud to be an American” stickers as it might offend international students. [therapy]
By far the most naive in their efforts to analyze the terrorist phenomenon are our liberal academics, the “root-cause” crowd, the ones who think that by sympathetically (or therapeutically) attempting to see things from the al-Qaeda point of view, we can figure out some way to satisfy their grievances. “It must be something we did to them.”
What nonsense. It is something they did to themselves. They are killing out of the rage of their own impotence and failure, the failure of their own religion to produce freedom, education and prosperity. They are using a militant interpretation of Islam to murderously attack the envied superiority of Western civilization. Unfortunately, the scriptures that permit this militant interpretation are right there in the Koran, which is why the Muslim world, in an unparalleled moral failure, did not unambiguously and universally condemn the 9/11 attack on America. Islam is not a religion of peace. It is a religion of war. It has no equivalent to “love your enemies.” And non-Muslim religions have no equivalent to “kill the unbelievers.” The terrorists are not “extremists.” The are the true Muslims they claim to be because they adhere strictly to the letter of the Koran, and the rest of the Muslim world admire them for this.
Listen to Hassein Massawi, the former leader of Hezbollah, “We are not fighting you so that you will offer us something. We are fighting to eliminate you.” When Al Qaeda killed 11 French submariners in Karachi and then attacked the Fench oil tanker off the coast of Yemen, a spokesman for the terrorists said, “We would have preferred to hit a U.S. ship, but no problem, they are all infidels.” That’s the “root cause.” Infidels.
Frightening though it may be, the issue of terrorism and the possibility of a nuclear attack on the West must be faced. Still, even at this late date, except for Fox, and one program on CNN, no other mainstream media has done anything about the issue out of a profound “multiculturalist” or “therapeutic” misunderstanding of the crisis, and of course, the universities have created a major center of weakness on the issue of national security by blaming America instead of Islam from what it imagines to be higher moral ground. The truth is that what the university through, for example, MESA, ( the Middle East Studies Association), is teaching students about the war on terrorism and Islam are lies. Said Middle East expert Stephen Schwartz in a recent article, “In failing to discern, and educate the American leadership and public about the real threat of Islamic extremism, the Middle East Studies mafia on campus - to call it as it is - has disarmed the country in the face of great danger, perhaps the most outrageous academic, media, and political coverup of modern times: the willful campaign to suppress worldwide awareness of violent extremism.”
In our research we have watched many dozens of discussions by academic and think-tank representatives on the subject of national security, and these people do not even talk clearly about who the enemy is and why they wish to destroy the U.S. “Multiculturalism” and “political correctness,” along with the “therapeutic” have just about castrated both the university and the media, rendering impotent the two institutions, apart from the government, that could best provide leadership in a time of national crisis. It reminds one of the manner in which these two institutions misled the American people about Vietnam, except that the consequences this time will be far more disastrous. As Daniel Pipes, our best Middle East expert, recently said, “Why have academics proven so inept at understanding the great contemporary issues of war and peace, starting with the Cold War, then Vietnam, the Kuwait War, and now the War on Terror?”
We at V.V.A.R. want professors and celebrities who speak out against the war on terrorism to publicly debate what they are telling America with members of truth squads made up of Vietnam veterans, some from our organization, ready to show the parallel between the betrayal of Vietnam by the campus and Hollywood in the 60’s, and the buildup to another betrayal growing in these places today.
Hollywood, the university, and the mainstream media are the most dangerous internal forces in America. In their desire to force a left/liberal agenda on America, they have lost the ability to distinguish right from wrong, good from evil, and can only offer a flabby moral equivalence that cannot deal with the crisis. This is the same reason why they were so naïve about Vietnam. They didn’t understand the moral difference between Democracy and Communism.
Following the tragedy of September 11th, they are spreading the same type of lies the 60’s protestors did in their betrayal of South Vietnam, charging that America is immoral, racist, genocidal, and imperialistic, and that we therefore deserve what happened on September 11th. They used the same words to argue that we deserved to lose in Vietnam. Above all, America must demand that speakers on campus represent all sides. The extreme bias at present in favor of liberals and leftists is massively documented.
In the 60’s no debate was allowed. Those who were opposed to freedom for the South Vietnamese had the field to themselves, and that is why they won. But not this time. The soldiers are back, and they know that the danger is mortal, and they who best know the meaning of freedom must lead a strong counterattack to see that freedom is preserved.
As Thomas Sowell, the noted African-American scholar at Stanford University and national columnist, wrote to Mr. Magruder on September 19, 1998, “Academic reform is necessary, and no one has more moral authority to demand that they clean up their act than those who put their lives on the line for this country.” Reform Hollywood, too.
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Founder/President, V.V.A.R.
Phone: 785-312-9303
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