Posted on 11/23/2001 5:32:42 AM PST by Clara Lou
ROME (Reuters) - Outspoken U.S. writer Gore Vidal has denounced Washington for waging what he called ``a perpetual war for perpetual peace'' and said American aggression was only nurturing fresh hatreds.
In a scathing attack on U.S. foreign policy, Vidal told Reuters that the United States would have been better served trying to buy peace with Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) rather than send in the bombers to try and kill him.
Vidal, one of contemporary America's harshest critics, has had trouble finding an audience for his views back home and is publishing his latest collection of essays in his adoptive country, Italy.
``Anyone can describe what happened but you have to think to realize why Osama bin Laden did what he did. This is hard work and it will make you very unpopular,'' he said in an interview late on Thursday.
Accusing bin Laden of masterminding the September 11 suicide attacks on New York and Washington, the United States has launched an offensive against Afghanistan (news - web sites) where the Saudi-born dissident lives.
``Bin Laden strikes at America at the moment we are entering a world depression...it is the most fragile moment in the West. For someone who does not wish us well that was brilliantly timed,'' Vidal said.
For more than half a century, Vidal, 76, has made it his business to shock the U.S. establishment as a political, cultural and social commentator and in his latest work he criticized the government and media for not trying to explain the reasons behind the September 11 bloodshed.
NO MORE LIBERTY?
The front cover of his new book ``The End of Liberty -- Toward a New Totalitarianism'' shows a picture of the head of the Statue of Liberty with its mouth gagged by a U.S. flag.
One of the essays details a series of U.S. attacks on various countries since the end of World War Two. The piece was originally commissioned by an American magazine following the September 11 attacks but refused to publish it because of its uncompromising criticism.
``I've listed in this little book about four hundred strikes that the government has made on other countries. War, undeclared. Generally with the excuse that they were harboring communists. You keep attacking people for such a long time, one of them is going to get you back,'' Vidal said.
The U.S.-led strikes on Afghanistan were not the right response, he added.
``What Osama did is not a war. It can't be a war because Osama is not a nation. He is a gang. It is like being hit by the Mafia. You don't declare war on Sicily because the Mafia happen to live in Sicily. You don't bomb Palermo. You get the international police and you track him down.
``And if you are a really great nation you buy him. That's the way every empire from Julius Caesar on has done it,'' he said, adding that he believed President Bush (news - web sites), had ulterior motives for promising a long war.
``Bush is enjoying 90 percent popularity, his 15 minutes of fame,'' he said, condemning the president's reaction to the attacks on New York and Washington as ``suicidal.''
``It is not only wrong but it has repercussions that he hasn't thought about. He likes to stand tall. The taller you stand the more likely you are to get hit by a kamikaze pilot,'' Vidal said.
Now let him give up his citizenship.
Surprise, surprise.
"Vidal, one of contemporary America's harshest critics, has had trouble finding an audience for his views back home and is publishing his latest collection of essays in his adoptive country, Italy"
Translation: yet another total has-been resorts to political "activism" in an attempt to pull what's left of their career out of the dumpster.
We never get a good answer from these jerks to the question, "Do you guarantee that YOUR suggested response to the Holocaust will prevent another attack by OBL and his supporters?" Gore should go back to persuing little boys and leave foreign policy to, well, any one else.
Should be, "Readers Slam Vidal for Overblown, Nonsensical, Plotless Tripe."
Sure you do, if Sicily won't let you in to do what needs to be done.
| Why didn't we think of this earlier? Maybe if we just gave Hitler Czechoslokia, then he would have left the rest of us alone. If that didn't work, we could have given him Poland, and so on ... |
``Bin Laden strikes at America at the moment we are entering a world depression...it is the most fragile moment in the West. For someone who does not wish us well that was brilliantly timed,'' Vidal said.
He's been striking at America continuously for the past 10 years. This strike struck it big. But there was no timing to it. Like the rabbit with the long-life battery, he just kept striking and striking and striking... and since with had a clintOOn instead of a president, we merely encouraged bin laden to strike at us some more. So he did. And struck it big.
Now we're in the process of taking away the scumbunny's battery and old-fag vidal isn't amused.
So we lose his vote. Oh well...
By the way, is it a coincidence that his first name is Gore?
The Barbary pirates tried to extract tribute from Jefferson, but he knew that would just lead to further demands. Seems Vidal has forgotten his history.
And Vidal is a very SMALL man, a bitter, jealous, arrogant lowlife whose idea of "greatness" in a nation is submitting to blackmail.
The lower you crouch, Vidal, the more likely you are to get yourself kicked in the ass.
Oh, that's right!! I FORGOT that Rome had no standing armies and never went to war with anyone. Thank God there's an intellectual like Gore Vidal around to correct my feeble knowledge of history.
The lower you crouch, Vidal, the more likely you are to get yourself kicked in the ass.
Good one!
what a hypocrite.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.