The Shame of the ‘Gulag’

Re “Blaming the Messenger Fools No One,” Commentary, June 7: Robert Scheer overlooks a crucial issue. As the political philosopher Hannah Arendt pointed out long ago, systems of repression, once established, operate according to their own internal logic -- rather than being instruments of policy, they create their own demand. As the American gulag system grows, its population will expand beyond supposed “terrorism” suspects to embrace those who have simply made themselves inconvenient for U.S. corporate purposes: labor organizers, human rights activists, environmentalists, journalists -- anyone who has gotten in the way of “freedom on the march.”

Philip M. Lohman

Lakewood

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How striking was the juxtaposition of Michael Ramirez’s ludicrous cartoon (June 7) alongside Scheer’s and Naomi Klein’s commentaries on human rights violations and Amnesty International. With insight and intelligence, Scheer and Klein attempt to bring context to another smear campaign by the Bush administration, this one leveled at one of the world’s most respected and least politicized organizations.

Ramirez, on the other hand, walks in lock step with the administration, painting Amnesty International’s leaders as clowns. Isn’t it time that The Times found a cartoonist with some insight and intelligence?

Dawn Charouhas

Valencia

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Re “Torture’s Part of the Territory,” Commentary, June 7: Klein’s comparison of the Bush administration’s occupation of Iraq to the French occupation of Algeria is disturbing, but reflecting on it might help us save our soul as a nation.

As Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis understood, the occupation of an unwilling people is a dirty business. This nasty, unwelcome truth is why Brandeis feared for Israel when it became an occupier -- that Israel in some way could be morally diminished by the process.

Klein refers us to “The Battle of Algiers,” the starkly realistic movie about the French occupation, as a cautionary tale upon which we should reflect. As Brandeis’ wisdom should be seriously considered by the Bush administration, so too should “The Battle of Algiers” be screened in the White House. America’s soul is at stake.

Jerry Small

Venice

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My response to Klein’s question, “Should the United States stay in Iraq?” is no. I am morally outraged by this administration. “Fear” seems to be the word by which this group operates.

They create fear as a way to get information from prisoners, they create fear in the general population of Iraq, and they create fear here in the U.S. as a way to scare the people into looking the other way and letting them ignore the rules by which a civilized nation conducts itself in the world. If torture of human beings can be ignored, then I want no part of it. Let’s bring our soldiers home and let the chips fall where they may. I’m tired of hearing that they are “fighting for our freedom.” What kind of freedom is this?

Ellen Ferguson-Schenk

Fountain Valley