Word: sharfstein
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
After reading pro-war statements by two authors whom I respect--Michael Walzer's in The New Republic and Joshua Sharfstein's in The Crimson ["Protestors Mistake Iraq for Vietnam," Jan. 23]--I have decided to join the anti-war movement. Weak as many arguments against the a may be, the liberal support is just as myopic but far more destructive...
...should we stop this war now? While I agree with Sharfstein and others who say that "troops out" is nonsensical, "troops stop shooting" is not. If we cut the deal now which we did not make two months ago, then we will end the war without raising hackles about "appeasing" Iraq. No one can confuse this bombing with appeasement. And for better or for worse, we will also have set Iraq's military back by decades...
Foolish as the peaceniks may sometimes sound, it is only they who are pushing to stop the war. Their rhetoric may get out of hand, but Lord knows that President Bush's does as well. Sharfstein says, "when practical concerns convince me that withdrawal is the best course of action, I will join the peace movement again." But while he mocks the demonstrators, others needlessly...
Walzer makes an extremely silly argument against demonstrating: War "might well be politically or militarily unwise, but that is not a matter for marching." if a war, even a "just war", causes immeasureable suffering, isn't that something to protest about? Aren't most difficult questions "moral questions"? Sharfstein says that a "bloody ground offensive to retake kuwait may not be worth the cost in American lives and in Arab hatred for the U.S. and Israel...
Although I didn't believe the U.S. should have started the Gulf War, I believe it should finish it. Like my colleague Joshua Sharfstein, I find anti-war activists' rhetoric simplistic and their demands naive. Nothing short of isolationism or Quakeresque pacificism could justify a unilateral withdrawal from the Gulf...