Zenon W. Wojnowskyj's ad hominem attack (Gazette, March 8) policy doesn't do much to advance his argument and leaves everyone including himself open to cheap, unproven accusations.
But his accusations of anti-Semitism are not humorous: is Wojnowskyj absolutely sure he could not himself be accused?
I have said that Israel's treatment of Palestinians and others in the area is neither fair, legal, nor humane, and I haven't changed my mind on the subject. But my views are no different from that of numerous scholarly Jewish writers, rabbis of some Jewish sects, the renowned Jewish artist Yehudi Menuhin, and Nelson Mandela, among many others.
The smear tactic often works in politics, and is definitely in style these days, but it doesn't advance the cause of world peace and prosperity. The terrible and almost comic power attributed to Putin does not make us look good either: Besides hacking for Trump, Russia was also able to influence the Electoral Colleges?
Any knowledge of the new Wikileaks Vault 7 documents shows the CIA as master of cyber technology, with the capability of hacking anyone or anything, even leaving the peculiar style or “fingerprint” of another country.
There is no “overwhelming evidence” as claimed by Wojnowskyj, that the MH 17 Airline was brought down by a Russia supplied BUK anti-aircraft missile system, killing 298 civilian passengers. BUK operates by overhead release of red-hot shrapnel but Michael Bociurkiw, the Canadian-Ukraine monitor with OSCE who was one of the two first people on the scene described the damage to the fuselage and pilot cockpit area as “very strong machine-gun fire.” The notes of the Spanish air-controller who described government jets in the proximity to the plane have disappeared, and so has he. Bociurkiw witnessed the chain-saw dismemberment of the plane and the scattering of parts on the ground.
European experts have asked for a new investigation, referring to the Dutch-led inquiry as “neither independent or convincing.”
There is no doubt about U.S. interference in the Ukraine coup and subsequent election: that Yatseniuk was Victoria Nuland's preference for prime minister, and that she and Biden were at the scene and supported the events is not disputed.
Plans to outlaw the Russian language were scuttled only because of optics but ethnic Russians were in so much danger, about a million sought refuge in Russia.
Many wars in history and recently have been launched as false-flag operations: the Gulf of Tonkin, Iraq's WMDs stand out.
The profit motive is always present, but even that is distorted towards the interests of the already rich and powerful. Many “respectable” Americans made their immense fortunes by forcing opium on the Chinese in the nineteenth century to the point where almost the entire nation was addicted, helpless and open to the machinations of the West. This was supported by many Christians as a way of leading them to god.
We have to be more discriminating: propaganda we have with us always, but the kind that sets us up for more war can't be tolerated.
Doris Wrench Eisler, St. Albert
