Yes, but...

Submitted by Barbara Runkel (Germany), Mar 20, 2003 at 04:25

Dear Mr. Pipes,
I just read your article "Why the Left Loves Osama [and Saddam]" and would like to comment on the following points:

First of all, it is the nature of ideologies to become less popular as they become more extreme, just as in a parabolic curve, the horizontal values drop as the vertical values move farther away from the center point. You are correct in placing Stockhausen in the "far Left", but this is hardly a sign of the value of his opinion on any subject, as the follwoing statement by Stockhausen revelas,
"The reaction to my music in Germany is as violently hostile as ever. Last year, for example, when I conducted my Momente in Cologne, the audience made so much noise I just gave up -- stopped the performance. After about five minutes, I started again, and went through to the end, although they were yelling so that even I couldn't hear anything. At home, it is always that way."

Secondly, your article gives the (mistaken) impression that anyone who protests against this war is automatically "far Left" in his politics:
"More recently, it appears that none of the millions of antiwar demonstrators have a bad word to say about Saddam Hussein nor an iota of sympathy for those oppressed, tortured and murdered by his regime. Instead, they vent fury against the American president and British prime minister."

It is precisely because of oppression, torture and murder that people are against war. Protestors interviewed spoke out against the US using this crisis as a chance to get a foothold in the Near East and to protect their oil interests. They were certainly not in favour of Saddam's regime.

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