letter_to_new_york_times-en.html

The following letter was posted at the NY Times website page: "Share Your Thoughts: Looking Back at the Decade—Has the last 10 years changed your outlook about America's place in the world?" (www.nytimes.com/interactive/us/sept-11-reckoning/comments-the-decade.html?permid=284&offset=15#comment284)

To the Editor,

Your invitation to readers to reflect on the 10th Anniversary of September 11th pivots on whether or not "the government has done enough to keep the country safe"—and in that premise is the horror and Achilles heel of America's response to September 11, 2001. The results of that logic are clear and unending: 1 million Iraqi dead, 4 million Iraqi refugees, 10 years of war & occupation in Afghanistan, 9 years of Guantanamo, while the President (current) arrogates to himself the right to execute people (US citizens and not) solely on his say so, all while the rule of law eviscerated under President Bush has now been codified under Obama.

A starting point to assess all that has changed—and all that must be changed now—is the simple and basic truth spoken by the revolutionary leader Bob Avakian that "American lives are not more important than other people's lives." Were that the standard that guided people in this country, we would be on our way to struggling for a new and far better world.

Andy Zee
Spokesperson
Revolution Books
146 West 26 Street
New York, N.Y. 10001