If my marine son is killed

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The following are excerpts from an open letter to George Bush that appear in the Aug. 22 issue of The Ne York Times op-ed section.

Dear President Bush, I kissed my son goodbye today. He is a 21-year-old marine. You have ordered him to Saudi Arabia.

The letter telling us he was going arrived at our vacation cottage in norther Wisconsin by Express Mail on Aug. 13. We left immediately for North Carolina to be with him. Our vacation was over....

While visiting my son I had a chance to see him pack his chemical weapons suit and try on his body armor. I don't know if you've ever had this experience, Mr. President. I hope you never will.

I also met many of my son's fellow soldiers. They are fine young men. A number told me that they were from poor families. They joined the Marines as a way of earning enough money to go to college.

None of the young men I met are likely to be invited to serve on the board of directors of a savings and loan association, as your son Neil was. And none of them have parents well-enough connected to call or write a general to insure that their child stays out of harm's way, as Vice President Quayle's parents did for him during the Vietnam War....

Yes, you have proved a relatively adept tactician in the last three weeks. But if American diplomacy hadn't been on vacation for the better part of a decade, we wouldn't be in the spot we are today.

Where were you, Mr. President, when Iraq was killing its own people with poison gas? Why, until the recent crisis, was it business as usual with Saddam Hussein, the man you now call a Hitler?...

Now that we face the prospect of war I intend to support my son and his fellow soldiers by doing everything I can to oppose any offensive American military action in the Persian Gulf. The troops I met deserve far better than the politicians and policies that hold them hostage.

As my wife and I sat in a little cafe outside our son's base last week, trying to eat, fighting back tears, a young marine struck up a conversation with us. As we parted he wished us well and said, "May God forgive us for what we are about to do."

President Bush, the policies you have advocated for the last decade have set the stage for military conflict in the Middle East.... If, as I expect, you eventually order American soldiers to attack Iraq, then it is God who will have to forgive you. I will not.

Alex Molnar, Milwaukee, Wisc.

(continued from page 1: “Bring the Troops Home Now!”) contract in a benign way impossible.

As we speak, tens of thousands of servicemen are being mobilized to defend, for the first time in American memory, a blatantly imperialistic economic interest stripped of the State Department's beloved specter of international communism. Although the United States is facing off against a truly despicable man in Saddam Hussein, the reality is that U.S. foreign policy created this monster.

It was the U.S. which tacitly endorsed the Iraqi invasion of Iran 10 years ago.

It was the U.S. and West Germany which sold Hussein chemical weapons throughout the war.

It was the U.S. which remained silent when Hussein used these weapons on his own population.

And after all of this, it was the U.S. which gave Hussein safe passage through the Persian Gulf and Strait of Hormuz by shipping Iraqi oil under the flag of Kuwait, thus protecting it from Iranian attack by U.S. escorts.

As usual, the world banks were delighted to assist Iraq in its invasion of Iran by handing out blank checks to be payable by the blood of the people after Iran would be crushed into submission.

It was these banks that actually financed the carnage of the half-million dead resulting from that war. It was this enormous war debt owed by Iraq that forced Hussein, in my

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But he feels Malcolm X looking over his left shoulder subscribe to the madness and hypocrisy of the Democratic Party—and I'm certainly not Louis Farrakhan and the Nation of Islam, attacked with great outrage by conservatives and liberals alike since 1984, just won't disappear. In fact, since coming into national prominence as a supporter of Jesse Jackson's first bid for the presidency, The Nation of Islam's (NOI) influence has steadily grown. Farrakhan and his followers are no longer ignored by politicians seeking a hearing from the Black community.

Farrakhan's public appearances have attracted growing crowds of young African Americans. A San Francisco meeting featuring Farrakhan in April of 1989 brought in 2000 people. An Oakland appearance this year on May 20 attracted over 6000 people.

Among the guests on stage welcoming Farrakhan to the city were most of the mainstream Black political and religious figures in the San Francisco Bay Area.

A NOI meeting at the Omni auditorium in Atlanta this year had an audience of 19,000, also with a strong representation of mainstream politicians. As a writer for Emerge magazine put it, the Black elected officials "were no longer offering excuses for having to be 'out of town' whenever Farrakhan was in town."

What's behind the growing influence and credibility of the Nation of Islam? Why are so many Black politicians clearing their throats after denouncing Farrakhan a few years ago and looking to him for left cover today? Why are young African Americans looking to Farrakhan as an alternative to the mainstream Black leaders.

Undeclared war on Blacks An undeclared war on the Black community has been raging in the United States for the past 10 years. White mob violence claimed the lives of young Black men in Howard Beach and Bensonhurst, N.Y. Police attacks as part of the so-called war on drugs left Black people dead, brutalized, and home- "I'm not less in Boston and Minneapolis.

The federal government has undermined important legal victories won by the civil rights movement with the Supreme Court's recent decisions against affirmative action.

There are more Black elected officials now Emerge Magazine Democrat—I can't the need for good leadership, courageous leadership, incorruptible leadership, then we have to say it is time now for us to come out of the mosque into the community and serve the needs of all."

These campaigns raise the idea of a new Black political party independent of the Democrats and Republicans. However, some other statements by Farrakhan cloud the NOT's independent stance.

In the same interview with Emerge, Farrakhan stated:

"I feel that a lot of politicians, Black and white, don't represent the interests of Black people. I want to use my popularity to get them out of city councils, state legislatures and congress and put in those who will fight for our people. And whether that politician is Black or white, if that politician will stand up for justice for our Black people ... we will certainly consider giving that politician our vote."

An approach which makes no distinction about a politician's party affiliation is dangerous. Farrakhan could lead the NOI into supporting demagogic politicians tied to the existing white power structure. Much of the attention Farrakhan has received from mainstream Black leaders and media stems from their hope that they can win the NOT's political support for their own reformist projects.

Support for Democratic Party politicians has been the death of many radical organizations. The resolution of this contradiction in the NOI's political orientation will have a decisive influence on its ability to represent the heritage of Black nationalism.

Growing interest in Malcolm X One aspect of the struggle by young African Americans to reclaim Black nationalism is the growing interest in Malcolm X and his ideas. Black nationalism found its highest expression in Malcolm X, who was gunned down in 1965 as his ideas were still developing.

It might seem natural that the largest Black nationalist organization in the country would welcome this interest in Malcolm X and promote the study of his ideas. However, some problems in the NOT's past make it difficult for them to identify with Malcolm.

When Malcolm X left the NOI in 1964, he was denounced by the NOI leadership. Louis Farrakhan, known at that time as Louis X, wrote, "Only those who wish to be led to hell, or to their doom, will follow Malcolm.

Farrakhan went on to state, "Such a man as Malcolm is worthy of death, and would have met death if it had not been for Muhammad's confidence in Allah for victory over the enemies." (Muhammad Speaks, Dec. 4, 1964)

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Louis Farrakhan's new popularity shows search for alternatives among Black youth