What Ward Churchill Didn't Say

[Itsthetruth]

CounterPunch
February 9, 2005

It's the Singer...Not the Song
What Ward Churchill Didn't Say
By MICKEY Z.

"What is necessary is cruel and strong reactions. We need precision in time, place, and casualties...we must strike mercilessly, women and children included. Otherwise, the reaction is inefficient. At the place of action, there is no need to distinguish between guilty and innocent."

.... that quote does not come courtesy of the reigning bogeyman...it's a January 1, 1948 diary entry by one of Israel's founding fathers, David Ben-Gurion (talking about the Palestinians, of course.)

Ward Churchill didn't say this: "God told me to strike at al Qaeda and I struck them. And then he instructed me to strike at Saddam, which I did." That was George W. Bush ....

Ward Churchill didn't say this: "My only regret with Timothy McVeigh is he did not go to the New York Times Building" or this: "We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity." That was the noted humanitarian Ann Coulter.

Ward Churchill didn't say this: "Covert action should not be confused with missionary work." That was Nobel Peace Laureate, Henry Kissinger

Ward Churchill didn't say this: "Every immigrant who comes here should be required within five years to learn English or leave the country" or this: "Democracy has justified itself by keeping for the white race the best portions of the earth's surface." That was Mount Rushmore's own, Teddy Roosevelt.

Ward Churchill didn't say this: "The Antichrist is probably a Jew alive in Israel today," or this: "Communism was the brainchild of German-Jewish intellectuals," or this: "The Almighty does not hear the prayer of a Jew." That was political power broker and God's best friend, Pat Robertson.

Ward Churchill didn't say this: "I want you to just let a wave of intolerance wash over you...Our goal is a Christian nation. We have a biblical duty; we are called by God to conquer this country. We don't want equal time. We don't want pluralism." That was the very holy Randall Terry, founder of "Operation Rescue," speaking to a like-minded audience.

http://www.counterpunch.org/mickey02092005.html

[RobertSeattle]

1. Good counterpoints

The Right Wing "Outrage" machine is an amazing thing - goes completely bonkers over a relatively obscure prof in Colorado but completely ignores similar comments by RW "luminaries".

[Freedom_from_Chains]

2. One man's terrorist is another man's freedom fighter.

I wonder if it ever occurs to conservatives that if the word terrorist had been part of common language, that the British would have clearly viewed the American patriots as "terrorist."

[pansypoo53219]

3. so true

but he lumped far too many corporate pigs with simple people doing their jobs. or fire-fighters, or artists.
they weren't all bankers.

[Itsthetruth]

4. Defend Churchill's Right To Voice His Opinions

CounterPunch
February 7, 2005

Dogs in the Manger
Warning: More Hate Speech from W. Churchill
By MICKEY Z

"I do not agree that the dog in a manger has the final right to the manger even though he may have lain there for a very long time. I do not admit that right. I do not admit for instance, that a great wrong has been done to the Red Indians of America or the black people of Australia. I do not admit that a wrong has been done to these people by the fact that a stronger race, a higher-grade race, a more worldly wise race to put it that way, has come in and taken their place."

Oops...my bad. That wasn't Ward Churchill who said that. It was Winston Churchill. Sir Winston Churchill. The man U.S. News and World Report called "The Last Hero." The legend who also said this: "I am strongly in favor of using poisoned gas against uncivilized tribes."

http://www.counterpunch.org/mickey02072005.html

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CounterPunch
February 7, 2005

Marc Cooper's Hit List: First Mumia; Now Churchill
More Liberal Trashing of Ward Churchill
By JOSHUA FRANK

The continued trashing of radical professor Ward Churchill from the left end of the political spectrum is ever-increasing.

Take Marc Cooper, contributing editor to The Nation magazine, and columnist for the LA Weekly, who on his personal blog responded to Churchill's essay "Some Push Back":

"The Left has a new cause celebre that's a guaranteed loser: Ward Churchill I saw the essay at the time and was nauseated by it. I have been tempted over the years to write something about it, but have always decided not to. Only because I consider Churchill to be an irrelevant and clearly deranged loner on the edge of the looniest left.

Now I regret not having denounced him. Too bad others on the left also didn't quickly hurry to divorce themselves from this guy.

Churchill, as you know, surfaced in the news last month when he was invited to speak at an upstate New York university and some conservatives raised a ruckus ­ as they damn well should. If this guy can hang on to his tenure at CU fine. But damned if student funds from somewhere else should be used to host him as some sort of guest speaker."

Churchill, due to the misinterpretations of his Eichmann statement, later clarifies his original essay in a piece titled "On the Injustice of Getting Smeared," where he writes:

"I am not a "defender" of the September 11 attacks, but simply pointing out that if U.S. foreign policy results in massive death and destruction abroad, we cannot feign innocence when some of that destruction is returned. I have never said that people "should" engage in armed attacks on the United States, but that such attacks are a natural and unavoidable consequence of unlawful U.S. policy. As Martin Luther King, quoting Robert F. Kennedy, said, "Those who make peaceful change impossible make violent change inevitable."

This is not to say that I advocate violence; as a U.S. soldier in Vietnam I witnessed and participated in more violence than I ever wish to see. What I am saying is that if we want an end to violence, especially that perpetrated against civilians, we must take the responsibility for halting the slaughter perpetrated by the United States around the world."

This leads us to the much larger issue: What the implications are for tenured professors and academics that voice publicly their objectionable political and cultural opinions. What is now happening to Ward Churchill is all just pure intimidation, which was spearheaded by Republican Gov. Pataki, exacerbated by Fox News, and condoned by liberals such as Marc Cooper.

The upcoming battle over whether or not Ward Churchill keeps his position at Colorado University will set the bar for a whole assembly of radical intellectuals who could one-day become the focus of McCarthy-like censorship. It's time to move past Churchill's fearless thesis about the US empire, and fight for his right to voice his opinions. No matter how unsavory they may be.

http://www.counterpunch.org/frank02072005.html