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Susan Sontag criticizes Bush policies. Really.
EFL
New York-born author and human rights activist Suzy Creamcheese Susan Sontag on Saturday criticized President Bush’s policies as imperialistic and a break with 50 years of U.S. foreign policy tradition.
Suzy's spent the past 50 years saying that U.S. policies were just like she claims they are today... Wolf! Wolf!
Sontag, 70, spoke to reporters a day before receiving the German book trade’s prestigious $17,700 Peace Prize. ’’I think as long as the USA has only one political party — the Republican Party, a branch of which calls itself the Democratic Party — we aren’t going to see a change of the current policy,’’ she said.
Take that, Wesley Clark, glorious victor of Kosovo!
Sontag said Bush’s policy breaks with America’s tradition of consulting with allies on global matters instead of acting alone. She was referring to the Bush administration decision to go to war against Iraq without U.N. backing.
You can’t say they weren’t consulted, some just refused flatly what had to be done.
’’It’s really the end of the republic and the beginning of the empire,’’ she said, referring to ancient Rome.
No historical clues at all huh? The three wars against Karthago were the deeds of republican Rome. And the last one wiped Karthago from the face of this earth, salt included. That was indeed a most imperialistic action. You might argue that the Iraq war went a bit differently?
Sontag also had harsh words for California governor-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger, saying his election showed that traditional politics are disappearing.
I know quite a few people in Germany who would recall Schroeder in a flash if they were given that option.
’’We are in a new civilization, a post-political civilization,’’ she said.
Post-modern, post-colonial, post-political. Ah and Neil Postman is dead, too.
One day soon we're going to enter a post-post civilization...
Sontag, whose works have been translated into more than 30 languages, is a lover of European literature, especially German classics and philosophy.
Me too, but that doesn’t mean that you lose your ability to think clearly.
’’I’m not only a writer. I’m first of all a person with a moral conscience,’’ Sontag said. ’’I will never support a decision which seems to me absurd.’’
Tell the people freed from Iraqi hellhole jails.
Shortly after the Sept. 11 attacks, Sontag criticized U.S. officials and media commentators for their simplistic depiction of those events.
America was attacked, 3000 people were murdered cowardly, and America doesn’t seem to let the terrorists get away with it. Very simplistic indeed. Sometimes the simple things are true.
She also sympathized with German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s refusal to participate in the U.S.-led war in Iraq, but denied the jury selected her for this reason.
Ah no, of course not!
’’I am immodest enough to think that even if I hadn’t spoken up about Bush I would have earned this prize anyway,’’ she said. Last year’s prize went to Nigerian-born writer Chinua Achebe. Past winners also include Nobel Peace Prize laureates Octavio Paz and Hermann Hesse, and former Czech president and anti-communist dissident Vaclav Havel.
Well Ms Sontag, if you think that you are in the same league with these world class writers, you are more than immodest.
In her acceptance speech this morning she criticized U.S. ambassador Coats for not attending the spittlefest ceremony. I fully sympathize with him. I was invited as well but didn’t feel the urge either...
Posted by: True German Ally 2003-10-12
http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=19768