Response to Professor Balch

by Roma Skaskiw

I think it requires a fair deal of imagination on the part of professor Michael Balch (“Avoid Insinuations,” Jan 22) to ignore the fact of high level officials from our government writing policy recommendation on behalf of a foreign one, regardless of whether it is an allie, and likewise to suggest that America’s invasion of Iraq was “brought to us by radical Islam.” I cannot think of a more thoroughly discredited theory in our time.

Let me reassure him, that my profound concern has everything to do with the fact that the paper, authored by several of our highest serving government officials, called for the removal of Sadaam Hussein several years before it happened, and nothing to do with the religion of its authors.

Professor Balch is correct when he notes that my highest academic credential is a teaching assistantship in the Rhetoric Department. Evidently, he has done his research. This, however, should not disqualify me from commenting on our misguided aggression in the Middle East, because unlike him, I have seen the consequences up close.

While his experiences may have taught him about the “courage and profound dedication” of the politicians who form America’s policies, mine have taught me about the courage, dedication and profound sacrifice of the young Americans who bear the brunt of those policies. It is for their sake, and our own, that we must ask difficult questions, unpleasant though they may be.

As fellow Americans, Prof. Balch and I should be thankful we live in a country where this is still possible. We should take pride in the debate, and not attempt to squelch it by slandering one another’s reputations.

As Norman Finkelstein elaborated on his book, Beyond Chutzpah, those who attempt to silence Israel’s American critics with charges of anti-semitism do a disservice to both nations. Scrutiny makes democracies stronger.