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July 15, email to the Houston Chronicle

To the editorial board:

Hey Gang, I don’t’ know the email addresses of David Langworthy, Frank Michel and Jeff Cohen, so please pass this along to them.

I would like to remind the editorial board of the Chronicle that I have a long string of correct predictions published in your newspaper:

·  On August 12, 1992, the Chronicle published my essay, “Success of Desert Storm being judged unfairly,” stating that any invasion of Iraq would turn into a Vietnam quagmire.

·  On December 3, 1992, the Chronicle published my essay, “Somalia intervention not as simple as it seems,” stating that an intervention in Somalia would fail and damage US credibility at home and abroad.  (I particularly focused on the effect that atrocities would have on television viewers…)

·  On February 23, the Chronicle published my essay, “Don’t’ laugh at duct tape, it saves lives,” stating that the Houston port and refineries were a prime target for terrorism.  Four months later the US Government said the same thing, and we worried over the Fourth of July weekend.

·  On April 3, the Chronicle published my essay, “Visions of Stalingrad:  Claim victory in Iraq now,” stating that we would still be fighting in Iraq in a withering summer, against a front fighting a war of national liberation.

On April 12, the Chronicle received my essay “3/7 Cavalry, tragedy and travesty” stating that the 3/7 Cavalry (the avant garde for the 3rd Infantry Division) was mauled at the Baghdad Airport on April 5, and that the president covered it up with the help of his embedded corporate media.  Frank, David, Jeff (and the news desk), I hope you kept your copies, because the analysis it contains is true.

My most recent essay (submitted to you June 29 and published July 8) is the topic of my letter to Viewpoints (or essay to Outlook, if you prefer).  I attach it below:

To Viewpoints/Outlook:

On July 4, the Chronicle ran the Declaration of Independence.  Bravo.  I’m all for reading the birth certificate of our great nation.  I’ve always admired the way the Founders put their necks on the line by telling King George that he was being tyrannical.  It made me proud that the Chronicle would still publish the words of brave men.

On July 8, the Chronicle’s printed my essay “Worried about the quicksand of war in Iraq” in which I accused President George W. Bush of tyrannically lying to mislead us into war with Iraq.  Since then, neither pro nor con letter has appeared in Viewpoints.  I can’t believe my fellow citizens have become so repressed!  Things sure got loud enough here when the last president lied about so private a matter as sex.  I would think we would get loud again to find out whether the current president lied to us about so public a matter as war!

 

[Editor’s Emphasis]

It’s time to remind our leaders, from those we allow to inform us to those we allow to govern us, and that it is we the people who run this country.  We the people demand that our elected leaders and media quickly get at the truth of our president’s integrity during this summer of our discontent.  If he proves honest, then we the people will rally behind him again, as we the people did when he urged us into war.  If he proves false, then we the people will remove him from the office of which he is no longer worthy.

 

I think it’s time to remember that we once had a thing called a Revolution, so I repeat my accusation:  The president tyrannically lied to mislead us into war with Iraq.  We went to find chemical, biological and nuclear weapons.  The only chemical we found is oil; the only biological concern we have is staying alive amid millions of unhappy Iraqis; and the only nukes were in the president’s mind.

I hope that the Chronicle will print this letter.  The president’s veracity is of paramount importance, especially now, with lives being lost in the war.  If the response of the citizenry is absent from Viewpoints this time, then the silence will be deafening.

Captain May

To Jeff Cohen, editor in chief

I have called it right on this war, and on all the other wars cited in my prior essays.  In two decades, I have never published an inaccurate military prediction.  I request an editorial board meeting with the Chronicle as soon as possible to discuss the Quicksand War in Iraq.  I will give particular attention to the pesky reality of a body count that has reached around 250 (admitted) but is being reported at around 30.

PS:  I would like to change one word in my pending “3/7 Cavalry, tragedy and travesty.”  In it I carelessly write “hunch” about that unit’s tragic fate.  In the corrected version below, I have changed “hunch” to “conviction.”  I’m sorry to have used so lame a word in the first place:  I know how high a regard you all have for accuracy in journalism.

PPS:  I’m working on a book:  “April Fools, Captain May” that details my Quixotic crusade (mostly ignored) to bring little things like the 3/7 Cavalry and the quicksand war to the public mind.  The book (already circulating in draft form) will present what I hope will be a flattering description of the Houston Chronicle.  A lot of cynics in this town say that you all are a bunch of megamedia lapdogs, but your treatment of my material is the only thing I consider when I form my judgments.

This letter (around 1000 words again, alas, I’m long-winded) is itself a chapter…

Captain May

 

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