Words misrepresented

Cartoonist Nick Anderson (July 19) misrepresents Howard Zinn’s words printed below an image of a missile about to strike an airplane, implying he said this about the Malaysian jet downed over Ukraine. Zinn could have been thinking of the 1988 downing of an Iranian civilian airliner by the U.S.S. Vincennes.

But Zinn was actually commenting on President Reagan’s 1986 bombing of Tripoli, Libya. Here are Zinn’s 1993 words in context:

“There is no flag large enough to cover the shame of killing innocent people (words printed below Anderson’s cartoon) for a purpose which is unattainable. If the purpose is to stop terrorism, even the supporters of the bombing say it won’t work; if the purpose is to gain respect for the United States, the result is the opposite: all over the world there is anger and indignation at Reagan’s mindless, pointless, soulless violence. …”

Anderson joins the chorus howling for Russian President Vladimir Putin’s head by misquoting a renowned critic of U.S. foreign policy to bolster Obama’s provocations against Russia. After the May 1 Odessa massacre by Ukrainian neo-Nazis, is it possible that the Malaysian jet was downed by Kiev’s Right Sector forces in a false-flag operation?

Chuck Armsbury

Colville