A Texan Ward Churchill (Warning: Robert Jensen profile)

Fromt Page Magazine ^ | 3/21/05 | Joe Wilson

[freespirited]

Robert Jensen is an associate professor of journalism at the University of Texas, a radical who opposes the war in Iraq, American military reprisal for 9/11, even minimal precautions to protect U.S. borders, any semblance of capitalism, and any restrictions on race-based preferences in hiring or education. He regards the war of Islamic radicals against the West in general and America in particular as a justified war against imperialism.

In a recent article on Web publication Alternet, Jensen dismissed U.S. efforts to bring democracy to Iraq and claimed, all evidence to the contrary, that America’s real intention is hegemony over the Middle East. He endorsed and supported Ward Churchill’s analysis of 9/11 (Some People Push Back: On the Justice of Roosting Chickens) on CommonDreams.org, Z-Net, and Counterpunch. He rejoiced in the fairly minimal setbacks the U.S. has experienced in Iraq, referring to the war as a “Defeat for an Empire” in an article posted on CommonDreams. He has urged that “God condemn America, so the world might live.” He condemns Israel’s efforts at self-defense, referring to its “brutal occupation of Palestine.” He has criticized Michael Moore’s film Fahrenheit 9/11 as being “too conservative.” On racial matters, he is narcissistically flagellant on the subject of “white privilege,” a posture that he can use to mount attacks on merit-based hirings and school admissions, and even the economic system itself. He recites Ward Churchill’s erroneous claim that the U.S. intentionally infected Native Americans with diseases such as smallpox (as has long since been demonstrated, Lord Amherst, an English general, considered doing this in 1763; that it was done by American forces has passed into leftist dogma, without foundation). Racism, for Jensen, is something we can “never forget.”

Jensen is a member of the radical Nowar Collective and the Third Coast Activist Resource Center. The Nowar Collective boasts among its stalwarts such leftists as Rahul Mahajan and Zeynep Toufe: Mahajan is a staunch critic of U.S. efforts to contain terrorism and assist the growth of liberal democracy, while Toufe has condemned the U.S. war in Iraq and the growth of capitalism across the globe.

Jensen’s academic performance at Texas has come under fire by his colleagues as well as those outside the university. He has been accused on the Professor Watch List created by the Young Conservatives of Texas, a student organization, of using his Critical Issues in Journalism class as a forum for indoctrinating students into socialism and a denunciation of “white privilege.”

In an introduction to a recently published collection of his speeches, Jensen, expressing his contempt for America, writes: “Citizens of the United States are citizens of the empire—not an empire in exactly the same fashion as the Roman or British versions, but an empire all the same, reaching for global domination through the use of military and economic power. The consequences of this imperial project have been grim for many people around the world—those who have been the targets of U.S. military power; those who have lived under repressive regimes backed by the United States; and those who toil in economies that are increasingly subordinated to the United States and multinational corporations. Scratch the surface of U.S. rhetoric about its quest to bring freedom and democracy to the world, and one finds the suffering of the people who must live with the reality of U.S. foreign policy.”

Jensen is the author of the book Citizens of the Empire: The Struggle to Claim Our Humanity, a harsh critique of American post-9/11 policy, the War on Terror, and the Bush administration. He has also authored Writing Dissent: Taking Radical Ideas from the Margins to the Mainstream (2001). He co-authored Pornography: The Production and Consumption of Inequality (1998), and co-edited Freeing the First Amendment: Critical Perspectives on Freedom of Expression (1995).

[freespirited]

He recites Ward Churchill’s erroneous claim that the U.S. intentionally infected Native Americans with diseases such as smallpox

Does he explain how the military passed around smallpox-infested blankets without miraculously avoiding infection themselves? No doubt the vast right-wing conspiracy had a way to do this even back in the mid-1800s.

[Bahbah]

Does he explain how the military passed around smallpox-infested blankets without miraculously avoiding infection themselves?

We capitalist, imperialist racists are immune from such things. (It makes just as much sense as anything he says.)

[FormerACLUmember]

There are thousands of Wasr Churchills infesting many of the universities and colleges in the US. This Texan varmint is pure evil.

[Mind-numbed Robot]

Jensen, Churchill, and their ilk are narcissists who attract attention to themselves by being outrageous, much like misbehaving kids. The best way to be outrageous is to be against the norm. Teenagers do it with radical dress and personal appearance as well as rebelling against social norms. Most out grow it. Obviously, some don't.

[Paleo Conservative]

Does he explain how the military passed around smallpox-infested blankets without miraculously avoiding infection themselves?

Smallpox was endemic to the European population of the US. Many people were exposed to it in childhood and had immunity, but not as much exposure as Europeans. During the Revolutionary war, the British used smallpox as a weapon against Americans, because almost all British born soldiers had been exposed to smallpox as children while many Americans had not been exposed to it. Military use of smallpox during the American Revolution is the main reason why Canada is a separate country today.

[freespirited]

Smallpox was endemic to the European population of the US. Many people were exposed to it in childhood and had immunity

Can you provide documentation for this? I have never heard it asserted before that immunity is possible absent vaccination.

[Paleo Conservative]

Can you provide documentation for this? I have never heard it asserted before that immunity is possible absent vaccination.

I read this book, Scourge: The Once and Future Threat of Smallpox maybe a month after it was published on September 2, 2001. It has excellent information about the history of smallpox, it's effects, it's use as a weapon of war, the erradication campaign in the 1960s and '70s, the biowarfare program that the Soviet Union had to make it into a doomsday weapon, and the possibility of smallpox getting into the hands of rogue nation or terrorists. I read the book during the middle of the anthrax attacks in Ocotber 2001. Everthing I mentioned is documented in this book.

[Paleo Conservative]

Here is one of the editorial reviews of the book which by the way has a five star rating on Amazon.com.

From the New England Journal of Medicine, July 25, 2002
Without the smallpox virus, the world today would be exceedingly different. Although issues surrounding smallpox have been the subject of speculative fiction, Scourge is a superb and engaging factual treatise -- both historical and scientific -- dealing with the impact of this highly contagious and often lethal infection from ancient times to the present. Beginning with the opening sentence, in which smallpox is denoted as "the world's most dangerous prisoner," the author relates a fascinating tale in which it is not armies and conquest that repeatedly change the course of civilization, but the variola poxvirus, manifested as two forms of disease: variola major and variola minor. Although the historical vignettes are interesting, no attempt is made to provide an in-depth analysis of many events that are themselves the subject of entire books. Instead, some of the initial purported forays into the field of biologic weapons involving smallpox are highlighted. However, it is clear that these anecdotes are a prologue to an unexpected series of much more serious recent events. Thus, the author sets the stage for the real story -- that of three centuries of valiant attempts by the global medical community to eradicate this terrible scourge, albeit without complete success. The heroes of the story are physicians who work tirelessly to rid the human population of this disease, often against strong political countercurrents and under dangerous circumstances. From the discovery of vaccine prophylaxis by Edward Jenner to Donald A. Hendrickson's tireless efforts to see the disease abolished, a massive assault on this pathogen was launched. This humanistic work, often conducted under extreme conditions in the field by a global health care team involving as many as 150,000 persons, culminated in the World Health Organization's announcement in 1980 that smallpox disease had been wiped out -- a singular, historic event. Just a little over a decade previously, it had been estimated that 10 to 15 million people in 43 countries had smallpox, a statistic of which even recent medical school graduates may be unaware. Furthermore, eradication of smallpox transpired in the midst of the Cold War, so it is perhaps even more surprising that Soviet and U.S. teams found common ground in developing strategies to contain outbreaks of disease and jointly supply vaccine. Intriguingly, the real villain, the virus itself, had not been eradicated, since it was stockpiled at that time in any number of secure and not-so-secure facilities. The descriptions of the biologic-warfare programs conducted by one major world power -- and perhaps more than one -- are both terrifying and appalling. In the latter portion of the book, the author reconstructs the way in which biologic-warfare agents based on the variola virus were developed behind the Iron Curtain, apparently on the mistaken assumption that the United States was doing the same as part of a biologic-arms race occurring in parallel with the proliferation of nuclear weapons. The scientific and political debate over whether the remaining stocks of virus should be destroyed makes interesting reading, particularly in relation to the disparate views of basic-science researchers, World Health Organization physicians, politicians, and military personnel. The work of judging the actions of the principals in what seem to be morally ambiguous events is left in large part to the reader. Written before the tragic events of September 11, 2001, and the sporadic cases of anthrax infection that were subsequently identified, the cautionary note in the final chapters of the book concerning the potential use of smallpox as a biologic weapon looms even larger on today's world stage. In summary, Scourge is a well-written, informative history of the eradication of smallpox disease. The author's authoritative command of the intrigue surrounding the "stay of execution" of the virus itself and its potential use as an agent for biologic warfare makes the latter portion of the book read much like a modern spy thriller, one that is difficult to put aside as recent events continue to unfold. David L. Dunn, M.D., Ph.D. Copyright © 2002 Massachusetts Medical Society. All rights reserved. The New England Journal of Medicine is a registered trademark of the MMS. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

[reagan_fanatic]

Does he explain how the military passed around smallpox-infested blankets without miraculously avoiding infection themselves? No doubt the vast right-wing conspiracy had a way to do this even back in the mid-1800s.

Simple. The Imperialistic interlopers were using gloves and face masks stolen from the Indians themselves, that's why!

[freespirited]

I'm still having trouble making sense of this. Even the smallpox vaccine doesn't confer lifetime immunity. When the vaccine was still being given, we had to get boosters every so often--every 10 years was recommended. So the idea that exposure during childhood could make all adults immune makes no sense.

Is it possible that what he said is adults exposed to *cowpox* as children had immunity?

[Paleo Conservative]

When the vaccine was still being given, we had to get boosters every so often--every 10 years was recommended. So the idea that exposure during childhood could make all adults immune makes no sense.

Getting smallpox confers lifetime immunity if you survive. Even before vaccination with cowpox was discovered, several cultures around the world discovered that if previously unexposed people were innoculated on the skin with the liquid from pustules of smallpox victims, it was possible to stimulate an immune response with lower risk than natural exposure to smallpox. Normally smallpox is caught by breathing in aerosolized smallpox virus. When the infection is caught in that manner, the death rate is 30-50%. The death rate from exposure on a scratch on the skin was about 1% and the course of the disease was much milder. On problem with this method of innoculation is that the recipients are infectious to those who have not already received it so they had to be isolated.

In the 1850s as a young man, George Washington traveled to an island in the West Indies to undergo this inoculation process called variolination because it used the variola virus. Later after the British used smallpox against Washington's army, Washington had all his men varionlinated. It wasn't till the 1790s that Jenner experimented with cowpox which was much safer than variolination to protect people against smallpox.

[Paleo Conservative]

In the 1850s as a young man,

I meant the 1750s.