[Ignatz]

My reply in the Spectator forum:

"De Genova,
Your response to the patriotic outcry over your remarks is worse than the remarks themselves. Now that you have put them in context, they are even MORE anti-American. As long as you remain in the United States, suckling at the teat of the country you so despise, you are a hypocrite and a coward. I challenge you to stand up for what you believe and LEAVE THE U.S. NOW!

And Mr. Foner: a whole "teach-in" bashing American foreign policy does not automatically equivocate with "presentations of high intellectual caliber". You are covering your exposed butt hoping you do not lose your departments funding, that much is obvious. (by the way, until De Genova finds his cojones and leaves this country, I would avoid the use of words like "caliber". It could give some real, honest, Americans some rather radical ideas! Please do not construe that as any kind of threat by me. To do so would be remarkably decontextualized and inflammatory)."

Ignatz Kleistershtroven
Indianapolis, Indiana

[mbynack]

Thanks for the update on this.

I also emphasized that the disproportionate majority of U.S. troops come from racially subordinated and working-class backgrounds and are in the military largely as a consequence of a treacherous lack of prospects for a decent life.

I don't believe this is true. The last demographics I saw on the US military showed that it was fairly representative of the US population as a whole, with a slightly larger ratio of whites to black. .

Nonetheless, I emphasized that U.S. troops are indeed confronted with a choice--to perpetrate this war against the Iraqi people or to refuse to fight and contribute toward the defeat of the U.S. war machine.

Military members have a choice - do as they're ordered or suffer the consequences. The consequences range from a Bad Conduct discharge that follows you for the rest of your life, up to and including the death penalty for desertion in time of war.

Vietnam was a stunning defeat for U.S. imperialism; as such, it was also a victory for the cause of human self-determination.

Our involvement in Vietnam had nothing to do with US Colonialism. Once we left the region, leaders like Pol Pot killed millions.

For a guy who is supposed to be an academic, he sure doesn't mind bending facts to fit his pre-conceived notions of reality.

[pgyanke]

Oh well... Thank you, Professor, for clearing up the misunderstanding. Many of us here at Freerepublic.com were dismayed at the decontextualizationismbergenhogen of your remarks and we can now see that our ire was grossly inadequate to the reality. We will now commence with true vitriole for the unAmerican, piece of marxist filth that you represent.

[AmericanInTokyo]

What....an....absolute.....weenie (not you, Ignatz, de Generate).

My, this is blood in the water for the sharks. He should have kept his trap shut and not overexplained.

Now he has really dug his own career grave.

You don't pee in the face of millions of Americans and get away with it, and then pee some more.

Professor Nick is about to learn a bitter, academic and public relations lesson.

[martianagent]

In my brief presentation, I outlined a long history of U.S. invasions, wars of conquest, military occupations, and colonization

The answer to this kind of statement should be as follows, any time any of us hear it: If that is true, i.e. if the United States has indeed been involved in a career of empire building and of oppression of third-world people for the last hundred years, then somewhere on this planet there must be some gigantic territory with a sign saying "Property of the United States of America" on it.

Where is this territory? I would like to visit it and check it out with an eye towards investing in real estate, and possibly some hunting, fishing, and good times with the native women.

[Ditto]

I also emphasized that the disproportionate majority of U.S. troops come from racially subordinated and working-class backgrounds and are in the military largely as a consequence of a treacherous lack of prospects for a decent life.

Total crock of s**t. What military is this guy looking at?

[EaglesUpForever]

a treacherous lack of prospects for a decent life.

If America has a treacherous lack of prospects... how does an adolescent-brained Marxist become a "professor" at Columbia?

This guy is a brain dead communist, don't bother to reply to him, just make sure that he is terminated from any employment that involves teaching.

[TonyWojo]

I also emphasized that the disproportionate majority of U.S. troops come from racially subordinated and working-class backgrounds and are in the military largely as a consequence of a treacherous lack of prospects for a decent life.

He is one disgusting SOB

[mattdono]

You know, academics and entertainment types have one HUGE characteristic in common: insulation.

I don't think that these people are stupid (yeah, ok, they are, but go with me for a minute), they just don't have a concept of consequence for things that they say.

These are the same people that CONSTANTLY (maybe incessantly) tell us that "words can hurt" and someone's thought is just as bad as their deed (i.e., "hate crime" vs. "regular" crime). Why are they surprised when it comes back on them?

I guess because they are elitist, hippie scum.

[pepsi_junkie]

Such an anti-colonial struggle for self-determination might involve a million Mogadishus now but would ultimately have to become something more like another Vietnam. Vietnam was a stunning defeat for U.S. imperialism; as such, it was also a victory for the cause of human self-determination.

Oh, I understand now. He wants a million Mogadishus and another Vietnam to boot. He really was misunderstood.

If he was truly an intellectually honest person, he'd allow his own corpse to be dragged through the streets of Baghdad in order to get the ball rolling. I suspect he will, instead, remain in Manhattan sipping latte and teaching idiots that America is the worst place on earth. Atleast I take one comfort, for once the most insane and offensive liberal professor isnt at my alma mater, Penn.

[Eric in the Ozarks]

"latina/o" studies."

Horseshit !

[ThomasMore]

my rejection of U.S. nationalism

Then PLEASE --- Do us all a favor and EFFIN' LEAVE. What a jerk.

[Dog Gone]

What's amazing is that this professor thinks his explanation makes him sound more reasonable.

And did you notice that he's a professor of "latina/o" studies? He's apparently unable to even acknowledge gender in the spanish language.

[francisr]

thank you for your letter - please keep the pressure up on this - call/write and stay with it
think of the thousands of minds he would infect in a career -
stay clear and concise
and contact the alumni assoc.

[Cold Heat]

American" refers to all of the Americas, not merely to the United States, as U.S. imperial chauvinism would have it. More importantly, my rejection of U.S. nationalism is an appeal to liberate our own political imaginations

I just spit all over my keyboard! I just can't imagine what is in this guys mind except for too many drugs!

[headsonpikes]

"decontextualized..."

Genova argues like a girl.

[Jeff Head]

Here is my latest reply to the Columbia President (cc'd to De Genova) based on this information:

President Bollinger,
March 31, 2003

I wrote you a few days ago about the unbelievably atrocious comments of a professor there at Columbia, Dr. De Genova, regarding his wish for a "million Mogadishus" to befall our American service men and women in Iraq. Wishing death to those personnel.

Apparently the professor wanted to put his comments in context and he replied to the Columbia Spectator with theses remarks, among others.

"In my brief presentation, I outlined a long history of U.S. invasions, wars of conquest, military occupations, and colonization in order to establish that imperialism and white supremacy have been constitutive of U.S. nation-state formation and U.S. nationalism. In that context, I stressed the necessity of repudiating all forms of U.S. patriotism. I also emphasized that the disproportionate majority of U.S. troops come from racially subordinated and working-class backgrounds and are in the military largely as a consequence of a treacherous lack of prospects for a decent life. Nonetheless, I emphasized that U.S. troops are indeed confronted with a choice--to perpetrate this war against the Iraqi people or to refuse to fight and contribute toward the defeat of the U.S. war machine."

and

"Is this a tirade against "anything and everything American"? Far from it. First, I hasten to remind you that "American" refers to all of the Americas, not merely to the United States, as U.S. imperial chauvinism would have it. More importantly, my rejection of U.S. nationalism is an appeal to liberate our own political imaginations such that we might usher in a radically different world in which we will not remain the prisoners of U.S. global domination."

This individual is beyond the pale. His explanation of the context is as bad, if not worse, than the original statement. He is so blatantly anit-American and is now calling for American soldiers on the war front to defy direct orders, to be insubordinate at best, and to turn traitorus themselves at worst.

He is doing great harm to Columbia.

I intend to contact as many Alumin of Columbia as I possibly can and ask them to completely dry up funding for the UNiversity as a whole until this man is fired and his comments are completely and forcefully repudiated. I will send out mass emailings to my ownm email list of several thousand, I will post at internet forums, I will take out advertisments and do whatever I can to accomplish this goal.

Until that time, I will presume that you defend this individual.

If he had an ounce of stregnth for his own convictions, he would depart this nation that he despises as quickly as possible and take up residence in a nation more to his liking ... perhaps Cuba or one of the other few MArxist nations left on earth. I will not hold my breath for such an eventuality because I do not believe that he has any strength to his own convictions ... he is too busy living off the bounty, the freedom and the tolerance of the land he hates. Well, that tolerance has limits, and this individual has crossed them four square.

Sincerely,

Jeff Head
http://www.jeffhead.com

[SAMWolf]

Professor of anthropology and latina/o studies

Thank the Lord they don't let him teach American History.

[RonDog]

a million Mogadishus...

For the record, here is a summary of ONE Mogadishu, from www.historytelevision.ca:

Ambush in Mogadishu

It was the most violent firefight since Vietnam. On October 3, 1993, elite units of the United States Army Rangers and Delta Force were pinned down on the streets of Mogadishu by forces of the Somali warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid. Seventeen hours later, 18 American soldiers were dead, 75 lay wounded, and the United States' response to the world's humanitarian crises would never be the same...

[Mr_Magoo]

[jimbokun]

"In that context, I stressed the necessity of repudiating all forms of U.S. patriotism."

"Is this a tirade against "anything and everything American"? Far from it."

Does the word "contradiction" mean anything to this man? How about "irony"?

Best,
-jimbo