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>From majordomo  Sat Aug 26 04:40:00 1995
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>From iskoric@igc.apc.org  Sat Aug 26 04:39:55 1995
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Date: 26 Aug 95 07:35:26 EDT
From: Robert Bennett <100440.270@compuserve.com>
To: PRESIDENT CLINTON 
Cc: 01 , 02 ,
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Subject: Berlin to Sarajevo
Message-ID: <950826113525_100440.270_BHG61-1@CompuServe.COM>


Dear President Clinton:

Any American living in Germany as I do, sometimes cannot help looking 
around at this country - free, prosperous, democratic, ruled by law - 
and wondering, "What must it have been like here during the Nazi 
dictatorship?"

And once we ask that question, another logically follows: "If I had been
alive at that time, and lived in Germany, what would I in fact have 
done, how would I in fact have responded to the decrees of the Party, to
the Gestapo, and all the rest?"

We also ask ourselves, "If I had been alive then, would I have ever 
struggled for the ideals that I believe in? Would I have even spoken out
for those ideals? Would I have risked anything at all then?"

Obvously no one can respond to that question who did not live here 
during the Nazi period. I think anyone can, however, learn something of 
a probable answer by doing whatever is possible for those people in 
today's world whose existence is threatened by aggression, terror, and 
brutality. And all of us can, I believe, learn even more about ourselves
when our actions are met with rage and anger from those who are either 
blind to - or who sympathize with - the men committing that aggression, 
terror, and brutality today in Bosnia.

A few months ago, after four years of feeling powerless to do anything 
about Serb atrocities in the Balkans, I decided to begin sending letters
to you as often as I could about the war, with copies to whomever I 
thought might be interested. I had no idea of the reaction I would 
provoke.

Much of it has been favorable and supportive, of course, coming from a 
variety of individuals, each of whom is engaging in a particular way. 
Just as interesting for me, though, has been the reaction of those who 
support the very Serbs the United Nations has indicted as war criminals.

Yet this reaction too is oddly encouraging, because it shows me these 
letters are having an effect. It also shows people like me something 
important about ourselves as well, as we look around Germany today. It 
shows us that if we could ever have met Claus von Stauffenberg, Hans and
Sophie Scholl, Christoph Probst, or any of the other hundreds and 
thousands of Germans who gave their lives in attempts to bring down the 
Nazi regime, we might perhaps have been able to look them in the eye. We
might not, after all, have had to hang our heads in shame because we had
done nothing to oppose the kind of evil they opposed.

Sincerely yours,

Robert J. Bennett


From notes@igc.apc.org Sat Aug 26 19:21:39 1995
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>From majordomo  Fri Aug 25 02:25:47 1995
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>From iskoric@igc.apc.org  Fri Aug 25 02:25:42 1995
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From: Robert John Bennett 
Subject: Your Message
To: Ivo Skoric 
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To: Ivo Skoric, Founder, Zamir Chatline

Hi Ivo,

Many thanks for your last message. I definitely agree flames should be
limited to private communication. If any of my letters have sounded like
flames, I apologize.

I'm sorry too that my messages haven't seemed appropriate for the Zamir
chatline. Thank you for suggesting the names of other forums. I'll add
them to my distribution list.

If you don't mind, though, I'd also like to keep sending my letters to
Zamir (except for a week around the middle of September when I have to
teach an out-of-town seminar, and so I'll be off-line). Of course I know
you can bounce the letters or delete them or edit them or forward them or
do whatever you want with them.

Please forgive me for doing this, because I know the messages are
upsetting and irritating to a number of your subscribers. However, I'm
afraid I'm one of those individuals who thinks that people in fact should
be upset and irritated by anything that has to do with the war in your
homeland and in Bosnia. After all, the people of Croatia and Bosnia have
been far more than just upset and irritated by that obscene conflict.

I'm convinced the war has to stop, and it has to stop under conditions
where there is a just peace. If enough people are upset and irritated, I
believe, then a solution will be found more quickly.

If everyone ignored my messages, if there were no response at all, and if
I thought the letters were having no effect of any kind on anyone, then I
would stop. However, people seem unable simply to ignore them - which
greatly surprises me - and so I would like to continue. 

I think you can understand all this, because I have some sense of the kind
of person you are, after reading the pieces you've written - which, as
I've indicated, I admire a great deal.

So, my friend, the one who silences me will have to be you - by simply
deleting my messages from the chatline. The fact of the matter is that I
feel too strongly about the Balkan war, and all the death and suffering it
has brought in its train, to be able to silence myself.

Wishing you, sincerely, every success not only with your writing but with
everything you do,

Bob Bennett