—____. World/Letters By PAUL OGRESKO While two’ Canadian peace activists Watched, the missiles finally did explode, but this time there was cause for celebra- tion. At noon Moscow time, on Aug. 1, the Soviet Union destroyed the first four of its shorter-range SS-12 missiles, in accordance with the INF treaty, signed with the U.S. Carlier this year. The missiles, blown up at the Saryozek fest range site in the Soviet republic of Khstan, were the first of 1,752 deployed and stored missiles slated for des- ttuction by the Soviet Union over the next three years. The U.S. will eliminate 859 mis- Siles as its part of the treaty. Watching the explosion from a bunker Wete David Kraft of the Canadian Peace Alliance and Bill Thompson of the Cana- Peace Congress. They were two of 28 Peace activists from 19 different countries Mvited by the Soviet Peace Committee to witness the explosion. Also observing the _ destruction of the SS-12s wasa U.S. military mspection team. ‘I_was surprised by the scale of the explosion,” Kraft said. “We were about Letters “It’s taken 43 years of campaigning by peace activists to accomplish this much. There is still so far to go. The Can- adian peace movement must use this time to take the offensive — to make the Peace Pledge Campaign a suc- cess and to ensure that the next federal election gives usa government that better reflects the sentiments of the Canadian people. three kilometres away, there was a delay of about 10 seconds, then we were hit by the shock. “We saw a fireball, then a big cloud. Not unlike a nuclear blast. Then we heard the explosion and felt the pressure simultane- ously.” The warheads and guidance systems were removed from the four missiles prior to detonation. According to Kraft, three to five hundred kilograms of dynamite per missile were used as the charge. The Soviet officer in charge of the explosions told Kraft that the fissile material from the dismantled warheads would be used for peaceful pur- poses. There has been no official confirmation as yet whether peace observers will be invited by the American government to detonations slated to take place in the U.S. Kraft said the peace activists at Saryozek had expressed to the head of the U.S. mil- itary observer team their hope that a similar invitation would be granted by the U.S. Peace activists watch as Soviet missiles destroyed The invitation extended by the Soviets was especially gratifying to Kraft and Thompson. “The invitation by the Soviet Peace Committee emphasized the fact the peace movement had played a big part (in the implementation of the INF treaty),” said Kraft. “It was an acknowledgment of the work the peace movement has done. “But we are still in a contradiction,” he warned. “On one hand the cold war has given way to an atmosphere of detente and disarmament, but on the other hand the Canadian government is heading in the Opposite direction towards accelerating defence spending.” Thompson echoed Kraft’s concern and said that now was no time for the Canadian peace movement to sit on its laurels. “Tt’s taken 43 years of campaigning by peace activists to accomplish this much,” Thompson said. “There is still so far to go. “The Canadian peace movement must use this time to take the offensive — to make the Peace Pledge Campaign a success and to ensure that the next federal election gives us a government that better reflects the sentiments of the Canadian people.” Faulty theories supported by flawed history Gordon McQuat, Institute for the History of Science, University of Toronto, writes:I can’t help but think that authors Lipsius and Mackie have been getting their history | from the back of milk cartons (“Aids and the Medical establishment,” Tribune, July 13 and 20, 1988). Let’s look at some of their ’ claims: _ 1. Although Louis Pasteur’s first pub- lished work was on the development of lac- ticacid from sugar in raw milk, he in no way Said that “the main source of (illness- Causing) germs was raw milk.” Indeed, Pas- teur’s main work was on the growth of bacteria in beer and the effectiveness of vac- cination in controlling of rabies (which, contrary to the “Holists,” worked rather well). 2. Lipsius and Mackie say: “Prior to Pas- teur, much of Eastern and Western medi- cine was holistic.” Not so. The history of medicine is a much more complicated story than Lipsius’ and Mackie’s false dichoto- mies. By the way, Tribune readers might want to know that the term “Holism” was coined by Jan Christian Smuts, the second prime minister of South Africa: Holism is not necessarily progressive. 3. “(Pre-Pasteur) Holist doctors said sickness was caused by a breakdown in the body’s immune system.” How could this be sO, since the study of immunology is very much a 20th-century science? 4. Pasteur did not “renounce the germ theory on his death bed.” (Actually, he reaf- firmed his belief in Catholicism and refused a glass of milk. But neither should reflect on germ theory!) The list goes on. But let’s be fair. People can get their history wrong. After all, milk is “pasteurized”. But what we can’t be fair — about is people using a botched history and poor logic to justify a bad theory. Lipsius and Mackie quite correctly point out that germ theory demands the presence of “germs” as a necessary condition for some types of diseases (although not all — here they are simply misleading their readers). Claire Astley, M.D. and Martin Robert, Toronto, write: While the Tribune is to be commended for finally tackling the issue of AIDS (“AIDS and the medical estab- lisment,” Tribune, July 13 and 20, 1988), the result is not exactly a Marxist analysis. Furthermore, the editorial introductory Paragraph criticizes the “hullabaloo” around AIDS and the money spent, since it causes fewer deaths than cancer or heart disease. In Canada today we have 1,761 PWAs (Persons With AIDS). Studies indicate that for every PWA, there are about 300 HIV-positive — the majority of whom will contract AIDS. It’s not difficult to estimate how long it will take for AIDS to be the leading cause of death. At present it costs about $200,000 a year to care for a single AIDS patient and we are merely seeing the tip of the iceberg. If anything, our government is spending nowhere nearly enough on AIDS care, research and education. Lipsius and Mackie claim that AIDS can be cured now (presumably through macrobiotic diet). They go on to cite a study showing that two of 24 PWAs ona macrobiotic diet are still alive after five years. Hardly good evidence for a cure. The assertion that acupuncture has been found effective in repairing the immune system is backed up by no study at all. One can only hope that the Lipsius Clinic at least cleans acupuncture needles in between patients. Malnutrition, lack of proper sewage and not the virus are blamed for making the Third World prone to AIDS. While it is true that Central Africa has a large number of PWAs, many other developing and African countries with similar condi- tions have few AIDS cases. As of 1987, © there was not a single reported case of AIDS among Black South Africans, and Saudi Arabia did not report its first AIDS case until 1988. Anyone seriously interested in the dif- ferent theories on the causes and spread of AIDS might want to read Covert Action magazine numbers 28-29. The theory sup- ported by Lipsius and Mackie is one of five examined. While they quote quite liberally from the articles, they conveniently neglect AIDS articles ‘were lacking in evidence’ to answer any of the questions raised about their theory in the same article. The fact that drug companies and the medical profession generally make huge profits is not a case for wholesale condem- nation of modern medicine. Rather, it shows the need to: 1. Remove the profit motive; 2, Change the emphasis to preventive medicine; 3. Take a holistic approach to medicine which synthesises modern and complementary approaches and therapies, such as diet, herbs, naturo- pathy, acupuncture and, when necessary, drugs and surgery. The multifactoral theory for the spread of AIDS correctly points to co-factors weakening our immune system. It is, how- ever, unlikely that even the most perfect macrobiotic diet and lifestyle can protect our bodies from the negative effects of environmental and chemical pollution. Whether or not the virus does or does not attack a perfectly healthy body remains to be seen. We won’t take our chances. Safe sex, clean needles for I.V. drug abusers, the screening of blood and education are the best answers yet for pro- tection and slowing the spread of AIDS. They imply that this means that germ theory disregards other factors in the devel- opment of disease. Never has such bad argument graced the pages of the Tribune Perhaps it will be discovered that the presence of the HIV virus is but a co-factor of AIDS or even a symptom. Only patient, scientific study will tell (combined with a healthy dose of socialist activism to elimi- nate the other co-factors of the AIDS illness). But Lipsius and Mackie, like many pseudo-scientists, state that they have all the answers now: “We have the cure.” True science, however, is a little more modest. But what about their cure? Let’s remember: Dr. Norman Bethune died from a “‘germ” infection caused during a field operation in China. Germ theory said, quite reasonably, “keep the wound clean, disinfect the tools, wear rubber gloves.” Yet, much as he tried, “social and economic conditions” in pre-revolutionary China did not allow Bethune to follow all these precautions. Thus, by a combination of factors, our great Bethune was killed by a little germ. Brown rice, macrobiotics or the denigrating of the evils of drugs and germ theory would not have saved his life. About a year ago, Fred Weir wrote in the Tribune that the hysterical reaction of some parents to the presence of a HIV-positive pupil in their local school was somewhat understandable. Science, he said, had shafted these people so many times in the past that it was only “natural” they would be (overly) cautious about “‘science’s” assu- rance of the safety of their children. Weir was only partly correct. “Science,” at least this time, got it right: the children were safe. AIDS is just not transmitted by playing in the schoolyard. The parents were wrong, even hysterical. Part of the respon- sibility for that hysteria lay not with “science,” but with the singular ability of the bourgeois media to misinform the pub- lic about science, to peddle mysticism and pseudo-science (just look at the ratio of horoscope and biocharts to sober reports on science in the popular press). It is rather sad to see the Tribune participating in that misinformation. Pacific Tribune, August 17, 1988 « 5