In the play that carries his name Hamlet easily discovers that his stepfather King Claudius, has sent the two emissaries Rosencranz and Guilderstern to spy on him. Their disguise is easy to recognize and Hamlet tells them,

Such is the case of Professor Victor Davis Hanson and his comments on Ward Churchill, published recently by the Oregonian.

For those who have not heard of him, Prof. Churchill teaches North American studies at the University of Colorado. Prof. Churchill had the courage of being the first to tell the truth about the assault on the Twin Towers. Therefore he has become the lightning rod of just about every self-serving right wing warmongering politician, as well as of those characters in Academia whose mission is to kiss the bottom of the establishment.

And indeed Academia, with the notable exception of Noam Chomsky and Ward Churchill has been remarkably quiet about the wars of aggression conducted by recent administrations – wars allegedly connected with the events of September 2001.

Ward Churchill said two very unpalatable truths, one that the attack on New York and Washington was but the response to a decade old policy in the Middle East designed to kill, enslave and humiliate the Arabs and their culture on behalf of powerful economic and Israeli interests.

But Ward Churchill also said that some of the people working in the Towers were essentially agents of evil. Specifically he referred to the huge offices of the currency traders. And I think that the second statement attracted the hatred, the anger and the resentment of the establishment even more than the first.

Is Prof. Churchill right or wrong? As for his first argument any added comment would be a repetition or, as the gardener says to the Queen in Richard II

Or rather, Prof. Churchill said what everybody knows but does not want to admit it.

Let us now consider the business of the evilness (or lack of it) of some the activities previously conducted in the Twin Towers and now, no doubt, somewhere else.

Alas, the collective memory of the masses is short. Or, as King Henry VI tells his would be captors, ready to switch allegiance according to their petty interests,

It is quite likely, for example, that the masses have forgotten everything about Enron and their colossal frauds. I refer to Enron to draw a parallel between the activities of Enron and those of the currency traders. Just as the currency traders of New York trade currency, the Enron energy traders traded electricity. I will use a simple example to make the point or refresh your memory.

Let’s say that a city in Washington wanted to buy electricity from Oregon. Enron would say that Oregon was short of electricity, then they would sell the electricity to California and resell it from California to Washington at the premium price that California paid to Oregon plus profit. In other words, they monopolized or if you like, privatized the most public of commodities, electricity and turned it into a tool of blackmail for a whole population, we can say a whole people.

The currency traders work on the same principle but in a somewhat even more twisted way. Whereas Enron stole based on demand, the currency traders go one step further. They can sink the currency of a country if they believe or fear that the government of that country enacts reforms aimed to improve the welfare of her own people.

To explain better I will use an example dating back to before 2002, when each European country had still its own independent currency. Let’s say that the government of a country decided to improve the pensions of his retirees, or reform education in such a way as to make it more affordable to the dispossessed, or take any measure that in some way implies public spending. On hearing of this the currency traders would dump on the market billions of the currency of the country that plans welfare reforms thus immediately devaluing the currency.

A European finance minister, after having visited the operations of the currency traders said, "These people are worse than my opposition at home – if they get wind that we are planning a social reform, they dump our currency and we lose billions in a few hours".

I have simplified for the sake of time but the principle remains. These organizations are tools for the unique and exclusive enrichment of large banks and often shady financial institutions, with no social or productive benefit to anyone but themselves. It is for this reason that Ward Churchill called them ‘little Eichmanns’.

Now then, how could Ward Churchill, a tenured professor have the gall to tell the truth? Only the Ministry of Truth can tell it. Only the Ministry of Truth can continue to broadcast on all printed and air media that the invasion of Iraq was a war of self defense and prevention – that hundreds of thousands of people have been killed so that they could have freedom and democracy.

At this point Academia could not fault Churchill for speaking his mind, because even Academia can only go so far. The next line of action was to say that Churchill is not really a professor, that he does not have a PhD, that he "appropriated the intellectual property of others".

I am reading here from an article well published by the Oregonian. The article was written by Professor Victor Davis Hanson, a historian of Academia at none the less than Stanford University.

Readers are aware that the difference between a history-lover or and a professional historian is that the history professor bases his conclusions on his superior abilities as a researcher. Therefore, his conclusions or generalizations dwarf or should dwarf in their accuracy (or truth) the conclusions of all other mortals who are not blessed with PhDs and professorships.

Now listen to what Prof. Hanson writes to advocate the firing of tenured professor Ward Churchill, "Journalists, politicians, lawyers and others who take unpopular stands lack guaranteed jobs. Doctors do not enjoy them; they can lose their posts because of a single missed diagnosis."

The last statement is a monument of untruth. Just now in Oregon we have the case of so called Dr. Jayant Patel. After a few local killings with the blessings of Kaiser Permanente, not only he was not reprimanded but was dispatched with glowing recommendations to direct a hospital in Australia, where he killed at least another 12 patients. Before sending him packing the Australians honored him with the title of Dr. Death. And even prior to his stints in Oregon and Australia Patel had a record of botched surgeries in New York State. To top all this, a recent article in the Oregonian showed how doctors are jealous of their records and patently cover each other’s mistakes for mutual protection.

Prof. Hanson’s article, blessed by the connivant Oregonian, causes any fair minded reader to cry foul and to apply to Hanson’s words what Suffolk said of Gloucester in King Henry VI part 2,

As for Ward Churchill I compare his courage and his words to the action of Gen. De Gaulle in WWII when he took off from France, as the French Government signed an armistice with the Nazis and set up the Vichy Republic. I have heard him deliver a speech as well as speak impromptu. He is brilliant, articulate and personally I could not care less if he has a PhD or not. He told the truth.

As for titles I would remind my viewers that George W. Bush is a graduate of Yale where annual tuition fees are shy of 50,000.00 per year. And yet Geroge W. Bush has a hard time to speak coherent English unless he reads from a script prepared by his speech-writers.

As for Prof. Hanson’s article it contains as a Shakespeare’s character says in Twelfth Night

For the uninformed, the hotel bed in Ware, Essex, was notorious for its large dimensions.

As for those who make an inappropriate use of their title - or use their title to put down other people perhaps better knowledgeable than they are but without title - there is an appropriate quote in ‘All’s Well That Ends Well’.