Chad Hayward’s Nov. 17 letter, “Caterpillar donation not bad for school,” criticized the protest of Caterpillar’s donation to Iowa State for not understanding capitalism and lampooned Rachel Corrie, who was crushed beneath a Caterpillar bulldozer in March while acting as a human shield for a Palestinian home, for being as foolish as a guard run over by a steamroller in Austin Powers.

This letter is callous and ill-informed to the point of ignorance.

First, a word about Caterpillar and the D-9 bulldozer.

The bulldozer bears little resemblance to the machines we see on building sites. It is a massive, armored vehicle better classified as a weapon of war than as a device used in construction.

It is, in fact, the heavily-armored design of the bulldozer that the Israeli army claimed prevented the driver from being able to see Rachel Corrie.

Furthermore, Caterpillar, unlike the manufacturers of, say, attack helicopters or other military devices, conducts business with normal consumers. People may be interested to know what they support when they buy a snow blower.

As to Hayward’s movie reference, he seems to be under the very mistaken impression that Rachel Corrie somehow blundered by failing to move away from the bulldozer’s path — that her death was in some way as comic as the inept guard run over by the steamroller.

Was it somehow a mistake? Did she mean to move?

Of course she never intended to yield to the bulldozer. Her purpose was to prevent the destruction of a Palestinian physician’s house, to resist the Israeli army’s practice of making innocent civilians homeless — an action that is prohibited under the Fourth Geneva Convention, which the Israeli government signed. She consciously chose not to compromise her principles.

But the more pressing question I assume Hayward meant to ask is, should she have been there in the first place? Is there any reason for an American citizen to do what she did?

As the Iowa State Daily’s Nov. 14 editorial, “Caterpillar dilemma has no easy answers,” rightly pointed out, an educated decision is necessary.

As an introduction to the issue, this information may be useful: 8,000 homes have been destroyed during the occupation of Palestine; 3,700 Palestinians have been killed in the current Intifada, as compared to 2,400 Israelis, and the United States gives more foreign aid to Israel than to any other recipient.

One final note: the editorial was incorrect in saying the U.S. State Department had launched an investigation into Rachel Corrie’s killing.

No investigation has been conducted other than an internal investigation by the Israeli army. There is currently a bill in the House of Representatives (House Concurrent Resolution 111) calling for an independent investigation, which has not yet been signed by any Iowa Representative.

Brij Patnaik

Grinnell