RE: Letter to the Editor

<chklll>. like I said. it's always the same vociferous response :-)

 

 

>> How easy it for people to echo the smug, banal platitudes they hear on
Fox TV, rather than do any real thinking!

 

Easy. remember, it's just your POV, and one could just as easily say those
with your POV have their head in the sand. besides, name calling doesn't
contribute to enlightened conversation :-)

 

Fox TV?  I have a son in the USAF, a brother-in-law in NORAD, and am working
on a PhD at age 46 after running several companies with both national and
international interests. I converse with peers in Russia, India, Germany,
the UK, Switzerland, Canada, Mexico, and a few other places. Accuse me of
being centrist, but not of being mentally lazy <lol>

 

Do you really believe that if we brought all military home that the
terrorists would leave us alone? Their stated intent is to convert the
world, including the US, and terrorists, like bullies, don't just go away. I
was among those who disagreed with the administrations approach and their
decision to go it without the UN, but in the end, the larger issue wasn't
going to go away. The terrorists declared war on us well over a decade ago.
we just didn't take it seriously until 9/11. Even if we brought everyone
home, they will eventually bring it here, and not just to our door. 

 

I do think the world situation in this regard plays strongly into the
Eco-Balance problem domain at a number of levels. and the more issues that
are worked out, the easier it's going to be to help those who find the means
to shift to a holistic society. Hopefully, the shift will occur without
needing too much catastrophe as the impetus, though only the future will
tell. Clearly, the shift, in spite of all the noise, is occurring.

 

Les

 

  _____  

From: [email protected]
[mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of [email protected]
Sent: Tuesday, May 11, 2004 12:12 PM
To: [email protected]
Subject: Re: [Ecobal]Letter to the Editor

 

In a message dated 5/11/2004 12:49:30 PM Eastern Standard Time,
[email protected] writes:




No offense, and I won't belabor the points, but your POV is unfortunately
stereotypical (also biased and objectively naive) of many I've known who
haven't served, and especially those whose families haven't served in
several generations. I also know that no amount of debate will alter their
opinion... only direct experience would. Freedom isn't free, and while there
are political atrocities, it's a tad too easy to sit here in the comfy US
and judge those who maintain that freedom... 



How easy it for people to echo the smug, banal platitudes they hear on Fox
TV, rather than do any real thinking!

How are our soldiers in Iraq "maintaining our freedom" for crying out loud?
By invading, without provocation, a sovereign nation with a third-world
economy and no weapons of mass destruction that just happens to have the oil
we want? By reducing that country to murderous chaos? By surrounding and
bombing the bejeezus out of whole cities, just because a few of them
murdered and abused the bodies of four of our mercenary thugs? By torturing
and humiliating prisoners, all of whom are legally innocent because none
have been given any due process, in direct and egregious violation of the
Geneva Conventions?
By making us the most hated and reviled nation on Earth, and validating all
of Osama Bin Laden's stereotypes of our country as an unsanctified moral
cesspool--thus ensuring endless terrorist attacks and making the entire
planet unsafe for American tourists? Give me a break!

My father, who served in the Navy during WWII, was truly "maintaining our
freedom" against Nazis and Japanese fascists who threatened to destroy that
freedom. Today the greatest threat to American freedom is not some mythical
"enemy"--but George W. Bush--the pernicious regime whose heinous policies
are destroying America day by day. I don't blame our soldiers (except, of
course, for the depraved slobs complicit in the torture of prisoners and the
outright, casual murderers and abusers of Iraqi civilians on the streets
every day). Rather, I blame the son-of-a-bitch who sent them there, where
they were unwelcome and are now hated, and where they have no right to be,
by any law of God or man.