Before you read my friend's response, please remember that he really is a pretty nice guy otherwise.
In response to one comment from my previous diary entry here where I respond to my friend's Cindy Sheehan-bashing e-mail, this dialog back and forth is absolutely normal and is not an angry argument. He and I can disagree on this and discuss it without getting at each other's throats. He is so reasonable in all other respects that I'm able to control my anger at these views of his where I would walk away from someone else. We will go to dinner when he is in town and laugh and argue and have a grand merry old time.
His response to my e-mail is below.
The reason I'm putting his response up here is that I feel that a lot of us (myself included) are tending to steer clear of any views that we disagree with. We get to here what the other side says here on Kos probably more than most, but of course it's always accompanied by "crazy rethugs" and the smack-down.
Please, feel free to issue the smack down to this is you like. I'll undoubtably use your responses in my response to him. Keep in mind that these views are widely-held and seem to be deeply held convictions of otherwise normal everyday people. What can we do to get through to them?
Where did the lies turn into "truth"? Why does my friend here feel like attacking Iraq was an attack on terrorists? He's not stupid. He obviously cares about our troops. He's even ex-military. I don't understand and I'm engaging in this dialog with him, and posting these diary entries to I can try to find out.
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As per the response you requested:
We went to war, and the noble cause that our 1800+ servicemen and women died for is to make the United States safer by disrupting, destroying, and sending a message to the Islamic militant groups that the United States is not going to appease terrorism like the rest of the world, but instead destroy it. That we are going to bring the blood to their front porches, instead of our front porches. Therefore instead of allowing little attacks one after the other, with out any major retaliation, we are going to rock the militants world if they attack or even conspire to attack. We like many of the other countries of the world allowed terrorists to nibble at the United States with terrorist attacks such as the the World Trade Center bombings back in 1993, the Khobar Towers bombing in 1996, U.S. Embassy bombings in 1998, USS Cole bombing in 2000, etc... I need to go on...
We lost friends, soldiers, and allies on each of these attacks. On a side note, all of these major attacks were during Clinton's presidency. What major retaliation or action (something PC for you liberals) did we take to show these terrorists that the United States meant business? The answer is nothing! The terrorist new the economy was well in the US, so if they attacked us and did not make a major impact on the economy, we would just bark a little bit and then continue on about our business. This is exactly what we did, after 1993, 1996, 1998, and 2000. A good analogy would be speeding tickets. I know that I can speed, get caught, get a ticket, take a defensive driving course, and wham bam it is off my record. So how has my driving record been over the last 10 years.... hmm about 12 speeding tickets, none of which appear on my record. I know the state of Texas is not serious about curving speeding. So I will continue to speed, I will continue to receive tickets, and I will continue to keep my record clean forever and ever. Now if the state of Texas get serious and throws my ass in jail for speeding, you better believe it will be the last time I intentionally speed. This same scenario applies to terrorism. If they know we are not going to do shit, terrorist and nations (secretly behind the doors) will continue to support major attacks against the United States.
We had over 10 Islamic nations to pick from and use as as example, to show the Islamic dictators and the rest of the world that we are serious about terrorism and we are not going to take shit. Yes I know you are upset we choose Iraq, but you probably would have cried if we choose Iran, Syria, Qatar, or any of the 10 countries. You are probably one of these lefties that thinks the US deserves the 911 attacks b/c of our foreign policies, especially supporting Israel, the only source of hope, light and democracy in the Middle East. I can guarantee you those other 9 Islamic nations will think twice before explicitly or behind the scenes helping terrorist attack the United States. They know they can no longer play the neutral card which GWB is in office. They could play that card during Clinton's office, but not in GWB's office.
Yes, I know we should have tried for another ten years using the peace pipes which were so effective during the 8 years of Clinton's terms in office. These are Islamic terrorists, you cannot negotiate with these people, and you cannot assume that they will keep their word. You and your family are not followers of radical Islam, therefore your ass deserves to die, you infidel, and the same goes for me. They don't care what you do, they don't care if you stay secluded little island in the middle of the Pacific all by yourself. If you don't support radical Islam, that want your ass dead. Again is not b/c of what you do, it is what you are. Which is not going to change, you will be Randy today, tomorrow, and forever.
Yes, go over to the middle east and tell them you are against the war and against US' foreign policies, and that you sympathize with them. You will be dead in a week. Why, again what did you do? Nothing. You are Randy, and you're not a follower of radical Islam. Again it is what you are, not what you do.
Now enough of defending the noble cause, it would have been a noble cause regardless of which Radical Islamic country we would have picked. Thank God, Wilson showed some muscle in WWI, and FDR in WWII.
I did enjoy the article. If it turns out that the US is creating another Rigid Islamic Nation, then we should have just turned that desert (Iraq) into glass and came back to the US. I agree it is not worth rebuilding, spending our dollars, and putting our fine young women and men on the line to rebuild Iraq, if this is the case. But..... regardless of the outcome, I still support the war for reasons in my above paragraphs. If I see more evidence and start to believe we are building another Iran or Old-Iraq, I will start supporting an immediate withdrawal from Iraq.
I need to come to Austin in the near future, I can see I am making little progress converting you remotely, I need to go to Austin for some good face to face time to speed up the conversion progress.
As always, God Bless The United States!
Matt