My Dad just sent me a copy of a letter he sent to the American Legion, he hopes that they will print his letter as an editorial. He wrote his letter because he was sick of never reading anything but pro-republican, pro-Bush and anti-democrat in the local newsletters from his American Legion.
Below the fold is his letter, with a little more comment from me......
When I started practicing law, lawyers would fight like hell in court and then go out together and get drunk. Friends would vehemently argue politics and still remain friends. Today opposing lawyers are enemies, and friends can no longer discuss politics. The law of the land now is: if you are not with me you are against me.
One day at lunch I told xxxx that I was writing this article for the American Legion Bulletin opposing the war in Iraq. He informed me that I was probably attending my last luncheon. He was kidding (I hope!) I do not wish to offend anyone, but only to say what has to be said.
When I told a friend what I was going to do, he asked me: "Who do you think you are going to convert?" The answer is no one. However I feel that the opposing view must be expressed. In a democracy it is imperative to speak out if one feels that the administration is doing damage to the country. If you do not, or cannot, speak your mind, there is no democracy.
I have opposed the war from the beginning. None of the reasons proposed for the invasion of Iraq posed any threat to our country. All of theses reasons have now been proven false. I will let history determine whether or not the administration intentionally lied or misled us into war. Suffice it to say that it was waged without the support of the United Nations and against the will of the vast majority of the people of the world.
We are now in Iraq as an occupying force. The questions are: why are we still there; what is the course we are supposed to stay; what have we accomplished; and what do we expect to accomplish?
We are there because the administration insists that we stay to impose a "democracy" on the Iraqis. The Iraqis have not been able to establish any kind of stable government. The majority of Iraqis resent our presence. They feel, as do I, that they have the obligation to govern themselves and as long as we stay the situation will never be resolved, but only get worse. The facts speak for themselves. More people, including our military personnel who do not know who their enemy is, are being killed every day. There is no course to stay. It is time to get out. Compared to our revolution, as the administration attempts to do, we are the British. We do not belong there. The civil war amongst the Iraqis may go on, but that is their problem to resolve.
I do not run away from a good fight. I have supported every military operation that our country has engaged in, with the exception of this war and the invasion of Granada. The first war with Iraq was necessary because Iraq invaded Kuwait and such conduct cannot be tolerated. Our war in Afghanistan is also necessary. However, the war in Iraq is not a war ON terror, but a war OF terror. What we have accomplished is distrust of our nation by the majority of the nations and peoples of the world, the establishment of a training ground for terrorists who will surely attack us here at home, and the hatred of over a billion Arabs and Muslims all over the world. We were never very popular with them, but now they are going to do everything possible to get back at us. We have created a monster.
I am a Republican. The first Republican president I voted for was Eisenhower. You might remember Ike; he is the president who warned us of the Military-Industrial conspiracy that is now running our country. I am a Republican in the mold of Earl Warren, the governor of California who was as popular with Democrats as he was with Republicans because he was a middle-of-the-roader. He was also the Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court who persuaded the entire court, including die-in-the-wool Southerners, that separate-but equal schools were unconstitutional. These are the Republicans that I admire. Goldwater, whose politics I do not share, was a conservative, and an outstanding individual. He said that the Evangelical Christians have no place in politics. As a Christian, I agree. Goldwater would be aghast at the corruption of those that control his party today.
I am not a conservative. And I am not, and will never be, a neo-conservative, which those in control of the Republican Party have become. The administration in charge of our country is the most corrupt, immoral, inept, and disgraceful group that has been in power since I have been around. They have put us in a dreadful war, they are wasting money, they have destroyed our status in the world as a nation of power and integrity, they have given tax breaks to the ultra-rich so that this money can be paid back to the party to keep it in control, they have withheld information, they have spied on us, they have lied to and cheated us, they have sold out our country to money interests, they have created politics of fear, and they have utterly failed to protect our citizens when disaster has struck.
This administration is so bad because the Republican party controls Congress and the members of Congress do not have the guts to stand up against the administration. The Republicans cowered because they would not receive the "party's" support and money if they did not go along. The fact that they were supposed to represent the "people" was never a factor. Now that the polls show that the President's approval rating is in the toilet, he is being deserted by his party members, including our governor. This is politics and politicians at their sleaziest. The Democrats are no better - they have essentially been non-existent.
It is up to the people to get this country back on a proper course. Hopefully they will elect honest and effective representatives this November.
I agree with my father on most of his letter, I was too young to have an opinion about Vietnam, but I am sure I would have never supported our war there (truthfully I think he didn't either after the war went on).
And one of the reasons I have been mad at Democrats for so long was how they sold out, they wouldn't stand up and say what needed to be said, that the war was WRONG, that Bush was taking our nation down a road best left untraveled. And why I supported Howard Dean from the very moment I heard him speak.
Anyhow, thought you might all like to read a letter from my Dad, A former captain in the Airforce, a life long republican and a really great man.
Update: Here is a picture of my Dad at his place in Bodega Bay (he was getting ready to cook some crabs, yes, live ones...sigh, but damn, they do taste good!)
And here is a sunset viewed from his living room: