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Gray Watson Personal Thoughts 2004.09.16
God Bless America

Just got the following mail in my inbox. I am often amazed about how far apart the Republicans and Democrats are -- how far apart the "left" and the "right" are. People sometimes say that the parties are the same and I must respectfully disagree.

Why would you tell anyone to vote for John Kerry. I guess you would rather have terrorists keep on attacking America here on our own ground instead of where we are now.I just spoke to a mother who son died over there fighting for us and she told me that her son wanted to be there fighting as well as the others that are there. He died for you and your freedom and it bothers me that you would say anything against our leader and our country.Its very easy to talk when you arent there or have anyone close to you there. John Kerry was on Imus this morning and said he had a plan to bring our troops home within a year of being elected but HE COULDN'T REMEMBER HOW HE WAS GOING TO DO IT.And you want this for a president/Good Luck and God Bless you and God Bless America.

Probably a pretty typical opinion these days. I thought I'd take a moment to respond to the allegations each in turn.

I guess you would rather have terrorists keep on attacking America here on our own ground instead of where we are now.

Huh? Our fighting in Iraq is going to stop terrorists from attacking us? But the terrorists on 9/11 had nothing to do with Iraq. Afghanistan I'll agree with but not Iraq. Please point me to news articles or intelligence information which say that terrorists were in Iraq before the war. Here are some articles which counter that claim:

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/8496605.htm
http://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/0303-01.htm
http://www.globalresearch.ca/articles/LEO306F.html

You have to understand that Saddam was a ruthless dictator and ruthless dictators don't like to share the power with anyone. Saddam was a evil sadistic bastard and the Iraqi people are better without him but please don't argue that we in the US are somehow safer. Now, after the war began, terrorists cells are running rampant inside of Iraq, all thanks to our destabilization of the region. Regardless of what you say about Saddam, he kept a lid on his country -- now it is chaos and most signs say it is getting worse.

The problem is that the Muslims see our attacking Iraq as an imperialist move, which it arguably is, and even the most liberal (i.e. not fundamentalist) of them is are uncomfortable with our presence. This means that the terrorist organizations are able to recruit more people and raise more funds to support their cause.

I just spoke to a mother who son died over there fighting for us and she told me that her son wanted to be there fighting as well as the others that are there.

There are also many soldiers who don't want to be there and who think we are there under false circumstances. It would be interesting to survey our military forces over there to get their opinion of the war. I listened to a veteran speak last week who was furious that Bush sent him over there and who said that many of our young men and women are disillusioned and angry.

He died for you and your freedom and it bothers me that you would say anything against our leader and our country.

This sentence is completely contradictory. This soldier died in Iraq for our freedom to say things against our leader and our country. I love my country. I love and respect our freedoms especially the freedom of speech. This gives me the power to oppose the powers that be and to activate for change. How dare you say that just because Bush dug us into this war on Iraq because of non existent weapons of mass destruction that we now should support him in it. I will support the troops who didn't have a choice in the matter but not our leaders.

Its very easy to talk when you arent there or have anyone close to you there.

I'm trying to get our soldiers home. To stop them from being killed. To stop them from fighting in the desert half way around the world for bad reasons. And I'm the bad guy because I'm not supporting them?

John Kerry was on Imus this morning and said he had a plan to bring our troops home within a year of being elected but HE COULDN'T REMEMBER HOW HE WAS GOING TO DO IT.

That sounds bad for sure. Is there a transcript online for this? I find it hard to believe that he said he couldn't remember or are you implying that he did a bad job explaining how it would work? I've heard him speak and be lucid on this subject.

And you want this for a president?

I'd rather have other choices between the two. Maybe a real conservative who won't borrow and spent combined with someone who is strong but able to say that we need to build a coalition before we run around the world doing regime change. But of the choices I am given, yes, I will gladly vote for John Kerry.

Good Luck and God Bless you and God Bless America.

I'm not sure why God should bless us. I don't think s/he would like us creating war at all let alone an unjust, unilateral, imperialist one. I firmly believe that we should have tried a lot harder to solve the Iraqi confliect before we went to war. What would Jesus have done? I think the arguments put forth by many conservative Christians in support of their "just war" are shaky at best and the language of the devil at worst. I find it ironic that it is these Christians who are arguing for war while I, the agnostic, am arguing for peace -- and I'm the bad guy.

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