posted March 14, 2006
Mr. Cooke's letter in the Times Free Press comparing the United States to Nazi Germany purposefully ignores the facts. Iraq and Afghanistan were like Nazi Germany, not the U.S.
Was it dumb to abolish the Taliban and a murderous dictator in Iraq, give 40 million people their freedom, scare Libya into giving up their weapons programs, and pressure Syria to get out of Lebanon? Apparently, some people do. And some people actually think it's dumb to listen to terrorist phone calls and fight the terrorists on their soil before they can come over here again. I hope someone with that philosophy never becomes president.
If we fail to take appropriate measures now, we could be dealing with terrorist car bombings, hijackings, kidnappings, or even chemical, biological, or nuclear attacks on our own soil by the terrorists currently doing everything in their power to repeat Sept. 11. That day, 3,000 Americans died. Have we forgotten? These terrorists wish that all
Americans were among that number, although they would probably smile at what Mr. Cooke says about Bush and frown at what I say about him. Think about that.
The monumental freedoms President Bush secured for millions of people, and his policies that spawned the rise of democracy in the Middle East will be how the world remembers him.
Jeremiah Cook
Student Body President
Tennessee Temple University
Chattanooga
cookjp@tntemple.edu
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Oh boy - that's just what we need. Eschatological extremist brown shirts from an evangelical Christian school ignoring decades of western meddling and military adventurism in Arab countries and the inevitable resulting blowback while trying to justify a disastrous Republican, neo-conservative, pro-Israeli War that has killed and maimed millions of innocents and thousands of our countrymen.
Watch out, Mohammad has a bomb in his turban. Bush is going to the cloakroom to get into his sock-stuffed flight suit. Cheney's drunk and he's got a gun. That's all just part of the wacky world we live in. Have a hearty laugh and move on.
Delay's indicted, Ken Lay is on trial, the Republican stranglehold on Congress is under a very dark cloud; Bush's approval rating is running right there at the wounded Nixon level. The Democrats are beginning to think second place just isn't good enough. The news isn't all bad.
Mr. Cook, you can remember Dubya as a saint if you wish. I fervently hope to remember the scumbag as a convicted war criminal who was impeached, tried, and put in prison for the rest of his natural life for taking our country to pre-emptive war against a sovereign country that posed no threat to our own, attendant complicity in war crimes; suborning torture in violation of numerous international treaties; violating his oath of office; thumbing his nose at international law; lying to you, me, Congress and the world; arrogant circumvention of Congress and the law of our own land; disrupting our balance of powers making a defacto dictator of himself; dismantling separation of church and state which keeps our Christian Taliban in check; bringing poverty to millions of Americans while enriching his cronies beyond their wildest dreams; poisoning and destroying our nation's best chances to prevent irreparable domestic and global environmental harm; etc.
Oh yeah, and the only "monumental freedoms" that need to be in the news are the ones Bush and his minions have stolen from the American people but our "free" press seems to have no more interest in revealing the whole truth than do you.
You've got a lotta livin' to do, young man. Try to broaden your horizons. Dig a little deeper. It'll make your journey a lot more interesting.
Bruce Wilkey
Signal Mountain
bwilkey@bellsouth.net
* * *
While brief letters hardly allow a full-explanation of an issue, Mr. Cook's letter indicates certain naïveté in his understanding of the current geopolitical climate.
The world is far more complicated that Mr. Cook indicates in his letter. The issues aren't so black and white. He asks, "Was it dumb to abolish the Taliban and a murderous dictator in Iraq, give 40 million people their freedom, scare Libya into giving up their weapons programs, and pressure Syria to get out of Lebanon?
First, the Taliban is alive and strengthening in Afghanistan and Pakistan as military resources are siphoned away to fight a battle to win the hearts and minds of Iraq. Osama Bin Laden plies the dusty mountain passes while the seeds of religious fundamentalism have found fertile soil on the fields we have sown in Iraq.
Despite a demonstrated lack of involvement with the attacks on Americans, Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator-no doubt about it. Now we have moved him aside and struggle to cobble together a nation whose borders were imprudently drawn by the British and French in 1920 to include disparate cultures who saw themselves as competitors rather than compatriots.
From these early days, revolt was a constant threat. Even the British used air attacks in the 1920's to quell the threat. Twenty years later, the British invaded to handle a coup attempt.
After independence, Iraq saw one leader after another until Saddam Hussein came to power in the 1970's. Ironically, Hussein's reign lasted longer than any other ruler due to his brutal control over anyone he perceived as a threat. If anything, like Slobodan Milosevic and countless other dictators, he demonstrated that unrelenting brutality is the only way to keep revolution at bay.
Now that Iraq's factions are free of Hussein and have democracy at their fingertips, the old tensions have risen to the surface again. Sectarian strife is now openly demonstrated by those who prefer bullets and bombs over ballots and bills. In the middle of the fracas, our soldiers are fighting an enemy without uniform in the streets and alleys of Baghdad and Fallujah. The ability exact revenge and kill your enemy is no longer held by one man. It's now held by thousands of Kurds, Shiites, and Sunnis.
So, is it "dumb" to remove a murderous dictator? No. Was our fabricated "gotta do it right now because of a phantom WMD threat a 'dumb' thing to do?" Absolutely. The job was bungled by people who should know better. Our invasion of Iraq has emboldened those who hate us and want to oversee our demise. Each dragon we slay is replaced by three more. You see, Mr. Cook, there is no black or white in this world.
As for Libya, I hardly know what motivates Colonel Gadhafi. Regardless whether his abandonment of WMD research was the result of fear of American reprisal remains to be seen. I suspect he acted to strengthen his economic prospects by having sanctions lifted. Those nations who truly have an advanced program in place would never capitulate like Libya did. Take a look at Iran and North Korea. They see our complications in Iraq as an opportunity to advance their saber rattling, In other words, the mice are playing while the cat is swatting bugs. There is no black or white.
Finally, Syria's withdrawal was welcome news to the whole world. As you may know, Lebanon has endured civil conflict since the mid 1970's. Both Syria and Israel have occupied the country at some point or another in the last thirty years in the name of protecting their respective national interests. Now that Syria has finally complied with UN Resolution 1559 that required all foreign forces to exit Lebanon, eyes may now turn to other nations who maintain an occupying force in other countries. There is no black or white.
Sept. 11 extracted a tremendous toll on the American people. It was perpetrated by those who want to eradicate our way of life from the planet. I have no doubt that we are still in their crosshairs. We should go after these people by using whatever legal means we have at our disposal. It is a narrow path we must tread lightly. We must not blindly strike out because as Friedrich Nietzsche is famously quoted: "He who fights with monsters might take care lest he thereby become a monster. And if you gaze for long into an abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."
K.A. Martin
Chickamauga
ocoee2@yahoo.com
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Is that your real opinion, or did you copy and paste a press release from the Bush administration? You praise the same tired points almost verbatim that all the apologists do - all 37% of them.
Maybe you need to stay in school a little longer and learn to think for yourself - if Tennessee Temple permits it.
Fowler D. McConnell
Hixson
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