Once again I want to respond to one of Molly Ivins columns. The
one entitled
”
How dumb do they think we are?
”
I don’t think Molly is dumb at all, I think she is very
intelligent. That’s what scares me. Left wing liberals can always
state their cases in such a logical manner that it makes us
”
red necks
”
look pretty stupid. Her approach is reasonable, her argument
logical. The problem is that our opponents are not logical,
rational people, they are fanatics!
Once again I want to respond to one of Molly Ivins columns. The one entitled “How dumb do they think we are?” I don’t think Molly is dumb at all, I think she is very intelligent. That’s what scares me. Left wing liberals can always state their cases in such a logical manner that it makes us “red necks” look pretty stupid. Her approach is reasonable, her argument logical. The problem is that our opponents are not logical, rational people, they are fanatics!
I’m not going to convince any die hard liberal; I want to convince the undecided person that this war is about our survival and nothing less. If our opponents were logical, reasonable people with shared values we could hope to reason with them. But the radical Islamists hate us, our way of life and our values. They want to kill each and every one of us. Obviously most Muslims have the same values as we do; we share an Abrahamic faith. They want the same things we do; but there is a radical sect that wants to return the world to 700 A.D. No more telling case can be made than the fact that Osama bin Laden and his henchmen refer to us as “crusaders” or “franks.” We might as well blame Richard the Lionheart for this war as George Bush.
George Bush seized the strategic initiative by taking the fight to the enemy. We are in a struggle for the survival of our way of life. Afghanistan and Iraq are the battlefields. If we lose heart now and cut and run these battlefields will be in the U.S. Do we want a well trained soldier facing down al Qaeda in Iraq or a soccer mom in Des Moines? Every lost soldier hurts me, but I know they raised their right hand and swore to defend our way of life. They knew the risks.
I want to live in Mary Zanger’s world. She and I just have different approaches as to how to get there. She mentions treating terrorism as a crime. That is a very Clintonesque view. Bill Clinton treated the first World Trade Center bombing as a “law enforcement” issue. This confined the investigation to the U.S. laws of evidence and hamstrung the intelligence community in there efforts to silence Osama. Nine times the Clinton administration vowed to hunt down the terrorists, but all that occurred were a few over the shoulder shots with some cruise missiles. I want this to end, but I’m afraid that we are in it for the long haul.
Free Lance, please get a conservative columnist to balance Molly.
Rich Petersen,
Hollister
