archives
Hate mail, page 6
| Subject: Loser Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2003 From: "Ad Valorem" advaloremnet@hotmail.com Events have proven your anti-war arguments so dead wrong I'd think they'd be an embarrassment to you. Did you learn anything in the past four weeks, or are you so blinded by bitterness and hate for Bush /USA you can no longer relate to the world around you. Regards, Marsha Allen Whittaker, MD Pittsburgh, PA |
Normally I don't engage with kooks like Marsha, but this time I couldn't resist. Don't be fooled by her clever sounding latin email address; it's a commonly used term in taxation, meaning she's probably a low-level bean counting drone. (You can stick all the MD's and PHD's you like on the bottom of your email, it don't mean diddly). I was curious to see if I could extract a single intelligent comment from her addled mind. Here's my reply to her:
| Subject: Re: Loser Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2003 From: Dermot dermotoconnor To: Ad Valorem "advaloremnet@hotmail.com" Hi Marsha, Thanks for calling me a loser in the subject line of your email. That's always an intelligent opening tactic in a debate. > Events have proven your anti-war > arguments so dead wrong I'd > think they'd be an embarrassment to you. One of the anti-war arguments came from George Bush senior and Brent Scowcroft: http://www.thememoryhole.org/mil/bushsr-iraq.htm Guess I'm in good company. Now onto your argument. You seem to think that I have been fundamentally proven wrong by the war. If you look at the game again, you'll see that victory in my game came a lot quicker than in reality. My game features a WMD attack on Israel. Luckily this didn't happen. Odd that, since Iraq was supposed to be swimming in Nerve gas and mountains of Anthrax. I've never really been sure whether or not the Iraqis had the stuff. My guess was 50-50. The Israelis put their risk of a WMD attack at 1 in 100. They took the threat seriously enough to carry gas masks around for weeks. That this event didn't happen does not invalidate the point of my game, namely: My game features a quick and easy allied victory. Check. Funny how none of my pro-war critics noticed this. NOBODY doubted that we would win, myself included. That was always going to be the easy part. My game features a furious backlash against the US. Check. (Albeit not as bad as in the game, YET). Don't believe me? Try taking a holiday outside North America. It's not even safe for americans in EUROPE, never mind the middle east. The basic point of the game was that a victory would likely be pyrrhic, unleashing consequences that even "clever" people cannot see. I was never pessimistic enough to imagine that the US would allow the museums and libraries to be destroyed, not to mention the hospitals. There are already Iranian backed Badr brigades taking over towns in eastern Iraq; shi'ites are calling for an Islamic state; Turkey broods on the Northern border; the arab street has been politicised by horrific images of dead and mutilated children; North Korea, Iran and heaven knows who else are accelerating their nuclear programs, since that's obviously the only way to be safe from American "pre-emption". Jihadists in Saudi Arabia are using the outrage against the war to drum up support. Reports continue that Nizar Khazraji, the CIA's preferred leader of Iraq is missing, maybe dead. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2003/04/16/MN96124.DTL A western-friendly Ayatollah was hacked to bits in a mosque only last week. One of Ahmed Chalabi's men was shot at 4 times, just for having his poster in his car window! http://www.guardian.co.uk/Iraq/Story/0,2763,939619,00.html I can't wait for the election campaign. It'll make Florida 2000 look like a picnic. In my game, I put forward the idea that the US would end up facing Iran in round 2. Well that didn't happen. SYRIA is lined up instead. Still, you get the idea. > Did you learn anything in the past four > weeks, or are you so blinded by > bitterness and hate for Bush /USA you > can no longer relate to the world > around you. Firstly, Bush is not America, and America is not Bush. That's the kind of thinking that we're supposed to be fighting in Iraq, remember? Secondly, I learned that the Bush regime cares even less about the welfare of the Iraqi people than I originally thought. It would have been a very small effort to secure a few hospitals and museums "for the Iraqi people". This was not done; in fact US forces waved looters through checkpoints. A couple of crates of morphine and antibiotics aren't a lot to ask, are they? It's not like we need them. We secured the oil ministry though. Whew. Wouldn't want THAT damaged, eh? If I had done that scenario in my game, I shudder to imagine the hate mail I would have received from "patriots". All the stuff about the war having nothing to do with oil looks pretty hollow now. The situation in Iraq is best described as "near anarchy". Maybe all will be well; it's not impossible. However, the more you know about middle eastern politics and history, the less reason you have to be optimistic. Anyone can knock over a depleted third world army; that's not a big deal. The real challenge begins now. The US forces are now policemen, not soldiers. That's a much tougher prospect. Ask the Israelis and the British. They've had a lot of practice, and very little success. Hope that answers your question. regards, Dermot. |
With baited breath, I awaited a point by point rebuttal. After straining her fragile intellect until her neurons squeaked, came the devastating response:
| Subject: Loser Date: Sun, 20 Apr 2003 From: "Ad Valorem" advaloremnet@hotmail.com To: dermotoconnor@idleworm.com You sure seem to hope for the worst for us. But now America's a winner again. That makes you, and the rest who wish this country ill, the loser. The attacks of 9-11 brought MUTUALITY to the hate-America crowd. They hate America, and now America hates them. So long, loser. |
Well, Marsha stunned me with her defense of military action!
"Yeehaw! We's a winner again! We shur whupped dem stoopid Eye-rakkies, eh Maw? Fetch me mah banjo and mah whittlin' stick...we's goin' back to 'nam to finish what we dun' started!"
Main - < Back - Next >
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||
 |
||