THE WAR - Read and comment.........

[baja]

This was written by a retired attorney, to his sons, May 19, 2004.


Dear Tom, Kevin, Kirby and Ted,

As your father, I believe I owe it to you to share some thoughts on the present world situation.We
have over the years discussed a lot of important things, like going to college, jobs and so forth.
But this really takes precedence over any of those discussions. I hope this might give you a longer term perspective that fewer and fewer of my generation are left to speak to. To be sure you understand that this is not politically flavored, I will tell you that since Franklin D. Roosevelt, who led us through pre and WWII (1933 - 1945) up to and including our present President, I have without exception, supported our presidents on all matters of international conflict. This would
include just naming a few in addition to President Roosevelt - WWII: President Truman - Korean War 1950; President Kennedy - Bay of Pigs (1961); President Kennedy - Vietnam (1961); eight presidents (5 Republican & 4 Democrat) during the cold war (1945 - 1991); President Clinton's strikes on Bosnia (1995) and on Iraq (1998).

So be sure you read this as completely non-political or otherwise you will miss the point.

Our country is now facing the most serious threat to its existence, as we know it, that we have faced in your lifetime and mine (which includes WWII). The deadly seriousness is greatly compounded by the fact that there are very few of us who think we can possibly lose this war and
even fewer who realize what losing really means.

First, let's examine a few basics:

1. When did the threat to us start?
Many will say September 11th, 2001. The answer as far as the United States is concerned is 1979, 22 years prior to September 2001, with the following attacks on us:
Iran Embassy Hostages, 1979;
Beirut, Lebanon Embassy 1983;
Beirut, Lebanon Marine Barracks 1983;
Lockerbie, Scotland Pan-Am flight to New York 1988;
First New York World Trade Center attack 1993;
Dhahran, Saudi Arabia Khobar Towers Military complex 1996;
Nairobi, Kenya US Embassy 1998;
Dar es Salaam, Tanzania US Embassy 1998;
Aden, Yemen USS Cole 2000;
New York World Trade Center 2001;
Pentagon 2001.
(Note that during the period from 1981 to 2001 there
were 7,581 terrorist attacks worldwide).[3]

2. Why were we attacked?
Envy of our position, our success, and our freedoms. The attacks happened during the administrations of Presidents Carter, Reagan, Bush 1, Clinton and Bush 2. We cannot fault either the Republicans or Democrats as there were no provocations by any of the presidents or
their immediate predecessors, Presidents Ford or Carter.

3. Who were the attackers?
In each case, the attacks on the US were carried out by Muslims.

4. What is the Muslim population of the World?
25%

5. Isn't the Muslim Religion peaceful?
Hopefully, but that is really not material. There is no doubt that the predominately Christian population of Germany was peaceful, but under the dictatorial leadership of Hitler (who was also Christian), that made no difference. You either went along with the administration or you
were eliminated. There were 5 to 6 million Christians killed by the Nazis for political reasons (including 7,000 Polish priests). (http://www.nazis.testimonyco.uk/7-a.htm ). Thus, almost the same
number of Christians were killed by the Nazis, as the 6 million holocaust Jews who were killed by them, and we seldom heard of anything other than the Jewish atrocities. Although Hitler kept the world focused on the Jews, he had no hesitancy about killing anyone who got
in his way of exterminating the Jews or of taking over the world - German, Christian or any others. Same with the Muslim terrorists. They focus the world on the US, but kill all in the way - their own people or the Spanish, French or anyone else.[5]. The point here is that just like
the peaceful Germans were of no protection to anyone from the Nazis, no matter how many peaceful Muslims there may be, they are no protection for us from the terrorist Muslim leaders and what they are fanatically bent on doing - by their own pronouncements - killing all of us
infidels. I don't blame the peaceful Muslims. What would you do if the choice was shut up or die?

6. So who are we at war with?
There is no way we can honestly respond that it is anyone other than the Muslim terrorists. Trying to be politically correct and avoid verbalizing this conclusion can well be fatal. There is no way to win if you don't clearly recognize and articulate who you are fighting.

So with that background, now to the two major questions:
1. Can we lose this war?
2. What does losing really mean?

If we are to win, we must clearly answer these two pivotal questions.
We can definitely lose this war, and as anomalous as it may sound, the major reason we can lose is that so many of us simply do not fathom the answer to the second question - What does losing mean?

It would appear that a great many of us think that losing the war means hanging our heads, bringing the troops home and going on about our business, like post Vietnam. This is as far from the truth as one can get. What losing really means is:

We would no longer be the premier country in the world. The attacks will not subside, but rather will steadily increase. Remember, they want us dead, not just quiet. If they had just wanted us quiet, they would not have produced an increasing series of attacks against us over the past 18 years. The plan was clearly to terrorist attack us until we were neutered and submissive to them. We would of course have no future support from other nations for fear of reprisals and for the reason that they would see we are impotent and cannot help them.

They will pick off the other non-Muslim nations, one at a time. It will be increasingly easier for them. They already hold Spain hostage. It doesn't matter whether it was right or wrong for Spain to withdraw its troops from Iraq. Spain did it because the Muslim terrorists bombed their train and told them to withdraw the troops. Anything else they want Spain to do, will be done. Spain is finished.

The next will probably be France. Our one hope on France is that they might see the light and realize that if we don't win, they are finished too, in that they can't resist the Muslim terrorists without us. However, it may already be too late for France. France is already 20% Muslim and fading fast. See the attached article on the French condition by Tom Segel. [6]

If we lose the war, our production, income, exports and way of life will all vanish as we know it. After losing, who would trade or deal with us if they were threatened by the Muslims. If we can't stop the Muslims, how could anyone else? The Muslims fully know what is riding on this
war and therefore are completely committed to winning at any cost. We better know it too and be likewise committed to winning at any cost.

Why do I go on at such lengths about the results of losing? Simple. Until we recognize the costs of losing, we cannot unite and really put 100% of our thoughts and efforts into winning. And it is going to take that 100% effort to win.

So, how can we lose the war? Again, the answer is simple. We can lose the war by imploding. That is, defeating ourselves by refusing to recognize the enemy and their purpose and really digging in and lending full support to the war effort. If we are united, there is no way that
we can lose. If we continue to be divided, there is no way that we can win.

Let me give you a few examples of how we simply don't comprehend the life and death seriousness of this situation.

- President Bush selects Norman Mineta as Secretary of Transportation. Although all of the terrorist attacks were committed by Muslim men between 17 and 40 years of age, Secretary Mineta refuses to allow profiling. Does that sound like we are taking this thing seriously?
This is war. For the duration we are going to have to give up some of the civil rights we have become accustomed to. We had better be prepared to lose some of our civil rights temporarily or we will most certainly lose all of them permanently. And don't worry that it is a slippery slope.
We gave up plenty of civil rights during WWII and immediately restored them after the victory and in fact added many more since then. Do I blame President Bush or President Clinton before him? No, I blame us for blithely assuming we can maintain all of our Political Correctness and
all of our civil rights during this conflict and have a clean, lawful, honorable war. None of those words apply to war. Get them out of your head.

- Some have gone so far in their criticism of the war and/or the Administration that it almost seems
they would literally like to see us lose. I hasten to add that this isn't because they are disloyal. It is because they just don't recognize what losing means. Nevertheless, that conduct gives the impression to the enemy that we are divided and weakening, it concerns our friends, and it does great damage to our cause.

- Of more recent vintage, the uproar fueled by the politicians and media regarding the treatment of some prisoners of war perhaps exemplifies best what I am saying. We have recently had an issue
involving the treatment of a few Muslim prisoners of war by a small group of our military police. These are the type prisoners who just a few months ago were throwing their own people off buildings, cutting off their hands, cutting out their tongues and otherwise murdering their
own people just for disagreeing with Saddam Hussein And just a few years ago these same type prisoners chemically killed 400,000 of their own people for the same reason. They are also the same type enemy fighters who recently were burning Americans and dragging their charred corpses
through the streets of Iraq. And still more recently the same type enemy that was and is providing videos to all news sources internationally, of the beheading of an American prisoner they held. Compare this with some of our press and politicians who for several days have thought and talked about nothing else but the "humiliating" of some Muslim prisoners
- not burning them, not dragging their charred corpses through the streets, not beheading them, but "humiliating" them. Can this be for real? The politicians and pundits have even talked of impeachment of the Secretary of Defense. If this doesn't show the complete lack of comprehension and understanding of the seriousness of the enemy we are fighting, the life and death struggle we are in and the disastrous results of losing this war, nothing can. To bring our country to a virtual political standstill over this prisoner issue makes us look like Nero playing his fiddle as Rome burned - totally oblivious to what is going on in the real world. Neither we, nor any other country, can survive this internal strife. Again I say, this does not mean that some
of our politicians or media people are disloyal. It simply means that they absolutely oblivious to the magnitude of the situation we are in and into which the Muslim terrorists have been pushing us for many years. Remember, the Muslim terrorists stated goal is to kill all infidels. That translates into all non-Muslims - not just in the United States, but throughout the world. We are the last bastion of defense.

- We have been criticized for many years as being 'arrogant'. That charge is valid in at least one
respect. We are arrogant in that we believe that we are so good, powerful and smart, that we can win the hearts and minds of all those who attack us, and that with both hands tied behind our back, we can defeat anything bad in the world. We can't. If we don't recognize this, our nation as we know it will not survive, and no other free country in the World will survive if we are defeated. And finally, name any Muslim countries throughout the world that allow freedom of speech, freedom of thought, freedom of religion, freedom of the Press, equal rights for anyone - let alone everyone, equal status or any status for women, or that have been productive in one single way that contributes to the good of the World.

This has been a long way of saying that we must be united on this war or we will be equated in
the history books to the self-inflicted fall of the Roman Empire. If, that is, the Muslim leaders will allow history books to be written or read.

If we don't win this war right now, keep a close eye on how the Muslims take over France in the next 5 years or less. They will continue to increase the Muslim population of France and continue to encroach little by little on the established French traditions. The French will be fighting among themselves over what should or should not be done, which will continue
to weaken them and keep them from any united resolve. Doesn't that sound eerily familiar?

Democracies don't have their freedoms taken away from them by some external military force. Instead, they give their freedoms away, politically correct piece by politically correct piece. And they are giving those freedoms away to those who have shown, worldwide, that they abhor freedom and will not apply it to you or even to themselves, once they are in power. They have universally shown that when they have taken over, they then start brutally killing each other over who will be the few who control the masses.

Will we ever stop hearing from the politically correct, about the "peaceful Muslims"?

I close on a hopeful note, by repeating what I said above. If we are united, there is no way that we can lose. I believe that after the election, the factions in our country will begin to focus on the
critical situation we are in and will unite to save our country. It is your future we are talking about. Do whatever you can to preserve it.

Love, Dad

[Crushaholic]

I remember reading a recent USA Today story that interviewed some of the former Iranian hostages. The point of the story is that Iran was the original terrorists striking against America. We didn't face the situation head on. We just wanted the hostages back home. It wasn't until terrorists attacked us on our own soil that we woke up and decided to do something about the whole lot of them. This war isn't just about Bin Laden. It's about fixing something that should have been fixed MANY years ago. I think it will only be a matter of time before we strike Iran.

[watermock]

Took the words right out of my mouth. One of the funniest things is that the French brought in Muslims from Morroco to generally be lower paid service workers. In their arrogance, they believed that it wasn't a general invasion.

Luckily for america, most Mexicans have a semblance of religious concious.

We are left to have our leaders to talk about the "tragedy" of Arafat's condition in of all places, France. The guy is 75. He's salted away 3-10 Billion the west spent to empower the people of Palestine. What did Arafat do? Send it to his wife in FRANCE and she put it in Swiss accounts.

Why? 2 fold. By stealing the money he got rich and could use the money for terrorism. Second, by impoverishing the illiterate masses, he gets more suicide bombers.

Finally, his wife was more of a money laundry outfit than a wife, he hadn't seen her for a year and a half. I seriously suspect that even she doesn't know where the money really is, and that's why it's so damn tight lipped and she isn't giving any information. She's probably praying to Allah that he comes out of his stupor to tell her where to find the money. He won't. Those billions we spent for the people of Palestine are allready socked away for terrorism, along with more billions in Syria with the oil smuggled in.

Guess what? You talked about blackmail. Just yesterday, France, Germany and Russia (who is building the nuclear plant in Iran), are not going to give Iran Billions of Dollars so they "don't" build a nuclear plant. Iran will simply continue a clandestine nuclear program and accept the money, the leaders will steal it, and the average Iranian will continue to suffer.

It's hysterical if it wouldn't be so deadly serious in a nuclear age.

[baja]

We need to not need oil - somehow!

[watermock]

Do what the French do. 80% Nuclear Power.

[mosca]

i am still not sure if this war should be compared to others that our country has fought, simply because it is more complex and much more unconventional than the other struggles we've fought through. i am not trying to diminish the importance of this struggle, just noting that it will be much, much longer, plodding, and trying on our nation if we wish to win. it sickens me that bin laden and other muslim extremists believe in and are counting on the u.s. people's lack of resolve and angst of seeing the blood of our own get shed on the battlefield. and it frightens me at times, hearing the opinion of some americans on our fight with these barbarians. so much impatience.

at times also frightening is hearing the comments of posters like rohirrim, who have stated more or less that they don't think this struggle is as important as it's made out to be, and the thought that such mindsets will spread amongst americans.

[L.A. BRONCOS FAN]

Bush's Sword of Damocles is poised above the people and city of Fallujah, ready to wreak the pent-up wrath his addled brain thinks his tainted election victory permits. This is the bizarre world-in-a-bubble in which most Americans reside. With a chorus of Onward, Christian Soldiers and a vapid, cheerleading press, the crusade continues unabated, as the world's revulsion continues to grow.

True, Americans do have elections, and candidates often take different stances on important issues. But forget the blue state, red state diversion, an artifact of the US' antiquated, slavery-era electoral system. In this winner-take-all distortion, geography itself is given animus, allowing for a host of mini-nationalisms to permeate fallacies about the American mentality. The fact is that Americans in "blue states" are also quite likely to have voted for Bush, and almost as many in "red states" will have voted for Kerry, the "left" candidate. Does this change anything? Well, add to this soup the fact that a hundred extra votes are sprinkled onto the electoral college recipe because of representation in the Senate, note that Wyoming and California both get two votes in this medieval "democracy," and the distortion is complete. American Conservatism, albeit profound, is exaggerated, and Cheney's Corporate Crusaders march triumphantly on to a new wave of destruction.



Of course it is important not to forget the stench wafting from this rotten election. The American fascists, who already thought they had a mandate from God, now think they have one from the American people. Not that any true believer needs any imprimatur other than the former, but hey, it can't hurt. Fortunately, this emphasis on what The American People want is an obsession which all parties to the electoral sham have in common. For better and for worse, a mandate from the American People is tantamount to a call from God, so they are now free to level Fallujah and tick off the other targets on their wish list.

However, like true warriors, the election for these crazies is no more than a blip on the screen, a hiccup on the road to world domination. What is the true fascist reaction to the recent news that your invasion has killed 100,000? Why, to prepare to kill another hundred thousand, of course. Remember Kissinger's chilling exchange on the Nixon tapes where they casually discussed how many would die if they ordered the bombing of the dikes in the north of Vietnam: "...a few hundred thousand... That's a lot of people."

So, while American voters fret and fuss over the tiny problem of whether or not the will of the people actually matters, plans are on track to snuff out the breath of the people by the thousands oh-so-far away. The indifference to this coming massacre is as brutal as it is astounding. It's no wonder that the more "esoteric" issue of depleted uranium dust doesn't register on the radar screens. Most Americans cant even muster the courage to say that the pending Fallujah massacre is wrong. A recent segment on NPR, that bastion of liberal media, had pundits discussing how best to incinerate a city of 300,000. Would air power be most efficient, or would house-to-house combat be necessary? Hmmm..now that's a puzzler!

Deaf to the coming terror for the residents of Fallujah, and blind to its inevitable consequences, we watch (or mostly, don't) as air strikes reduce the small Nazzal Emergency Hospital, run by a Saudi charity, to rubble. Insurgents strike back with a range of attacks across a wide swath of central Iraq, killing more than 30 and wounding almost 60 others, among them over 20 Americans.

A nervous habit of mine is to replay a song over and over in my head, like a musical worry stone. The past couple days it has been Bob Dylan's God On Our Side. And not for nothing. Some of the troops poised to pounce on Fallujah were praying to Jesus and playing Christian rock. Colonel Gary Brandl of the United States Marine Corps commented: 'The enemy has a face. It is Satan's. He is in Fallujah, and we are going to destroy him.'

The sheer terrifying stupidity of these commanders is reflected in the mentality of those up the chain (obviously--hence Gitmo and Abu Ghraib). A recent eye opener came from an interview of a Bush aide by Ron Suskind. The aide waxed philosophical about the great divide between those who make reality (Bush and his angels, I suppose), and those who simply study it. He actually used the term "reality-based community," which I find pretty fitting and ironic in a strange way. I have always considered the fascist core of the Bush junta to be on the other side of a reality divide--I just didn't mean it in quite the same way.

It isn't really that funny, when you think about it. This is psychosis, a sort of mass hysteria which has sucked in tens of millions of Americans. The election, the votes, the campaign--it's all largely irrelevant anyway, to be perfectly honest--a colossal waste of time and money. Before a single vote was cast, the future of the US for the next generation had already been determined, not by the outcome of an election, but by the war in Iraq. This is still the focus of evil in the modern world, as Ronald Reagan might whisper from beyond the grave. Of course fraud matters. But we have to brace ourselves for the reality that the onslaught against Fallujah would be ready to go no matter who won. Majority and mandate are powerful weapons in the hands of the bullies; but how many fascists is few enough? Hitler only needed 30% to begin his slide into Armageddon.

And the Americans are already on their way. The slaughter at Fallujah will be a watershed event in the collapse of the American empire, echoing across the next hundred years. This is hardly hyperbole; the world is already sick of US arrogance and bullying. And it's about to get immeasurably worse....

Sometimes my habit goes into overdrive, and the songs form a medley in my head. Dylan asks "how many deaths will it take 'til he knows..." An upswell of hope convinces me that we might still avoid the slide into hell that seems our due, and the Sandinista hymn reminds me: "Nuestro pueblo es el dueno de su historia/Architecto de su liberacion." It doesn't last long, and Paul Simon's cynical ballad brings me back to the "reality-based" community: "God bless the goods we were given/And God bless the US of A/God bless our standard of living/--Let's keep it that way/ Have a good tiiiiiime..."

http://danielpwelch.com/