I recently had a shocking revelation regarding those who have supported or lambasted our continuing intervention in Iraq. It is (would you believe this?) that all my liberal friends oppose the effort, and all my conservative friends applaud it. As an aside, I am one who cannot stand Bush but have supported his Iraqi policy.
But aside from the fact that people are predominantly leading with their prejudices rather than their collective reasoning, there are governing overlays that tend to be conveniently ignored:
·As a student of American history, I know for certain that every military campaign and occupation in our history has been justified by the political and military leaders of the time by "facts" that were ripe for second-guessing. And isn't it odd that millions of people seem to have no problem with the notion that Saddam Hussein (of all people) was telling the truth, whole truth and nothing but, regarding WMDs?
·Folks, the people who make the final decisions in these matters have information (reliable, unreliable, or indifferent) at their disposal that by comparison puts the general public in a veritable vacuum.
·Ignore all of the above. But during your next idle moment, examine your base rationale for opposing this operation.
Unless you're just anti-war, period (another group that's a lost cause), dollars to donuts says it comes down to your feelings about Dubya.
Lewis Witham, Seattle
Finally, a voice of sanity from the left in Seattle. If you read the rest of the letters on the page, you will find a cesspool of "Bush Lied" or similar nonsense. There are three or four letters supportive of Bush or members of his administration, which is astonishly high for either of the Seattle papers. Unlike the one-note Dems, however, the Bush supporters annoyingly find multiple different targets for their praise. Just goes to show that the GOP can't focus on a message...
posted on July 27, 2003 12:24 PM
