Heather Bush Ah, correspondence. In the old days, mail meant something to the people of this country. It was a thing to be appreciated, since it had been brought from one place to another in a saddlebag, Pony Expressed through some of the wildest terrain on Earth. There was a bit of a miracle involved, it must have seemed back then. Eventually, the Post Office started using the automobile, and then ariplanes, which sped things up somewhat. Such innovations could not dim the reverence associated with the mail. The postmark became a legal document, and postage stamps themselves begat a swollen cottage industry for collectors. Even the least personal form of communication, the telegraph, is steeped in nostalgia. That led us to the telephone, and eventually to the Internet and e-mail. Today, correspondence no longer stands on such an Olympian pedestal as it used to, due to the unending deluge of junk mail and spam that has brushed up against ruining our quality of life. Despite the sour taste in our mouths, though, we continue to communicate. This leads me to tell you about Heather. I don't know her at all, so I am at a loss to explain why she would have made contact with me. It must have been something I've written in this space, and there is a link to my e-mail somewhere in this ball of wax, so I'm not blaming her. I'm just pondering, out loud as it were, the condition of her mind. Heather had attached a "letter", with no real explanation on her own behalf. The letter she passed along was written by one Naseer Flayih Hasan. The date on the electronic document reads January 3rd, 2005. It is titled, "How The Left Betrayed My Country - Iraq". I don't imagine that Naseer knows Heather any more than Heather knows me, so there is not much personality tying these reachings-out together. Anyway. Naseer has a problem. Before our ill-advised invasion of that country, he (or she) states that Iraq was cut off from the outside world. True enough; led by the United States, most civilized nations had imposed strict sanctions on the Hussein regime which had lasted well over a decade. However, Naseer does not blame those countries for attempting to keep a lid on the dictator of Iraq. In a twist of logic that would make any self-respecting conservative happy, Naseer actually saw our invasion as a good thing, and expressed dismay that anyone would oppose the kind of death and destruction that automatically go along with our A-10 Warthogs and our Abrams tanks: "So it came as a shock to us when millions of people began demonstrating across the world against America’s build-up to the invasion of our country. We supposed the protests were by people who had no idea about the terrible atrocities that the regime had inflicted upon us for decades. We assumed that once they learned what had happened in Iraq, they would change their minds, or modify their opposition to the war." No such luck. So Americans who opposed the war are summarily dispatched by Naseer as being absolutely senseless, not to mention allied with the forces of evil: "They were impossible to reason with. This was because, on one hand, the sometimes considerable risks they took to oppose the war made them unable to accept the fact that their cause was not as noble as they believed. Then, too, their dogmatic anti-American attitudes naturally drew them to guides, translators, drivers and Iraqi acquaintances who were themselves supporters of the regime. These Iraqis, in turn, affected the peace activists until they came to share almost the same judgments and opinions as the terrorists and defenders of Saddam." Got that? If you oppose the war, you share almost the same judgments and opinions as the terrorists and defenders of Saddam. So where was Naseer with the flowers and the chocolates when our troops got to Baghdad? Never mind; let Naseer continue. "And so I have become disillusioned, at least with the Leftists I met in Iraq. So noble in their rhetoric, they looked to the stars, yet ignored what was happening around them, caring only about what was inside their minds. So glorious in their ideals, their thoughts were inflexible and their deeds unnecessary, even harmful. In the end, they proved to me how dogma and fanaticism had transform peace activists into—lifeless peace 'statues'". Aw, poor Naseem. I always get a lump in my throat when I read about the disillusioned; it almost makes me feel guilty about ever having opposed the war. But then you get to the very bottom of Heather's e-mail, and you see that this was actually an article from Front Page Magazine. I don't know if you've ever read this particular publication, but you can trust me on this, even if you can't see the obvious; it's Republican propaganda. If it weren't, it might have bothered to publish "Naseer's" return address. It turns out that Heather was simply part of a bullshit storm, because Web Guy got the exact same article e-mailed to him by someone who knew that he, too, had taken the posture of a lifeless peace statue. It's not far removed from the easily dissected letter that got passed around awhile back, the one that claimed how much the troops loved Bush, and how they turned their eyes to follow him as he passed by their platoons - which they never did for Clinton. Of course, anyone who believed such hooey is showing their sheer ignorance regarding the workings of military men and women (who do nothing but follow orders... or else). I replied to Heather with this: "Opposing the war and saying 'peace at any cost' are two completely different things. My opposition to the war is not the same as supporting the former regime, and nobody has the right to falsely put such distasteful words in the mouths of those with whom they disagree. Anyway. Check this out: www.costofwar.com When the Republicans who started this war (on pretenses that turned out to be absolutely wrong and therefore had to be morphed into something else, which seems to be the intent behind your attached missive) restore sensible taxation on the very wealthy and on corporate America, the aforementioned link will become irrelevant, and a good degree of my opposition would summarily dissipate. But then there are the thousands of Americans killed and maimed, young people who wouldn't even be in the line of fire if it weren't for the ghastly mistakes made by this administration, before and after the seige... but that's probably asking too much of you, to consult with your conscience where your politics are concerned." Heather, poor and predictable creature that she is, didn't like that. Her response, finally using her own words: "The great thing about the modern age, we have access to the primary news sources today in Iraq - the troops and the Iraqi victims of Saddam Hussein. For almost 22 months I've followed THEIR eye-witness accounts, and they KNOW why they fight, who the enemy is, and the COST. They are better than most of us." I told her I was glad she had found such a nice salve for her soul. I mentioned that she should give all of her disposable income to the VA, so that they'll be better able to deal with the wounded Americans who are coming home in gouts from her war. I doubt she'll do anything even close to that, though. She just wants to follow THEIR eye-witness accounts. Later, I sent her a link to an article in yesterday's newspaper, the one that tells us that the commander of the Army Reserves, Lt. Gen. James R. Helmly, sent a letter to the Pentagon, saying that his troops are demoralized, and are "in grave danger of being unable to meet other operational requirements". He also called Pentagon policies "dysfunctional", and stated his concern that the Reserves are "rapidly degenerating into a 'broken' force." Heather has her propaganda, I pointed out, and I've got mine. The difference, I told her, is that my propaganda is verifiable. I'm quite sure that she had something else to say about that (conservatives can't let go of anything). However, I am unable to present her latest words to you, dear reader, since my server has locked me out of my e-mail inbox this morning. Ah, technology... Paul Heller 01/07/05 << back to the archives
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