Are you Syria-s?

Dear Mr. President,

Are you consciously attempting to start World War III? I was just wondering since bombing things seems to be a past time of yours. This country needs our troops to be home helping families in New Orleans and Mississippi deal with the aftermath of Katrina. Instead they are fighting some holy war you've decided to engage in in the Middle East.

And the funniest part of this "War on Terror" is that it seems to be predicted by a comedy program on cable TV. The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, some weeks (or even months) ago now, joked about Syria being the next target. Maybe I should be tuning in more often to find out WWWB? (What Would W. Bomb?).

Disappointment

originally sent 7/28/05

Dear Mr. President,

The worst moment in any person's life is when they suddenly see the mistakes they have made and how they have hurt other people. For a good person, this is the most painful part of living. For a bad one, they're only memories.

Which are you Mr. President? Do you lie awake and wonder how to make things right? Or have you not even gotten to that point yet? Could that be possible? Is it possible that you haven't faced the realization that this war in Iraq and this unnatural control that politics has over government are terrible mistakes that you could have stopped. Well, to be honest, you could have prevented the war in Iraq, but could you have changed the face of modern politics? Wouldn't that be worth a chapter in the history books. Single-handedly reforming politics and government so that the people and the Country matter, rather than the egos and the Party.

It's late, and I like to dream.

Collateral

Dear Mr. President,

How much are we spending on Iraq? Did we have the money to spend or have we taken out a loan? I'm asking because there is a lot of talk in the news reports of "collateral". I looked up the word to be sure I understood: " of a secondary nature; subordinate: collateral target damage from a bombing run."

How many Iraqis are collateral damage? Actually, that's a very good question. It seems not many people know that answer. In fact, I would hazard to guess that no one actually knows that answer since no one has bothered to keep track. Oh sure, there may be one Iraqi attempting to write emails to his (or her, :*)) new, elected President commenting on the damage done so far; but I'm sure no one is listening to him (or her).

But, collateral is necessary to get things done. Right, Mr. President? In a loan it is offered up in the event the borrower cannot repay the debt. It the only way the lender is sure they will get back what they gave out (and then some). We made a promise to Iraq: We'll take your country, but give it back to you better. Isn't that about right? So who is really our collateral? If we cannot rebuild Iraq as promised, wouldn't our troops be the collateral damage? Aren't they the ones we are considering subordinate because we didn't have a viable exit strategy? The real heroes always seem to die tragically, don't they? While the villains slip away somewhere trying to go unnoticed. Perhaps out to a large ranch in Texas, for example.

Operation Enduring Freedom

This is one of the original emails that got me started with my obsession.
I believe I sent it out around Memorial Day.

Operation Enduring Freedom

When pondering things
people endure
the images that appear
make me unsure

I see women with babies
eating scraps from the trash
I see firemen removing
bodies from ash

I hear countries pleading
for the World's helping hand
I see tribes of people
fighting for land

I know of silenced voices
and loud-spoken lies
cherubic assailants
with hate in their eyes

There are leaders who follow
their own tainted paths
and lead innocent soldiers
into hopeless bloodbaths

If we're fighting for Freedom
and this cause is pure
why has it become
something to endure?

ltv

Fun with Excel

Dear Mr. President,

I was reading a CNN.com article about the casualties of the coalition forces in Iraq. Here are the numbers they listed within a paragraph of text:

There have been 2,059 coalition troop deaths, 1,867 Americans, 93 Britons, 13 Bulgarians, one Dane, two Dutch, two Estonians, one Hungarian, 26 Italians, one Kazakh, one Latvian, 17 Poles, one Salvadoran, three Slovaks, 11 Spaniards, two Thai and 18 Ukrainians.

Within the article you could click on a link to see a graphical representation. Only after immediately noticing that Britain is the largest bar on the chart, my eyes found the title for the chart that reads: "Non-US casualities". I wondered why they didn't include the US in the graph? So I graphed it myself in Excel. It turns out that in a bar chart of the US and the individual non-US casualities, all the non-US countries are nothing more than a raised bump off the base of the chart next to an enormous bar representing the US. It sort of makes you wonder why the CNN.com site would make a graph that was so misleading. It also makes me wonder why our American troops are getting the majority of casualities.

I've included my chart here. (The original chart wouldn't fit, here's a low tech version.)

# Killed
2000
1800 ......$
1600 ......$
1400 ......$
1200 ......$
1000 ......$
800 ........$
600 ........$
400 ........$
200 ........$
0 ............$ $ s - - - - - s - - - - - -*

............US..UK

............................s= Poland and Italy

* See above list for all countries with less than 30 casualities.


Graphically Yours,

LTV

abracadabra

originally sent 8/18/05

Dear Mr. President,

Tonight I had dinner with an old friend. He is an ardent supporter of yours and it is a topic we generally agree not to discuss. Inevitably though one of us brings it up and we debate not only you, but also your decision to go to war in Iraq. (Here's a side note: Is the correct phrase "go to war IN Iraq" or is it "go to war WITH Iraq"? Why are we at war WITH Iraq now?)

Tonight's debate about you lead me to ask: "Why do you like him?" Apparently, you have something called "cohones" and know how to use them, primarily because of your background as a cowboy. My attempts to point out your Harvard and Yale frat background, coupled with your multi-millions while growing up, were dismissed. As I have mentioned before: Nice trick.

I believe the analogy that was used to describe your involvement in Iraq was a bar fight. "If someone hits me in a bar with a bat, I'm going to go back there and kick his ass." When I tried to use his analogy to accurately reflect the situation, I was told I do not understand at all what is going on. Here was my rebuttal: "If I get hit in the head with a bat (in a bar), I will go back and kick the guy's ass that hit me. I will not go back into the bar and turn to the guy's smaller, easier to hit friend, and proceed to kick his ass only because the guy who hit me isn't around anymore."

Apparently, according to my friend's argument, when the terrorists hit the World Trade Center, they were lead by Iraq. I did not know this. I was under the impression that Osama Bin Laden and the Al Qaeda terrorist network were responsible for the attacks. It was also my understanding that a lot of the terrorist cells that we suspected were involved were located in Afghanistan (which, in all fairness, we did bomb). I'm still not entirely certain of Saddam Hussein's World Trade Center connection. I know Saddam is a very bad leader and did nasty things to his people. I know that the world is probably better off without him as the leader in Iraq. I don't know why it is our business to attack him in the name of the World Trade Center attacks, just so we can rid ourselves of him as a threat. I also don't know if Osama Bin Laden and the Al Qaeda terrorist network (which by now is sounding like a local cable channel) have been caught and put to trial. Do we know for sure that none of the detainees in Guantanamo are Osama Bin Laden? I mean, really, what progress have we made here? Didn't Britain catch their terrorists within a week or so?

Well, whatever the story you choose to tell about that, I'm sure it will be a good one. You seem to have a gift of illusion (aka deception). Did you take lessons from Copperfield? Instead of making things disappear (although that does raise the question about Vice President Cheney's whereabouts) you make non-things appear. I'm sure your methods are a well-guarded trade secret; but someday, I would like to know how you did it.

Perplexedly,

LTV

Iraq-nophobia

originally sent 8/11/05


Dear Mr. President,

I am afraid of spiders. Truly, unreasonably, afraid of them. Clinically, it's called Arachnophobia: an abnormal fear of spiders. One of them, spiders I mean, has built itself quite an impressive web in the window of my back stairs. Every day, I have to pass by this elaborate nest of webbing, dead flies and, of course, the spider. The spider is almost as big as a chipmunk. Well, perhaps reasonably smaller than that; but in my mind -- definitely chipmunk-sized. The good days are when I can talk myself into believing it isn't there so I can bring my groceries up the most convenient way into my apartment. The bad days are the ones where I either take the front stairs or I pass the damn thing as I am coming up the stairs and see it moving just as I reach eye level with it. I am tingling with fear even as I write this.

It's been several months now that the spider has taken up residence within my line of sight. Even though I know it can't hurt me and even though I know it has nothing short of indifference (or at best contempt) for me, today I took a broom and destroyed it's home with the intent of killing it. It leapt at me. I wish I were exaggerating here. Perhaps to make it closer to reality I can say "it leapt in my direction." Either way, it was thrust into the air, in my direction, causing me to panic even more and squash it when it hit the ground and tried to scurry away from me.

Every nerve ending in my body lit on fire with horror. But that was not as frightening as when I realized I didn't have to kill it or touch it at all. It was no threat to me. It was simply my own "abnormal fear" of spiders which made it seem a much larger threat. I acted out of that fear and extinguished a life. A life consisting solely of building a home, procuring food, and sooner or later, dying. Sure, I can hear some people thinking right now "It's only a spider." Sure, I know that. I'm not going to beat myself up too bad about killing it.

Are you thinking the same thing about the Iraqis? There was nothing in Iraq that warranted our attack. The people now are attempting to protect their homes. Have we become that xenophobic? So afraid of what might hurt us that we act out of an abnormal fear? The UN and the world tried to tell us what a reasonable response would be, but we were so maddened by our phobia we didn't listen.

Please, Mr. President, listen now. End the war in Iraq.