I think we'd better get this party started, or we'll have more madness like this going on. As Glenn would say, Heh.

This post and photo reminds me of some signs we used to see in the 1960s, "What if they gave a war and nobody came?" in a kind of gloating way.


Today's Deseret News printed this letter to the editor:

The recent spate of letters that seek to demean and denigrate individuals who question the wisdom of war with Iraq is disturbing to those of us who still believe that intelligent debate is an integral part of the democratic process. This forum has served as host to many who apparently seek to marginalize those who oppose the war effort with sophomoric name-calling and lock-step adherence to whatever the current administration tells us to believe.


There are millions of Americans who doubt the methodology and motivation behind this impending war. The vast majority are mainstream, tax-paying individuals who love their country � love it enough to brave a storm of criticism to voice objection to this dubious war effort. Please take a moment to examine your premise � that free speech and thought is somehow dangerous. A quick study of history will reveal that the implications of such a position can be disastrous.

.
Teresa Browning Hess

Salt Lake City

I should ignore this kind of whining, but it is so egregious and deceitful I had to respond:

Teresa Browning Hess writes, "The recent spate of letters that seek to demean and denigrate individuals who question the wisdom of war with Iraq is disturbing to those of us who still believe that intelligent debate is an integral part of the democratic process." I've written a lot of letters about this issue and I generally agree with her sentiment, but the crucial words are intelligent debate. So far, I haven't seen much of that from the anti-action side. I really wish that she and they would make their case, instead of changing the subject.

Show me, for instance, how relying on the U.N. to solve any crisis in the past has stopped war, genocide or oppression, and I'll show you North Korea, Cambodia's killing fields, Rwanda, Somalia, Iraq, Syria, Israel and Palestine. It was NATO's armed troops that stopped the bloodbath in Bosnia, prevented a worse one in Kosovo and led to the ouster of Slobodan Milosevic in Serbia. Meanwhile, peace marchers encourage Saddam to drag his feet and give him clues as to how to play for more time. President Bush has done everything they've asked to show good faith. What have Chirac and Schroeder done?

Yet we keep hearing the same vapid chants and falsehoods. I can't really fault anybody for losing patience. Debates like this are not nice and formal. I haven't noticed that the opponents to Bush's policies are pulling any punches. They've called him every name but President, and painted him as being a new Hitler. Hows that for demeaning and denigrating? Is it any wonder that people start to conclude that they are anti-American?

Nothing I have seen in print is a threat to anyone's freedom of speech. Nothing has suggested that "free speech and thought is somehow dangerous." What Ms. Hess' letter boils down to is a double standard. It puts me in mind of an old childhood taunt, "If you can't take it, don't dish it out."

This is so typical of the pseudo-intellectuals in this country and Europe. They demand freedom for themselves, but when they get criticized, it's "hurtful" and "destructive of intelligent debate." Most of them wouldn't know reason from rhetoric if you printed it on their foreheads. All they can do is repeat slogans and denials, profess their love and concern for all mankind, and ask for more proof. Here's a challenge: No greater love hath any man, than that he lay down his life for his friend--or even some poor oppressed people living under the boot heel of a maniac. As Americans we have been delivered a great gift. We're rich and powerful, and we don't wish anybody harm. Thousands upon thousands of us from prior generations have died fighting beyond our shores to fight back evil. If we balk and fret now when it is our turn to do something as right as this, particularly for petty and partisan political reasons, we will have let down the cause of freedom and human rights. Our children will think of us with downcast eyes and feel shame.

I don't kid myself that this will be a cakewalk. It could be a horrorshow. But that is always the case when courage is required. If the "peace" movement thinks that George W. Bush or any of his advisors don't understand that and take it seriously, they are not only fools but contemptible.