A letter
I found this the other day. While I don’t agree with the author 100%, I do understand.
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Letter to U.S. service member says what most of us are thinking …
The introduction to this letter says it was written by an interior designer and home planner from Atlanta. She was apparently writing to a relative serving in Iraq. Enjoy.
WHAT’S ALL THE FUSS?
“Are we fighting a war on terror or aren’t we? Was it or was it not started by Islamic people who brought it to our shores on September 11, 2001? Were people from all over the world, mostly Americans, not brutally murdered that day, in downtown Manhattan, across the Potomac from our nation’s capitol and in a field in Pennsylvania? Did nearly three thousand men, women and children die a horrible, burning or crushing death that day, or didn’t they?
And I’m supposed to care that a copy of the Koran was “desecrated” when an overworked American soldier kicked it or got it wet? Well, I don’t. I don’t care at all!
I’ll start caring when Osama bin Laden turns himself in and repents for incinerating all those innocent people on 9/11.
I’ll care about the Koran when the fanatics in the Middle East start caring about the Holy Bible, the mere possession of which is a crime in Saudi Arabia.
I’ll care when Abu Musab al-Zarqawi tells the world he is sorry for hacking off Nick Berg’s head while Berg screamed through his gurgling, slashed throat.
I’ll care when the cowardly so-called “insurgents” in Iraq come out and fight like men instead of disrespecting their own religion by hiding in mosques.
I’ll care when the mindless zealots who blow themselves up in search of nirvana care about the innocent children within range of their suicide bombs.
I’ll care when the American media stops pretending that their First Amendment liberties are somehow derived from international law instead of the United States Constitution’s Bill of Rights.
In the meantime, when I hear a story about a brave marine roughing up an Iraqi terrorist to obtain information, know this: I don’t care.
When I see a wounded terrorist get shot in the head when he is told not to move because he might be booby-trapped, you can take it to the bank that I don’t care.
When I hear that a prisoner, who was issued a Koran and a prayer mat, and fed “special” food that is paid for by my tax dollars, is complaining that his holy book is being “mishandled,” you can absolutely believe in your heart of hearts that I don’t care.
And oh, by the way, I’ve noticed that sometimes it’s spelled “Koran” and other times “Quran.” Well, Jimmy Crack Corn and — you guessed it — I don’t care!”
September 19th, 2007 at 11:57 pm
I sympathize with the letter-writer, but of course she does need to care. She needs to care because every servicemember knows that our military simply isn’t strong enough to take on the hordes of terrorists that are created when disrespect the Koran or rough up a detainee. We have to tread carefully with the Muslim world, and our methods matter. Saying that you don’t care isn’t wise.
I was an Air Force officer for several years, and I have deployed in support of OEF/OIF. I don’t believe it’s a liberal screed to acknowledge that this was a poorly planned and executed endeavor. This isn’t a liberal or conservative issue. Railing against “the media” doesn’t get us anywhere, and the author loses rhetorical strength with that comment.
Frankly, I’m in a Top 20 law school right now, so I can tell the author that actually, the First Amendment and the Constitution itself did indeed derive from the laws and practices of another country. There really is no “international law”. There are the laws of other countries and there are the treaties and other agreements that we have signed with other countries. How other countries approach problems in their law has influenced our thinking and our law since 1789. And the treaties we have signed influence our law continually. So, the author reveals ignorance on the topic and thus lessens the force of her argument.
I would not be surprised if the author got her viewpoints on that issue from listening to “the media”, specifically media outlets that agree with her worldview. It would be most helpful if everyone, both on the left and the right, stopped listening to talking heads on CNN or Foxnews, Limbaugh or Al Franken, and instead picked up a book and started getting themselves educated about these topics.