Well, it's started. Right now it's just the sarcastic 'oh, you crazy left winger, you are so right' type of email (from someone who obviously means 'you are so wrong'). But I'm certain it will get worse. I stand by my comments, however, and will stand by them to the death. What Saddam was may have been wrong, but what we did was far, far wronger. More wrong? Whatever the right word there is.
Hello -
I just read your letter to Saddam (it's Hussein, not Hussain) and I couldn't agree with you more.  You have shown a great deal of courage writing such a bold and heartfelt letter to an obviously innocent and misunderstood man.  Let me elaborate.
1.  You mentioned the rash and unreasonable actions of our government.  How true!  After all, when Saddam invaded Kuwait in 1990, we unreasonably required that he end these imperialistic thrusts.  We rashly moved in and liberated the people of Kuwait.  Then we harshly forced Saddam to stay in power rather than be overthrown and get off the hook.  We placed unreasonable restraints on his weapons of mass destruction programs, and have spent the last 12 years looking over his shoulder all the time.  In an attempt to trump up a military action, we stood by for 12 years without enforcing these restrictions the UN placed on him and simply requested that he cooperate.  Then, finally, we had went to the UN and got them to pass a resolution passed that would remove him from power if he failed to comply (which was exactly what the Gulf War Accord called for in 1991).  How unreasonable of us to go in there and do what we said we'd do for the last dozen years!
2.  You said that a majority of Americans are against military action.  How insightful of you to bring this up!  I mean, even if all the major polling agencies report that as many as 70% favored going to war, you know Time Warner and Gallup are all in the pocket of the current administration...
3.  You said the US has no right to wage war against a nation for building up weapons when that's all we're doing with our own weapons!  You are so right.  We should completely disarm.  In fact, if we were to dismantle the military altogether, that's got to be almost 20% of the national budget that we'd eliminate.  Then we could pour more money into socialized medicine, educational reform, and - of course - entitlement programs to people who won't work.  After all, pouring excess money into these types of programs hasn't worked yet, but you have to ride these things out!
In short, you have struck a chord with me.  That's why I'm calling on all people like you and me to do something that will get everyone's attention for our cause.  Let's all abandon this failed and miserable nation and find a better place to live.  Someplace where there's justice, freedom, and opportunity.  
By the way, please let me know when you find such a place!
Ben
And my reply
> Hello -
> I just read your letter to Saddam (it's Hussein, not Hussain) and I couldn't agree with you more.  You have shown a great deal of courage writing such a 
bold and heartfelt letter to an obviously innocent and misunderstood man.  Let me elaborate.

Corrected. My spelling has never been my strong point.

I've never stated that Saddam is/was innocent. I've merely stated that his guilt or lack therof does not give us the right to host a preemptive invasion on his country.


> 1.  You mentioned the rash and unreasonable actions of our government.  How true!  After all, when Saddam invaded Kuwait in 1990, we unreasonably required that he end these imperialistic thrusts.  We rashly moved in and liberated the people of Kuwait.  Then we harshly forced Saddam to stay in power rather than be overthrown and get off the hook.  We placed unreasonable restraints on his weapons of mass destruction programs, and have spent the last 12 years looking over his shoulder all the time.  In an attempt to trump up a military action, we stood by for 12 years without enforcing these restrictions the UN placed on him and simply requested that he cooperate.  Then, finally, we had went to the UN and got them to pass a resolution passed that would remove him from power if he failed to comply (which was exactly what the Gulf War Accord called for in 1991).  How unreasonable of us to go in there and do what we said we'd do for the last dozen years!

Well..

1) DO you have any idea how many imperialistic invasions the U.S. has been involved in in the last fity years? We really, seriously, literally, in the real world, are far more guilty than Saddam.
2) And how many weapons of mass destruction do we have? Heck, when Saddam was gassing people, so were we! We had no moral problems with gas in Vietnam or the Koreas..
3) Saying we're going to do something for twelve years doesn't make it any better of a thing to do. We actually did pretty thoroughly disarm Saddam with the U.N. inspectors (see Scott Ritter's comments on the subject) - and then we hosted a war on him DESPITE THE FACT THAT HE HAD DISARMED, AND WAS COMPLYING WITH THE UN INSPECTORS.

> 2.  You said that a majority of Americans are against military action.  How insightful of you to bring this up!  I mean, even if all the major polling agencies report that as many as 70% favored going to war, you know Time Warner and Gallup are all in the pocket of the current administration...

I said that, and I quote, "possibly a majority". One of the problems with the current system is that it's very difficult to tell who's in the pockets of who. It is entirely possible that pollsters are either not reporting the truth or 'spinning' their answers by manipulating the data through leading questions.

In any case, you put a major dent in any credibility you might have when you changed a 'possibly' to a blanket statement.

> 3.  You said the US has no right to wage war against a nation for building up weapons when that's all we're doing with our own weapons!  You are so right.  We should completely disarm.  In fact, if we were to dismantle the military altogether, that's got to be almost 20% of the national budget that we'd eliminate.  Then we could pour more money into socialized medicine, educational reform, and - of course - entitlement programs to people who won't work.  After all, pouring excess money into these types of programs hasn't worked yet, but you have to ride these things out!

Perhaps if we weren't so busy exporting all our jobs, we wouldn't _need_ entitlement programs for people who didn't work. And perhaps if we put money into finding ways to massively broaden our resource base, there would be enough to go around, for working and nonworking alike. But putting money into destroying resources - through war among other things - always ensures everyone will be poorer.

> In short, you have struck a chord with me.  That's why I'm calling on all people like you and me to do something that will get everyone's attention for our cause.  Let's all abandon this failed and miserable nation and find a better place to live.  Someplace where there's justice, freedom, and opportunity.  

Either abandon or change. But, sadly, it may be too late for the sinking u.s.a. We've moved all our jobs off shore - the only thing we make here any more is bombs. You can't sell each other hamburgers forever.

Did you notice that the dollar fell 20% against the euro in the last six months? Did you see the millions of people around the globe who gathered to protest the unilateral action of the U.S.? 

> By the way, please let me know when you find such a place!

I'm searching. There are a few places that look promising.

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