Alamo Drafthouse South Lamar
Understanding Arabs From Johnson City
RECEIVED Wed., June 23, 2004
Dear Mr. Monsarrat,
I'm very glad to know that you have this incredible vision into the Arab mentality and their reasons for hating our government or us ["Postmarks Online," June 17]. Have you actually been there or did you figure all of this out from your home in Johnson City? Could it have anything to do with our country (which used to be considered the good guys by most of the world) invading and occupying a foreign country without being provoked, based on speculative intelligence, a president with a personal agenda, and reasons given to us 16 months ago that turned out to be mostly simple lies. I don't know about you, but I'm not fond of being lied to. Especially when the stakes are so high. I have a son dodging bullets in Baghdad daily with the Army, and let me tell you, lots of those boys are getting pretty damned tired of being lied to also. About coming home in July for two weeks R&R only to be told the other day that they are going to draw lotto numbers. The few winning ones will come home for R&R, and the majority get to go to Kuwait for two weeks. They also were sent over for a one-year tour of duty and now have been told that 90 more days have been added to that one year. That's the caliber of leadership that we have calling the shots from the White House. They do all of this and then tout their "support" for the troops. They're begging the U.N. (remember the guys whose approval they didn't need to start this war) for help and anybody else that they can get to help them clean up this pile of sh-- that they've made. I've got another news flash for you Mr. Monsarrat, there is a heck of a lot of the non-Arabic world that is not fond of American foreign policies right now and the aimless, clueless direction and waste of lives and money spent on this Iraq debacle. It has also destabilized the entire Middle East. It will be a miracle if the royal family hangs onto control of Saudi Arabia. Think what that's going to do to the Western world, the price of fuel, and how it will affect our way of life if they are toppled. Add all of this up and truly ask yourself was this war worth it? Thank God most of this country, unlike yourself, are starting to view the whole situation a little differently than they did a year and a half ago.
I'm very glad to know that you have this incredible vision into the Arab mentality and their reasons for hating our government or us ["Postmarks Online," June 17]. Have you actually been there or did you figure all of this out from your home in Johnson City? Could it have anything to do with our country (which used to be considered the good guys by most of the world) invading and occupying a foreign country without being provoked, based on speculative intelligence, a president with a personal agenda, and reasons given to us 16 months ago that turned out to be mostly simple lies. I don't know about you, but I'm not fond of being lied to. Especially when the stakes are so high. I have a son dodging bullets in Baghdad daily with the Army, and let me tell you, lots of those boys are getting pretty damned tired of being lied to also. About coming home in July for two weeks R&R only to be told the other day that they are going to draw lotto numbers. The few winning ones will come home for R&R, and the majority get to go to Kuwait for two weeks. They also were sent over for a one-year tour of duty and now have been told that 90 more days have been added to that one year. That's the caliber of leadership that we have calling the shots from the White House. They do all of this and then tout their "support" for the troops. They're begging the U.N. (remember the guys whose approval they didn't need to start this war) for help and anybody else that they can get to help them clean up this pile of sh-- that they've made. I've got another news flash for you Mr. Monsarrat, there is a heck of a lot of the non-Arabic world that is not fond of American foreign policies right now and the aimless, clueless direction and waste of lives and money spent on this Iraq debacle. It has also destabilized the entire Middle East. It will be a miracle if the royal family hangs onto control of Saudi Arabia. Think what that's going to do to the Western world, the price of fuel, and how it will affect our way of life if they are toppled. Add all of this up and truly ask yourself was this war worth it? Thank God most of this country, unlike yourself, are starting to view the whole situation a little differently than they did a year and a half ago.
Allen Cunningham
Wimberley
Wimberley
