an email from a kool-aid drinker that needs responding to-

[dysfunctional press]

recently, i was put on a "mass" email from an old acquaintance who had recently had an "epiphany" after years of drifting further and further into the dark side- which is why i refer to him as an acquaintance, when i used to call him friend.
anyway some of those who received the mail were good sensible folk, while others obviously(because of his personal beliefs, he congregated with those who held similar right-of-center views) were not.

i'm not posting the original email, but rather a response that came to me from rick the repuke who apparently hit 'reply all', thinking that everyone would be interested in his take. i wasn't, you won't be- but i'd like to get some responses to send back rude rick's way...

"Folks,
At what point will people start to realize that others are responsible for their own actions. A Nobel Peace Prize winner can pontificate about the evils of America all he wants, it does not relieve others (Radical Islam, Al Qaeda, France & Russia's business dealings with Iraq) of their responsibilities in creating and permitting the evils of the world. The attitude that America caused, then made worse the current situation is at best naive and at worst hypocritical. You may say that Iraq was not a threat to America. This is the same attitude that got 6,000,000 jews incinerated. How many mass graves need to be uncovered in Iraq before people know that it (the invasion of Iraq) was a good and proper thing. Liberating 40,000,000 people from tyranny is an absolute good.

Discussing all the humanitarian actions on the part of the American (Bush) Gov't in contrast to it's supposed evils would be a proper thing to do. My concern is that the media does not report those good actions, and many of you do not want to listen.

Thank You,

Rick
"

i'm going to mention to rick for one thing that although he may find the liberation of 40million from tyranny- that's not what we we told going in- plus we were told the cost to the american taxpayer would be about $1.3billion- we're now at over 300 billion and climbing- predicted to top $1 trillion- and how are we going to pay for getting the other peoples around the world out of tyranny? burma, the sudan, rwanda, etc...

morans really get me steamed...

have at him if you will-

[Daphne08]

1. That's just gobbledygook which follows no logic whatsoever. n/t

[sinkingfeeling]

2. Well, for starters the population of Iraq was only around 25,000,000

before Bush started the killing fields there. Then we can compare the 290,000 people who 'disappeared' during the 24 year reign of Saddam to the numbers that died as a direct result of the US-led sanctions against the country and the 100,000 civilians that our invasion has killed in less than 3 years.

[RufusEarl]

9. Don't forget

The iraqis that were kill due to the fact the Bush the first didn't back them up after he convinced them to overthrow Saddam and then left holding the bag and thousands were killed by Saddam.

This also explains the shallow graves of thousands of Iraqis that were uncovered after Saddam's overthrow, most were Shiites that tries to overthrow Saddam.

[Mythsaje]

3. Well...

Arguing that America bears some responsibility for the chaos that has ensued after the invasion of Iraq, and the fact that maybe, just maybe, the threat we allegedly faced from Saddam was more economic than military.

Pointing out where America's actions are missteps is an act of patriotism, while trying to close our eyes to the reality of the situation is anything but. Sure, the terrorists who attacked us were wrong, but those who consider themselves defending their country and their people in the only way left open to them are misguided and dangerous, but not necessarily evil.

[EstimatedProphet]

4. You might want to bring up that we've killed more people than Saddam

If Iraq was such a bad place before, why has the standard of living dropped?

When are they going to turn on the electricity and water again?

I'm not saying Saddam was a good guy. I'm saying our priorities there have absolutely nothing to do with the people of Iraq, unless it involves taking their resources.

[jrw14125]

5. no 1 email is gonig to change this guy's opinions...

he's spountign long-debunked talking points and needs an intervention!

[Nicholas D Wolfwood]

6. You're wasting your time and ours.

[MindPilot]

7. Ahh, the old Neville Chamberlain argument...preemption works

but only with the benefit of 20/20 hindsight. Once he can come with a consistent reason to invade Iraq--was it WMDs, liberation from a dictator, an imminent threat to America, regime change, or spreading democracy?--then maybe he can tell you exactly what good things we are doing there that isn't fixing what we broke.

Point out that a trillion bucks to liberate 40 million people is a little steep. That's 250,000 per person. Why would he not prefer that money spent on Americans. Or for that matter we could have given each Iraqi a quarter million in cash and you can bet your ass they could've BOUGHT themselves a new government. You know, like we do.


Perhaps you could also ask him to enumerate those "humanitarian" actions supposedly in numbers so legion as to make the needless deaths of 100,000 plus Iraqis pale in comparison.

[SoCalDem]

8. proper response..

Delete:) and then ignore new emails from whoever sent it to you

[ColonelTom]

10. If "liberating 40,000,000 people from tyranny" is good...

... how about liberating 300,000,000 Americans from it?

[Lefty48197]

11. Congratulations Iraq. You're now free and you may have your Civil War

.

[dysfunctional press]

12. in case anyone might be interested- here's my reply...

i actually sent it not too soon after making the original post- so it's actually a little more an emotional than a reasoned response:

first of all rick- the population of iraq was much closer to 25 million than 40. and regardless- the american people weren’t conned into this quagmire as an exercise in liberation, nation-building, and “getting back at the guy who tried to kill my evil piece-of-shit daddy”- they were told that it was those pesky weapons of mass destruction that never materialized.

The American people were also told that the cost of the whole endeavor to the American taxpayer would be $1.3billion- what we weren’t told was they meant per american taxpayer…the tab(in dollars- we’ll get to lives later) is over $300 BILLION already- and all realistic estimates now put the total cost to the American taxpayer at over $1 trillion. and at 25 million iraq citizens- I’ll trust even you to do the math on how much you, your children, and grandchildren spent per iraqi to buy them out of tyranny(and into civil war- wheeeeeeee!).

and the job’s just starting, isn’t it? seeing as it’s truly the absolute good that’s most important- we have to gear up to get the rest of humanity out from under tyranny as well, right? otherwise, how will we be able to sleep at night- or look ourselves in the mirror? how rick? HOW?

where should we go next, rick- you call it…Myanmar? Sudan? Rwanda? The U.S.A…?

who should we bomb out of tyranny next rick…? who…?


fucking moron.