Reply #6: Ask Questions [View All]

[RoyGBiv]

Questions annoy freepers. You were sent this to try to rile you up and get you to lash out or expend a lot of effort in a fruitless exercise of point/counter-point. Flood the individual with questions, and if any of those questions get satisfactory answers, which they likely won't, then think about a rebuttal. But, until your questions are satisfied, you need not respond.

Questions like: This was from "a" Durham newspaper? Which one? What issue was it in? Have you seen a copy? If not, can you find out for me? Perhaps the paper has a website. Again, what's the name of the paper? Could you find out if it has a website, or maybe just tell me, and I'll find it.

This sounds very much like a fake, floating letter. We've all seen letters from people serving in Iraq, and they do not sound like this. Even those from people whose morale is still high don't sound like this. And, how does someone in Iraq have access to all these numbers and statistics? Even the "word of caution" about the precision of the numbers comes off as fake, particularly since the "number" of murders listed for Detroit coincides closely with the monthly average, which happens to be 39, the other number he mentioned. If it were me and I wanted to make a point, I'd pound on the issue of the letter's authenticity before I bothered with a rebuttal.

However, a few things to rebut if you really want to get into it:

- FDR did not "lead" us into WWII in the sense he means it. We didn't even declare war on Germany until Germany officially declared war on us, which, by the terms of its treaty with Japan, happened to coincide with the point at which we declared war on Japan. There was actually some question about what we'd do if Germany did not honor its treaty with Japan. And the point remains: there is absolutely no evidence at all that Iraq had one thing to do al Qaeda or the events of 9/11.

- The 55,000 deaths indicated for Korea is interesting because this number comes from a particular source that counts the total number of soldiers enlisted in the armed forces who died of all causes between the years 1951 - 1955. This may or may not indicate internet research since this is not an official casualty count by any measure and would not be the number a military person would use. The official number of dead for the Korean War is listed by the US Department of Defense as 33,651 of a total of 5,764,100 enrolled in the military, not all of whom actually served in Korea. I mention this because this silly numbers game really means nothing, but if this person wants to play it, play back.

- JF Kennedy did not "start" the Vietnam war. Neither did he start our involvement with it. That began in the 1950's toward the end of Korea. It got really fired up under LBJ. Again, this means nothing. It is a strawman.

- Point out the disparity in the opening comments about Americans having no patience, about doing well, etc. and the notion that "it took less time" to take Iraq than... Obviously, if Americans are required to have patience for anything involved in this war, we haven't yet actually "taken" Iraq. We're occupying it, and we removed Hussein from power, yes, and in the process of doing that created de facto anarchy. Regardless, the war is not over. If it were, we would not have had almost as many soldiers die in combat so far this month than died prior to the fall of Baghdad.

Just a few things...sorry for the length. I was bored.