Letters to the Editor
Reading the SF Chronicle today, I was inspired to write the following two letters to the editor:
Editor --
The lead-in sentence just below the headline ("The Defiant War;" also see here and here) of the March 19 edition of Sunday's Insight section is disingenuous at best, incorrect and insulting at worst: "When it began three years ago, few people could have anticipated that the combat in Iraq would last so long or that the enemy would become a stubborn and resilient insurgency."
In fact, millions of people all over the world marched in the streets and protested in cities everywhere because we anticipated exactly that; and we have, unfortunately, been validated in our predictions since then. Those of us who opposed the war since late 2002 have been proven correct in our assessment of the threat Saddam Hussein posed to the U.S., our belief that he had no viable WMD, and our predictions that entering into a war with Iraq would ensnare us in a quagmire that would make the debacle in Vietnam look like a cakewalk. It's just a shame that the media and the government ignored our voices before the war began and has continued to do so in the time since then.
For you to say that "no one could have anticipated that the combat in Iraq would last so long" is on a par with Condoleezza Rice's claiming, "I don't think anybody could have predicted that these people... would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile," or the president saying about Hurricane Katrina that "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."
Yes, and no one could have expected the Spanish Inquisition, either.
*****
And this one:
Editor --
Given the increasing number of child-molestation cases that have come to light over the past decade or more among the Catholic clergy world-wide, you would think that Cardinal William Levada would, at best, want to lay low on the subject of children and adoption (Cardinal Levada's Edict, Insight, March 19). He and his church hardly have any credibility on the subject of child-raising these days. Therefore, for him to send out a directive opposing the adoption of children by gay couples or individuals smacks of the rankest hypocrisy -- and illustrates, quite vividly, the ultimate disregard he and his church have for these most vulnerable members of our society.
Why anyone pays attention to the medieval pronouncements of these smug, self-righteous hypocrites is beyond me; then again, I gave up religion years ago because I never did understand that mind-set.
*****
Whether either one gets printed or not is, of course, a crapshoot -- but at least I get to reprint them here.
Editor --
The lead-in sentence just below the headline ("The Defiant War;" also see here and here) of the March 19 edition of Sunday's Insight section is disingenuous at best, incorrect and insulting at worst: "When it began three years ago, few people could have anticipated that the combat in Iraq would last so long or that the enemy would become a stubborn and resilient insurgency."
In fact, millions of people all over the world marched in the streets and protested in cities everywhere because we anticipated exactly that; and we have, unfortunately, been validated in our predictions since then. Those of us who opposed the war since late 2002 have been proven correct in our assessment of the threat Saddam Hussein posed to the U.S., our belief that he had no viable WMD, and our predictions that entering into a war with Iraq would ensnare us in a quagmire that would make the debacle in Vietnam look like a cakewalk. It's just a shame that the media and the government ignored our voices before the war began and has continued to do so in the time since then.
For you to say that "no one could have anticipated that the combat in Iraq would last so long" is on a par with Condoleezza Rice's claiming, "I don't think anybody could have predicted that these people... would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile," or the president saying about Hurricane Katrina that "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."
Yes, and no one could have expected the Spanish Inquisition, either.
*****
And this one:
Editor --
Given the increasing number of child-molestation cases that have come to light over the past decade or more among the Catholic clergy world-wide, you would think that Cardinal William Levada would, at best, want to lay low on the subject of children and adoption (Cardinal Levada's Edict, Insight, March 19). He and his church hardly have any credibility on the subject of child-raising these days. Therefore, for him to send out a directive opposing the adoption of children by gay couples or individuals smacks of the rankest hypocrisy -- and illustrates, quite vividly, the ultimate disregard he and his church have for these most vulnerable members of our society.
Why anyone pays attention to the medieval pronouncements of these smug, self-righteous hypocrites is beyond me; then again, I gave up religion years ago because I never did understand that mind-set.
*****
Whether either one gets printed or not is, of course, a crapshoot -- but at least I get to reprint them here.
posted by Generik at 11:48 PM
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