The American Spectator

Reader Mail

The War Continues

8.7.06 @ 12:01AM

ROOT OF THE PROBLEM
Re: R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.'s Cool Under Pressure:

Mr. Tyrrell's article "Cool Under Pressure" rightly compliments the Bush administration for holding firm alongside Israel in its legitimate fight against Hezbollah. Yet both the Israelis and the Bush administration fail to see that this noble effort, like the effort of the U.S. in Iraq, like the efforts of the international community in Afghanistan, will all fail unless we see and address the root problem in the Middle East.

As long as the terrorist tyrannies in Syria and Iran are free to support the insurgencies in Iraq and Afghanistan, Hezbollah in Lebanon, not to mention Hamas in the Palestinian territories, there will be continual war in this region. Further, as long as Syria on the west and Iran on the east, are allowed to resupply the insurgencies in Iraq, the U.S. will eventually fail in that country. Even the situation in Afghanistan is now deteriorating, thanks to increasing efforts by Iran in helping various insurgent groups, including the Taliban.

I wonder how long the West, and especially the U.S., will continue to tolerate this outrage. Until Iran is a nuclear power? That would be the summit of foolishness.
-- R. L. Markley
St. Martin du Mont, France

CONSERVATIVES AND IRAQ
Re: Neal B. Freeman's NR Goes to War:

Thank you so much for publishing Neal Freeman's excellent article, "NR Goes to War," on your website today. I was delighted to see the article in your print edition, and am even more delighted to see it get more exposure on the web. How refreshing to read an article that reminds us that George W. Bush ran for President on a platform that promised "(1) that the U.S. would not act as the world's policeman; (2) that the U.S. would be humble before the nations of the world; and (3) that the U.S. would not engage in nation-building," and that "Taken together, these three planks added up to a conventionally conservative approach." The Wilsonian warmongering that seems to characterize the worldview of so many self-described conservatives these days does not fit into any version of genuine conservatism that I'm familiar with, and its application in practice has not produced very impressive results, to put it mildly. I hope that the Spectator will continue to feature pieces like Mr. Freeman's, and provide a forum for debate on foreign policy in particular. For starters, the Spectator might want to revisit their cover story on Senator Chuck Hagel, whose sin in the eyes of some conservatives was to suggest that an invasion of Iraq might not produce heaven on earth in that unfortunate country, much less enhance America's standing in the world. There are other conservative writers -- your own Doug Bandow for one -- who can also bring useful balance to the foreign policy discussion in your pages. At any rate, thanks for giving the Freeman piece a wider audience today.
-- Catherine Windels

Unlike Mr. Freeman, I am not an erudite highly educated East Coast person of great renown. I have not sat in parlors and listened to great people spout great ideas and then written about them. I am just a rancher, a wife of a retired military LTC., and the mother of an AF Pilot, a Captain. I worked to read the NR piece at 6 a.m. then got to the bottom and thought, how vacuous.

It isn't the great thinkers who give us freedom. And some of us said, when our children went to fight in a war far away, that it wasn't over till we took care of Iran. Even a rancher knows we couldn't fight Iran without taking the country next to it. Proximity is everything. And I am not a brilliant thinker but I am a mother whose children were nearly kidnapped by a terrorist group while we lived in a foreign country years ago. And even then I knew that someday when the terrorists attacked us here in the U.S. that we'd better hit back with such ferocity that we left fear in the hearts of those who struck out at us. Terrorists only understand terror...so give it back to them in such degree that fear is left deep within those who survive.

When the first talk was of al Qaeda most Americans knew the real enemy was radical Islam...wherever it resided. There is no reasoning with these kind of folks and certainly you don't give them anything and then expect them NOT to do something harmful. These radicals are like sociopaths without a guiding conscience, except they are willing to die for their goals. For the American soldiers fighting for our freedom to do as we choose, it is their opinions that count in this mother's heart, not that of well bred folks back in New England who live with elite notions.

So, it isn't over till it's over. Despite hearings yesterday and notions that it is taking too long to win and we should bring the soldiers home now, this will be a tough slog and will last many years. The election in the fall will determine people's will and whether we will ultimately lose. This war on terrorism is a war between two cultures, the culture of death and oppression and the culture of life and freedom. And that is about as erudite as this mother can be this early hour!
-- Beverly Gunn, rancher and proud mother of someone serving
East Texas

The article you published by Neal Freeman "NR Goes to War" paints an inaccurate picture of the NR point of view. In explicitly saying that the U.S. did not make a solid case that Saddam had WMD based on intelligence, Neal is correct. The problem is that Neal implies that the U.S. did have intelligence suggesting that Saddam did not have WMD. This is false. After the Cold War U.S. intelligence capabilities were severely degraded -- especially human "men on the ground" intelligence.

Did the U.S. have solid intelligence that Saddam had WMDs? No.

Did the U.S. have solid intelligence that Saddam did not have WMDs? No.

This is because we did not have solid intelligence concerning the matter at all -- and this is what Neal conveniently obfuscates in his article and it paints a false picture.

In addition the tone of his article is really condescending and belittling of the NR folks. The NR people are cut from the same cloth the Spectator people are cut from and their causes align 90% of the time. To take a cheap shot at them like this is infuriating and you should be embarrassed you as an editor allowed this article to print without accurately representing their point of view -- indeed intentionally misrepresenting it. You should print another article explaining their case in an unbiased manner.

Letter to the Editor

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