A Bonus from the Times

To the Editor:

As terrible as the 2,000th death in Iraq is, we have not reached the toll of 9/11.

Those who died in this war have given us a crippled enemy who fights on his own soil instead of in the streets of New York. The sacrifice of our soldiers paves the way for a changed Middle East, so we can have a future without planes flying into buildings.

Julia Haas

Just tossing in this extra letter from the New York Times to illustrate that this kind of ethnocentric, racist thinking seems to be catching among uninformed Americans who need to justify their support for a corrupt administration by rationalizing an immoral war. This letter just puts it very succinctly.

See, some of us didn't know our efforts in Iraq were an attempt to match the casualties of September 11th, 2001, like some sort of bizarre, macabre 401k plan. Since 9/11 and Iraq are completely unrelated situations, a comparison like this is pretty fucking inane.

Now, let's talk about "his own soil", shall we? Who's soil, Julia? Iraqi soil? Remind me, you brainwashed little zombie, how many of the terrorists responsible for the events on 9/11 were Iraqi? Did you say absolutely none? Probably not, because you're still busy spouting the Bush camp line about staying the course and muslims who hate our freedom. But that's the right answer. Not one 9/11 terrorist was from Iraq, or had anything to do with Iraq. You know who did have something to do with it, Julia? A guy named Osama Bin Laden. Do you know where he is, Julia? NEITHER DOES THE FUCKING BUSH ADMINISTRATION. They gave up looking for him so they could defeat terrorism in what was once virtually terrorist-free Iraq. Brilliant plan, eh?

Your theory is blatantly racist, Julia. Your entire argument is pretty much based on the concept of all arab nations, and all arab people, basically being interchangable. Basically, it's the same as your neighbor going on an axe-murdering spree, and then the police coming and arresting you. Sure, we know you're not the one who did it, but you live on the same street, so it's pretty close, and if the axe-murdering neighbor gets scared into not axe-murdering people anymore, it's all okay.

Of course, in a slightly different sense, I suppose I hope your neighbor is an axe-murderer.

Sleep tight.