My letter to the Austin American-Statesman

Here is the text of my letter to the Statesman in response to letters decrying Lieberman's defeat, dissent being unpatriotic, and Cheney claiming Connecticut's decision helped Al Quaeda:

Patriotism is Dissent
Re: Kevin Birdsell's and Rick Hill's letters to the editor, Tuesday, August 15, I thought Dick Cheney's comments about Ned Lamont's defeat of Joe Lieberman ties them together nicely. To paraphrase, Cheney said that by defeating Lieberman, Connecticut voters helped Al Quaeda. It is that kind of outrageous charge that folks who oppose the war object to. It is nonsense and polls show more and more Americans-Democrat, Republican and Independent-are seeing it as such, Mr. Birdsell. (By the way, a fact, by definition, is not arguable.)

Joe Lieberman wasn't rejected by his party because he was strong on defense as Mr. Hill says. He was rejected because he supported a war of adventure against a country that had nothing to do with the 9/11 attacks, and continued to support it long after it was irreparably botched. The US military presence has long been irrelevant to how things will turn out in Iraq. The 300 bodies that show up daily in Baghdad morgues aren't victims of insurgents. They are victims of sectarian assassinations our military is powerless to stop. The situation there is in Iraqi hands now and we are pretty much irrelevant.

That's why we want the troops home as soon as possible. They're presence can no longer help matters and only makes them targets. Their absence won't fundamentally change the balance of power there, where militias are acting with impunity even now.
Instead of supporting the Iraqi adventure, Joe should have stood with other Democrats who pointed out we should finish the job in Afghanistan. You know, the place where the actual perpetrators of 9/11 were sheltered. Maybe if we had focus our efforts on wiping out Al Quaeda and the Taliban, Osama bin Laden and Mullah Omar would be dead or captured, and then we could have disarmed the warlords and controlled the opium trade. Instead, those criminals are strangling that poor country.

The Iraq war, far from making us safer, is a recruitment poster, swelling the ranks of radicalized young Muslims who want to kill us. Democrats wanted their leaders to be the loyal Opposition. Instead, Joe was a blind follower. That's why he was defeated. That democracy in action. McGovern has nothing to do with it, Republican propaganda aside.

We used to be the nation the world looked to for unbridled, even cockeyed, optimism. This administration and Congress has made us purveyors of the fear and smear propaganda campaign. Patriots should stand in opposition, remove these scoundrels, and get ready for the long hard work necessary to repair the damage they have done.

Here's the text of the letters I responded to:

The Fall of the Democrats
When U.S. Sen. Joe Lieberman lost the Connecticut primary, the Democratic Party became the official anti-war party. The last time it wore this mantle, George McGovern was soundly defeated by President Nixon in the 1972 election.

A Democrat who supported a strong defense, Lieberman could stand shoulder-to-shoulder with other great Democrats such as Hubert Humphrey and Ed Muskie. Now after 30 years of public service, Lieberman has been kicked to the curb and the party has been taken over by the MoveOn.org fringe. President Lyndon B. Johnson and Sam Rayburn would roll over in their graves if they could see what has happened to this once-proud party.

RICK HILL

Buda

Free speech goes both ways
I am amazed when I hear on the radio, watch on television and read in the American-Statesman liberals and people who oppose this war using the unpatriotic card.

I did not realize exercising First Amendment rights is a one-way street. Somehow it is OK to call this president a liar, racist, war-monger, etc. But if a Republican dares to question their facts, opinions, etc., well, we must be questioning their patriotism.

If someone wants to question patriotism, they have every right to do that, too.

Quit crying about your patriotism being questioned, because that person has the same rights that you do to call President Bush a liar, racist and war-monger.

KEVIN BIRDSELL

Hutto