My letter made the paper today in response....here's his article...my response is below........
This was a guest opinion in the Iowa City press Citizen :
This was a guest opinion in the Iowa City press Citizen :
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A war with a "foreign devil," like Saddam Hussein, may serve the purposes of a leader that desires to control the thinking of his people, but a bogus threat to their security does not assist that people in their effort to find a better way for themselves and the neighbors with whom they must live.
"They hate us and want to destroy our way of life" is not uttered by George W. Bush to encourage a brave consideration of the successful sharing of our planet with others. It is propaganda set to inflame the emotions and block a wider search for a better course.
And the media-merchants of derision and division on talk radio and cable news -- in greedy grasp for greater notoriety and larger fortune -- even stoop to charge that an American who questions is guilty of hating his or her own country.
Regardless, with courage and in love of what America stands for and with the resolve of the founders, we can see through this dank and distorting fog of words and find our better way and joint with all people of goodwill in stamping out terrorism and things that breed its inception. To this end I suggest that we turn the larger responsibility for the Iraqi problem over to the people that face it most directly, the Eastern Arab World, and non Arab neighbors that share boards with Iraq.
The world's No. 1 power should request that these nations hold a summit and take charge of establishing a peace in Iraq that allows these beleaguered people to find enough security to pursue their own special way of life. The undertaking would be challenging, but not as impossible as for an outside force to impose its solution into the region.
By turning the problem over to those most directly affected, "We the People" free ourselves from this quagmire and can directly focus our intellect and energy on the unending Constitutional tasks to, "establish justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare and secure the Blessing of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity." In vigorous pursuit of these, we will be seen by the world for what we really are: a good neighbor that uses its incredible power and sense of justice to encourage and assist others in doing the same.
This problem is rooted in the old geopolitics of exploitation within spheres of influence and a neo version of the same only makes things worse. We do not need to find a way to peace, peace is the way. And peace is not an inactive way, anymore than love is just the absence of hate -- love is a powerful engulfing force that generates more of the same.
Were we to have as much courage in pursuing peace as we do in having others die for us in war, and if we committed as many material resources in its behest as we have in the destruction of differing others, we make peace quicker than it can ever be found in a war that somehow at its end must fortuitously stumble into it.
Yes, protect ourselves we must and we will, but the preemptive willingness to shoot first and ask questions later is no protection. It is the assassination of all that makes life worthwhile in the first place.
We claim that "We the People" are capable of government of us, by us and for us. There has not been anything in the drinking water in North America that has made only the people of this continent special in this regard. We are special because we know that humans are special and are endowed by their Creator with an inalienable virtue that must be respected by us all.
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"They hate us and want to destroy our way of life" is not uttered by George W. Bush to encourage a brave consideration of the successful sharing of our planet with others. It is propaganda set to inflame the emotions and block a wider search for a better course.
And the media-merchants of derision and division on talk radio and cable news -- in greedy grasp for greater notoriety and larger fortune -- even stoop to charge that an American who questions is guilty of hating his or her own country.
Regardless, with courage and in love of what America stands for and with the resolve of the founders, we can see through this dank and distorting fog of words and find our better way and joint with all people of goodwill in stamping out terrorism and things that breed its inception. To this end I suggest that we turn the larger responsibility for the Iraqi problem over to the people that face it most directly, the Eastern Arab World, and non Arab neighbors that share boards with Iraq.
The world's No. 1 power should request that these nations hold a summit and take charge of establishing a peace in Iraq that allows these beleaguered people to find enough security to pursue their own special way of life. The undertaking would be challenging, but not as impossible as for an outside force to impose its solution into the region.
By turning the problem over to those most directly affected, "We the People" free ourselves from this quagmire and can directly focus our intellect and energy on the unending Constitutional tasks to, "establish justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare and secure the Blessing of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity." In vigorous pursuit of these, we will be seen by the world for what we really are: a good neighbor that uses its incredible power and sense of justice to encourage and assist others in doing the same.
This problem is rooted in the old geopolitics of exploitation within spheres of influence and a neo version of the same only makes things worse. We do not need to find a way to peace, peace is the way. And peace is not an inactive way, anymore than love is just the absence of hate -- love is a powerful engulfing force that generates more of the same.
Were we to have as much courage in pursuing peace as we do in having others die for us in war, and if we committed as many material resources in its behest as we have in the destruction of differing others, we make peace quicker than it can ever be found in a war that somehow at its end must fortuitously stumble into it.
Yes, protect ourselves we must and we will, but the preemptive willingness to shoot first and ask questions later is no protection. It is the assassination of all that makes life worthwhile in the first place.
We claim that "We the People" are capable of government of us, by us and for us. There has not been anything in the drinking water in North America that has made only the people of this continent special in this regard. We are special because we know that humans are special and are endowed by their Creator with an inalienable virtue that must be respected by us all.
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Radical Muslims are a real threat:
By PCopinion Posted at 11:12 AM on December 5, 2006
Sam Osborne is living in a rainbow, candy-cane covered world (“Peace more secure than victory,” Dec. 3).
He needs to wake up and smell the roses. We’re not the ones that want to wipe anyone out. The terrorists are the ones that flew planes into the World Trade Center — or did Osborne miss that? I am so sick of all the “blame America first” people. Don’t they understand that by taking the fight to the terrorists, we don’t have to fight it on our shores?
Has Osborne ever seen and or heard the Islamic fascist vitriol? It’s not some fantasy made up by talk radio or President Bush. It’s real. Doesn’t he understand that he wouldn’t be able to say what he thinks if they would somehow take over?Hello!?
Thank God Osborne is a retired “teacher.” I certainly wouldn’t want any of my children learning the poison he would have them believe.
I suppose we shouldn’t have attacked Japan either after they wiped out Pearl Harbor.
I suggest Osborne do a little research before writing that we can all live in peace. He needs to get it through his head that the radical Muslims are a threat. Period.
Sam Osborne is living in a rainbow, candy-cane covered world (“Peace more secure than victory,” Dec. 3).
He needs to wake up and smell the roses. We’re not the ones that want to wipe anyone out. The terrorists are the ones that flew planes into the World Trade Center — or did Osborne miss that? I am so sick of all the “blame America first” people. Don’t they understand that by taking the fight to the terrorists, we don’t have to fight it on our shores?
Has Osborne ever seen and or heard the Islamic fascist vitriol? It’s not some fantasy made up by talk radio or President Bush. It’s real. Doesn’t he understand that he wouldn’t be able to say what he thinks if they would somehow take over?Hello!?
Thank God Osborne is a retired “teacher.” I certainly wouldn’t want any of my children learning the poison he would have them believe.
I suppose we shouldn’t have attacked Japan either after they wiped out Pearl Harbor.
I suggest Osborne do a little research before writing that we can all live in peace. He needs to get it through his head that the radical Muslims are a threat. Period.
Dan Cannon Lee’s Summit, Mo.
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