IN PERSPECTIVE

[Tommy Ruyle]

WOW...is this laying it on the line or what?

The lady who wrote this letter is Pam Foster of Pamela Foster and Associates in Atlanta. She's been in business since 1980 doing interior design and home planning. She recently wrote a letter to a family member serving in Iraq....... Read it!

"Are we fighting a war on terror or aren't we? Was it or was it not started by Islamic people who brought it to our shores on September 11, 2001?

Were people from all over the world, mostly Americans, not brutally murdered that day, in downtown Manhattan, across the Potomac from our nation's capitol and in a field in Pennsylvania?

Did nearly three thousand men, women and children die a horrible, burning or crushing death that day, or didn't they?

And I'm supposed to care that a copy of the Koran was "desecrated" when an overworked American soldier kicked it or got it wet? Well, I don't. I don't care at all.

I'll start caring when Osama bin Laden turns himself in and repents for incinerating all those innocent people on 9/11.

I'll care! about t he Koran when the fanatics in the Middle East start caring about the Holy Bible, the mere possession of which is a crime in SaudiArabia

I'll care when Abu Musab al-Zarqawi tells the world he is sorry for hacking off Nick Berg's head while Berg screamed through his gurgling slashed throat.

I'll care when the cowardly so-called "insurgents" in Iraq come out and fight like men instead of disrespecting their own religion by hiding in mosques.

I'll care when the mindless zealots who blow themselves up in search of nirvana care about the innocent children within range of their suicide bombs.

I'll care when the American media stops pretending that their First Amendment liberties are somehow derived from international law instead of the United States Constitution's Bill of Rights.

In the meantime, when I hear a story about a brave Marine roughing up an Iraqi terrorist to obtain information, know this: I don't care.

When I see a fuzzy photo of a pile of naked Iraqi prisoners who have been humiliated in what amounts to a college-hazing incident, rest assured that I don't care.

When I see a wounded terrorist get shot in the head when he is told not to move because he might be booby-trapped, you can take it to the bank that I don't care.

When I hear that a prisoner, who was issued a Koran and a prayer mat, and fed "special" food that is paid for by my tax dollars, is complaining that his holy book is being "mishandled," you can absolutely believe in your heart of hearts that I don't care.

And oh, by the way, I've noticed that sometimes it's spelled "Koran" and other times "Quran." Well, Jimmy Crack Corn and ---- you guessed it - - - I don't care ! ! ! ! !

 

[IluvABbeef]

:nod: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap: :clap:

 

[chrisy]

if this or isn't a true letter, it dam well should be and printed every where. :lol: :lol: :lol: God Bless the troops who are fighting for our freedom.

And God speed to the RAF, and Royal Marines, doing a fantastic job in Afghanistan, hope more troops from around the world are sent out to help you all soon.

 

[ctlbaron]

Amen. I don't know anyone who feels that we shouldn't be kicking their a** big time for terrorism. Where are all these people who are making all this noise and whining about us being in a war against terror.

 

[backhoeboogie]

Where are all these people who are making all this noise and whining about us being in a war against terror.

If there is only one person in each state whining, you can bet Dan Rather and Barbara Walters will get a camera on them and we'll have to listen to their views.

 

[badaxemoo]

First of all:

http://www.snopes.com/politics/soapbox/foster.asp

Secondly:

Without "googling", see if you can answer these questions:

1. Who was Mohammed Mosadegh? What happened to him?
2. What was the Balfour Declaration? What is it's legacy?
3. What country has the largest number of Muslim citizens?
4. What country were most of the 9-11 hijackers from?
5. Why is there a 1983 photo of D. Rumsfeld shaking S.Hussein's hand?

I'm no expert on Southwest Asia or Islam, but I can certainly tell you the answers to these basic questions without using a search engine.

I know that the kind, gentle Muslim people my brother lived with for three years in Niger had no more desire to knock down the World Trade Centers than Gandhi would have.

If any of you can't answer the basic questions I posed (or at least a couple of them) and have no desire to learn about the current geopolitical situation, why not just stick to something like cattle that you do have knowledge about.

Unless, of course, sounding ignorant somehow makes some of you feel good.

 

[cowspider]

quote If any of you can't answer the basic questions I posed (or at least a couple of them) and have no desire to learn about the current geopolitical situation, why not just stick to something like cattle that you do have knowledge about.


Chill Dude, We can Bomb. Cheese heads too

 

[john250]

Without "googling", see if you can answer these questions:

1. Who was Mohammed Mosadegh? What happened to him?
2. What was the Balfour Declaration? What is it's legacy?
3. What country has the largest number of Muslim citizens?
4. What country were most of the 9-11 hijackers from?
5. Why is there a 1983 photo of D. Rumsfeld shaking S.Hussein's hand?

I'm no expert on Southwest Asia or Islam, but I can certainly tell you the answers to these basic questions without using a search engine.

I know that the kind, gentle Muslim people my brother lived with for three years in Niger had no more desire to knock down the World Trade Centers than Gandhi would have.

If any of you can't answer the basic questions I posed (or at least a couple of them) and have no desire to learn about the current geopolitical situation, why not just stick to something like cattle that you do have knowledge about.

Unless, of course, sounding ignorant somehow makes you feel good.

Looking to stir the * maybe?

Indonesia has the most Muslims.
Saudi Arabia had the most 911 hijackers.
Not sure about the others, but I didn't come to take a quiz.

The kind and gentle Muslims need to get together and throw the terrorists overboard if they don't want to be tarred with the same brush. So far, they don't seem to have the strength or the will to do that so that religion is rightly seen as the source of many really bad actors.

I'm not inclined to be forgiving at this point. Maybe that's just me.

 

[badaxemoo]

Looking to stir the * maybe?

You bet I am.

The kind and gentle Muslims need to get together and throw the terrorists overboard if they don't want to be tarred with the same brush. So far, they don't seem to have the strength or the will to do that so that religion is rightly seen as the source of many really bad actors.

So how do you propose they do that? How does a subsistence farmer in Niger or Malaysia neutralize terrorists? They have no more responsibility for the extremists of Al Qaeda than you or I do.

Using that logic, I could propose that kind and gentle Christians need to throw the Lord's Resistance Army in Uganda overboard if they don't want to be tarred with the same brush. It just doesn't work that way.

I'm not inclined to be forgiving at this point. Maybe that's just me.

The vast majority of Muslims have nothing to ask you forgiveness for, so what's your point?

While nobody can deny that religion is an element that must be understood to analyze the current situation, geopolitics, the history of colonialism, natural resource distribution, and poverty, are factors that play a much bigger role.

Unfortunatetly, it takes a little effort to understand those things, and I'm afraid more citizens are concerned about who will be the next American Idol.

 

[john250]

The simple answer is that the people must demand leadership which places their individual worth above slavish demand to the tenants of a religion which is demented (just to be judgemental about it).
The children of those gentle farmers are the ones strapped into suicide jackets because some mullah says it's a good cause.

Defending Islam is one very tough sale. You're welcome to try, because this isn't an Islamic country. :lol:
Looking at Nigerian farmers is very different from looking at Islam as a whole. Islam is currently bankrupt in every accepted moral category that I can think of. Treatment of children and women?
Tolerance of their neighbors? Education? (They had to come to the US to go to flight school)
Yeah, I'm rednecked and ignorant, but I recognize who is wanting to kill me.

 

[chrisy]

badaxemoo.....there are good and bad in most races and religions. It is upto the people to get their message across, and the Preachers to get it across for them if they can't do it themselves, and it would seem that most of the preachers we see on TV are telling these young men to go and kill the infidels, and there leaders also, it is the people in many cases now that elect these people in to office. So what would that indicate to you? that they are all a peace loving religion, I don't think so. it will take a long time and a lot of blood shed before we get any kind of settlement, unfortunatly, but one day maybe.

As Northern Ireland seems quite calm after all these years and Shen Fein say they have disbanded the IRA, we will see.....lets hope this will come about with the Muslims in less years and life lost on both sides.

 

[badaxemoo]

The simple answer is that the people must demand leadership which places their individual worth above slavish demand to the tenants of a religion which is demented (just to be judgemental about it)

.

I would be first to argue that Islam is in need of a serious reformation. On the other hand, I don't believe the tenets of Islam to be any more ridiculous than the tenets of Christianity or Judaism. The truths of any religion have to pass through the lens of a culture.

I am critical of the place of women and children in many Islamic countries that have majority populations. I am also critical of the place of women in children in my Amish neighbor's families, but we still have a neighborly existence.

The children of those gentle farmers are the ones strapped into suicide jackets because some mullah says it's a good cause.

Overgeneralization. The vast majority of Muslims condemn this type of behavior, even though many in the Muslim world (and for that matter, the REST of the world) might be suspicious of America's foreign policy goals.

Do you think enrollment in Madrasas has increased or decreased following the "War on Terror"? Do you think that terrorist groups have more or less trouble recruiting after the "War on Terror"?

Suicide bombing and terrorist attacks are weapons of the weak. We carry out our foreign policy goals in places like Iraq with cluster bombs.

I see innocent people dying from both.

Defending Islam is one very tough sale.

Defending the contemporary and historical actions of any of the three monotheistic religions is a very tough sale. Elements in all three have preached peace with their mouths while hacking apart the "infidel" with their hands.

Yeah, I'm rednecked and ignorant.

Well, you write clearly. Ignorant people don't do that.

As far as being a redneck, what does that have to do with your opinions on this issue?

I'm a white boy who grew up on a hog farm in a county without a stoplight. I suppose I'm a redneck, too.

but I recognize who is wanting to kill me.

And there are millions of Muslims who think the same of George W. Bush.

It's also not true, but they feel this way.