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03/30/2004 Archived Entry: "(Form) letters, they get (form) letters..."
(Form) letters, they get (form) letters...
Man, they're one sensitive bunch over at the White House, carefully considering the feelings of fallen soldiers' families... and I'm the damn Queen of Norway.
“From the state of Iowa, the Deutsch family received a perfectly folded American flag that flew for one day in Michael's honor above the Capitol in Des Moines. And from the White House came a letter of condolence signed by President Bush. Two letters, actually. ‘The exact same one, twice,’ Wayne Deutsch noted dryly, sitting at the kitchen table of their wood-frame house in Dubuque's working-class North End neighborhood. ‘What does that tell you? It was a form letter.’… Ilene Deutsch listened to her husband's lament as she stood by the kitchen stove. For several hours, she had politely refrained from answering questions about the politics of the war. She was afraid of what she might say. Now it came flooding out, along with the tears. ‘They didn't have a clue what was going to happen once the war was over. No anticipation. Bush had no idea,’ she said. ‘I don't like George Bush. We are listed as independents, but I will never vote for him. Surely he didn't look at the long range. . . . He didn't have a clue.’”
Replies: 7 people speak up
I appreciate this family's horrible sorrow over losing their son. I must remind everyone, though, that enlistment in the service is voluntary today. That was a choice he made with the knowledge that he might have to serve his country and maybe even die. He is a hero to me and I cannot express how much gratitude I have for his sacrifice and that of his family. I, too, have a young niece in the Air Force. But...this war has only been going on for one year and President Bush warned that this fight would go on for a very long time. Yes, he did have a clue! World War II was fought for four years and we are in Germany to this day! What do you people expect? Get real and give the President and our brave enlisted men and women a chance to do the right thing no matter how long it takes. Thank you.
Posted by Kathleen Peters @ 03/30/2004 11:54 AM NY
Kathleen,
With all due respect, it strikes me that the primary function of our armed services is to defend the US and its allies from aggression. It also seems to me that our service men and women are not trained or equipped to be policemen. Nor should they be.
Kathleen, does it not bother you that no WMDs have been found? Are you not the least bit queasy that there was no collaboration between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda and its affiliated entities? Are you not dismayed that our actions in Iraq have strengthened, not weakened, our enemies? Are you not concerned that America's reputation in the world has suffered greatly, even among our allies?
No, Kathleen, Bush doesn't have a clue. He is singularly unqualified to be the CEO of our great Republic.
Posted by Metropolitan99 @ 03/30/2004 12:07 PM NY
Well said Metropolitan99!
Posted by sellursoul @ 03/30/2004 12:20 PM NY
kathleen, your WWII analogy is totally off the mark, we were bombed in december of 1941, by the end of 1942 we had opened a front in the north african theatre of operations, by summer of 1944, 2 1/2 years after pearl harbor we had asembled the greatest fighting force ever known to liberate the continent from nazi opression, those boys gave their lives fighting for an idea, a plan, something honorable and heroic, to free the world, our invasion of iraq in the gwot would be analgous to invading brazil to defeat the nazis, brazil had nothing to do with the nazis, yes the mans service was voluntary, but I'm sure none of our troops expected such brash unplanned action, I can be sure none of them expected with their training to be used in such a way, to be thrown as kindling on a fire started by jr the moron, you want to argue the man had a plan, look at the shifting rationale for the war, wmd, freedom, saddam, we will be welcomed with flowers, in the end you have to draw the conclusion that they have been talking out of their asses about the subject the whole time, you need to open your eyes and understand that our actions in this context are the worst thing we could be doing, after sept-11 we had a chance, an opening, where the islamic world stood back in horror with the rest of the world, and many people were saying the same thing, are we going too far? should these groups be supressed? an opening to change the mindset to win through showing the world that america is a great if misunderstood country, instead we had jr with his macho bullshit, within months if not weeks you can be sure those same moderates were not seeing the america that could have been, they were seeing the america that obl had essentially foretold, thus reinforcing the radical agenda instead of crippling it, we have seen the greatest outpouring of support from other nations allied and not, turned bitter, all because fo the actions of one man, your boy jr, getting the picture yet? he has handled this in the worst way possible, gwb- best friend of obl
Posted by faulty_intelligence @ 03/30/2004 02:39 PM NY
Get real about ww2, we played police for the next 54 fucking years, remember our bases in, Germany, England, Japan. Towit are we are still playing police.
Only the main stream Muslims were in shock with 9/11, The others including footage from iraq were all happy and going to heaven with 72 virgins and 23 bucks. Thats all it takes in a society so full of its selfrightous bullshit.
Prase Allah !!
Posted by Robin Hacker @ 03/30/2004 08:21 PM NY
This is terrible.
I know this parallel is light-years away from the tragedy described here, but it reminds me of when my screenplay was picked up for a read by American Zoetrope, Francis Ford Coppola's production company.
I was thrilled, to say the least, but not terribly surprised when I got the rejection email. Not terribly surprised it was a form email, either.
But I sure was PISSED when the idiot who sent it pushed the button SIX FUCKING TIMES. I read through each and every one of those emails, looking for one that said, "Wait! Disregard those other emails! We're interested! Call us! Let's talk about optioning your script!"
Humiliating and outrageous. The smirking jerk who was responsible couldn't even be bothered to apologize or admit any error or wrongdoing. Kinda like the smirking jerks sending out form letters to parents and spouses of dead soldiers in Iraq. In duplicate.
Just similar enough.
Later.
Posted by Daddy-O @ 03/31/2004 03:38 AM NY
they probably figured it would take that many for you to figure it out.
all kidding aside if done, it was an error, not unlike the rest of us who have made a few
Posted by Robin Hacker @ 03/31/2004 08:13 AM NY
