Response to Jeanette Gall's letter of 11/22/05 in the Marietta Daily Journal, Marietta, GA

11/22/05


Ms. Gall, I am a little confused. You say you cannot have an honest discussion with Republicans about the Big Lie that "Bush lied, thousands died" because they bring up Clinton's name and attack you personally. Ms Gall, the only people I have seen attacking people personally are the liberal Democrats. Whenever we attempt to discuss issues with these people, we get called everything from liar to hate monger. You might note that no one is calling anyone Un-American. It is part of the Big Lie technique that you accuse people of things they don't do so as to preemptively deflect a charge you expect to be leveled against you. You asked about Osama? We searched for Eric Robert Rudolph for 5 years and we pretty well knew where he was. Osama is not conveniently in our country. He is in a country surrounded by his supporters or those he can intimidate. I would be amazed if he were captured anytime soon.

You asked if Al Gore's chief of staff (shudder!) had leaked the name of a CIA agent, what would have happened. Which Bush Chief of staff leaked the name of a covert CIA agent? Plame's husband did so but no Bush administration member has been indicted for doing so. "Since Karl Rove is involved, he has flip-flopped." Hummm! Maybe that is why you misunderstand what the words mean. When Kerry says he voted for the $80 Million before he voted against it, that is flip-flopping. Bush takes a stand and keeps it. If Rove were guilty of "outing" a covert CIA agent, it seems like he might have been so indicted. No one was.

You say Bush manipulated the intelligence. What and how did he do so? It has been investigated several times and the only intelligence he got that the Senators (including Democrats) didn't see was even more bellicose than what they saw. As you might recall, the intelligence services of virtually the whole world said he WMD. Wrong? Maybe. Liars? Unlikely. I rather doubt that our best friends in the world, the French would have cooperated with Bush in manipulating the data. Yet, they said Saddam had WMD. We still don't know if they were right and the WMD were shipped to Syria. He certainly had lots of time to do so.

Ms Gall, you are NOT Un-American to express your beliefs. It is only if you deny that right to those that disagree with you that you are in conflict with what most people believe is an American. Yes, "we should question our government." BUT, we should do so with the insight of what was the information available at the time the decision was made. Hindsight is truly a wonderful thing.