Let’s go to the mailbag!!

Yesterday’s Slate essay has inspired a much stronger reaction than my last Slate essay. Probably because it’s featured on the MSN portal today. The following is an (edited) collection of the most… “out there” responses I’ve received, and will be updated as the day goes along:

“[Y]our love for Howard Dean is to palpabable…. As for the IRAQ war, in fact the whole Muslim Middle east, something has to be done about their crusade against the west and America. Especially after the attack on 9/11/2001. We need to perform a crusade (1930’s Germany style) against the Muslims and throw out of America all Muslims back to the Middle East as they do not support the US Constitution, much like yourself.” “Who died and left you in charge of National Security. It sounds if you would let all of the killers of the Mideast walk right and in take over America!!!” “Sadly however, you ignored or opted out on the Pinocchio theory…. the current administration is based on lies, lies, (and will full apologies to Samuel Clement) damn lies. So there you have it from the “Left of Che Guevara” contingent of the Boomer generation. And yes, if you must be bitchy about it, I still read from my Thoughts of Chairman Mao book. What, you don’t?” “I read the above captioned article and can easily tell that you are a democrat. It must be nice to sit back and “monday morning quarteback” the president. Your views are so far to the left, I’m sure some of your text must have been a rewording of a Marxist doctrine.” “Israel and the Israeli lobby in the U.S. are the ones that really call the shots in the substance and execution of our middle eastern foriegn policy. Without a doubt, they have wagged the body of our middle-eastern foreign policy for many, many decades.” “Just another Bush Basher. It seems very fashionable in the Preppy Soho society the annals of the campus and the media. Quite frankly, it makes me sick.” “We’re shooting through an uncharted, terrorist-filled galaxy at light speed, and the spinners like you are all playing the role of Mr. Scott, shouting over the intercom to James T. Kirk that “..she can’t take much more!” Bush, like Kirk, is facing something nobody ever wants to face: The unknown. He’s boldly going where no man has gone before, and I think it’s high time he gets some credit for doing a pretty damn good job at it.” “You hate us (clear minded Americans who don’t even need to have a high school education, much less be a professor, to see that Bush is doing, what he believes is the best thing for America) so bad, with all due respect… LEAVE!” “[L]like a good little American Nazi, you just blindly brush aside any evidence that Bush is trying to establish a world wide empire, and a totalitarian one at that?…. I am watching my country, the United States, rapidly become a fascist dictatorship and the press, instead of alerting Americans about what is actually going on, are blindly going along with it.” “Why don’t you Bush Bashers just write something like, “Blah blah blah, blah blah blah blah. Blah blah blah!!!!! Blah blah blah blah blah blah blah, blah blah.” It seems to me, that’s all you people know how to do…. The UN was never going to do anything about Hussein. You know this as well as every other Democrat, but you CHOOSE to ignore facts. So, rather that acknowledge truth and fact, you harp and nitpick.” “After reading your Bush the Bumbler I really need your address so I can send you a clue. Try reading ‘Everything I ever needed to know I learned in kindergarten’. This is not difficult. Please let your new babysitter be Michael Jackson.” “You are the very foundation of troubles in this country. Your ‘freedom’ to speech that allows you to write just reinforces why I would vote for this President again. Your “freedom” alone kills soldiers. Your words tell rulers around the world that America is disjointed and vulnerable. I never liked President Clinton but I never spoke badly of him. As citizens of this country and under democratic system – win or lose – we support our president.” “I am shocked at your radical views and at MSN for featuring such fanaticism. You might as well fly a plane into a building.” “With your inability to use sound logic and reasoning, how did you ever get to be a professor of anything?” “You truly are nothing more than just a negative person, besides being a liberal. Your articles are from the mindset of someone who craves nothing more than attention. Grow some balls, be a man and support our country and president in a time of war.” “A word to the wise; Republican toadies should treat Dr. Dean with more respect. Show him some respect now and he may take pity on poor Bush when it comes to the ‘head to head’ debates. Even a conservative robot such as yourself has to see the writing on the wall.” “Sedition is any act, writing or speech, etc., directed against state authority, the government, or the constitution, or calculated to bring it into contempt or to entice others to hostility or disaffection. Mr. Drezner, You sir are a seditious traitor. Your reason: political advantage; pitiful and pathetic.” “As a politic (sic) science student, like myself, you must have heard of the project for the new American century (PNAC), you must also be aware that all major officials inside the admin are ex-corporate execs. You must also know that there are as many corporate lobbyers in Washington as there are politicians. And I am assuming that you also know that the invasion of Afghanistan had been in the making since the late 90?s. The list can continue, ut I feel that this is sufficient to show that your representation of the ‘conspiracy theories’ is both unfair and manipulative.” “When will liberals such as yourself grow up and stand up for what is right in this cruel, vicious world?…. What is your point besides a pathological hatred of President Bush?…. Your constant harping, piddling criticisms and infantile tantrums about President Bush is just too much to take.” “You are obviously apart of the angry left who entertain fanciful stories of withholding capture anouncements and the like from the public for pure political gain.” “Chicago, what a liberal hotbed, you, Cusak (sic) and Jessie Jackson and Co. Perhaps Dan, if the terrorists had reached out to Chicago on 9/11/01, you would feel very differently.” “After reading your article on what is really wrong with President Bush’s foreign policy I can only conclude that you are either a pacifist, an appeaser, a coward, or some combination of all three.” “I for the life of me can not understand how you and your cohorts on the media and in Hollywood can be so un-American. If you were living and working under any of those people, I am certain you would have been done away with along time ago if so much as criticized them the way you criticize our government. Not one person offers any constructive advice and if any thing is offered it has to go before the UN which is a total waste of time any money and completely anti-American, except when it comes to our money. I am glad we have President Bush and I hope he continues to do exactly what he has done. He is at least doing something and not giving into people like you and the rest of you ultra liberals.” “While you liberals have the “right” to slam the president in print, I feel your patriotism borders on “verbal treason” for not standing with our commander in chief in a time of war. In most of the countries you defend, people are killed for that and less.” “Aren’t you glad you live in the United States, Communist like you are what is wrong with how our society is today.”

The joys of open debate! I had no idea that there were this many people who agreed with Britney Spears’ political philosophy — or Che Guevara‘s, for that matter. Just to be clear, I’m not posting these because they upset me or provoke a need for sympathy. Mostly, I found them hysterical, in both senses of the word. That said, let me close with a few polite and trenchant e-mails:

“i’m 21 years old and a security forces member in the USAF, i’ve recently read about your criticism on the presidents foreign policies and what not. i’ll be the first to admit, that a lot of the political topics are over my head, but i think your writings focused more on the bad than the good, this whole thing has been hard on all us military members but, hearing the thanks from the Iraqi people seeing how relieved they were doesn’t that make it all worth it? these type of things are never easy, and i know there is always room for improvement, but on the whole i think President Bush is doing a wonderful job, and i have full faith in him. regardless of what ever problems there are with his policies he is doing some good in the world.” “You might be right about the Bush administration being incompetent. Problem is, we won’t really know until long after the fact. Incompetence is a charge that more often accompanies failure, when in truth there have been many successes throughout history that happened in spite of being incompetently orchestrated. In fact, I will go so far as to say that we have a greater chance at achieving good by incompetently following the correct policy than we do following, competently or otherwise, an incorrect policy…. Sometimes we just muddle through and it all works out anyway. Doing the right thing, however inexpertly, seems to be better than doing the wrong thing like a champ. It’s the difference between being efficient and being effective.”