A friend’s nephew was in the Iraq war and she forwarded me this email from one Captain Jack Murphy (love the name). I liked it better than I did the president’s speech:
Because of where and what we were engaged in doing, I was extremely busy and out of contact for a while, so please forgive me for being distant. I understand there was skepticism and negativity about the war, admittedly for some clear reasons. As someone on the tip of the national policy spear, I had my own concerns about what we were getting into. I was introduced to Saddam’s devious war machine up close and personal, witnessed his campaigns of intimidation and oppression, and the vast disparity between gluttony and poverty. I was also privileged to see thousands upon thousands of newly liberated people celebrating in the streets and on the rooftops of As Asawama, the first Hajj pilgrimages to the holy cities of Karbala and An Najef in two decades, proud fathers holding up their newborn babies to me. I don’t have any doubts anymore. War cannot be antiseptic and bad things can happen to good people, but we did the right things for the right reasons. So, as I step off my soapbox …
P.S. – I got a great tan.
Persuasive, no?
MAILERMAN: “Mailer’s latest analysis of the WAM psyche reminded me of an argument I used to have with my friends in grade school – Who would win in a fight between Superman and Batman? In the end it was a completely pointless argument because they don’t exist but at least we didn’t try to turn it into our line of work. What is the white American male psyche? It’s a fiction of Norman Mailer’s mind of course, but it’s also a way for him group unique and individual people together and wag his omniscient finger in their faces and let them know how hip and with it he still is. The WAM psyche is ultimately the “NISE” (Norman Is Still Employed) delusion.” – more feedback, on the Letters Page.
The Dish 