President Bush - How Can I Dissent?

Dear President Bush,

In your recent Veteran's Day speech you say something almost off-hand during your appeal not to "rewrite history" on the possibility of intelligence manipulations. You said:

"While it's perfectly legitimate to criticize my decision or the conduct of the war, it is deeply irresponsible to rewrite the history of how that war began."

While I respectfully disagree that the Democrats are trying to rewrite history, I'd like to focus on the first half of the sentence. I'd hope that all Americans can agree that it is legitimate to criticize the conduct of the war: the freedom to express one's opinion is a lynchpin in the democratic society we're fighting to protect!

So my question, Mr. President, is how can I dissent? I spent 2 hours last night listening to members of your party telling me how irresponsible the Democrats are for calling the conduct of the war into question. Any criticism of the conduct or reasoning for going to war is portrayed as:

• encouragement to our enemy
  
• discouragement to our troops

Is it fair to use these two criticism criticisms to quell dissent? What kind of dissenting voice is allowed?

Encouraging the Enemy

I do not think it is possible to publicly criticize your decision to go to war or your conduct of the war without encouraging the enemy to some degree. So we have a choice to make: temporarily encourage the enemy or undermine our democratic ideals. Given that choice, I certainly prefer that we permit Americans to speak their minds without fear of being labeled treasonous.

I used the phrase "temporarily encourage" deliberately in the previous paragraph. I believe that the only way we can succeed in Iraq is to do so unified as a country, and the only way to unify is to allow dissenting voices to be heard so that we can move forward together toward our goals. A divided America cannot unite Iraq!

While criticizing an "inability to dissent" in this letter, you may be surprised to hear that I sincerely hope that we keep to our goal and succeed in establishing an Islamic Alternative to extremism in Iraq. It is my personal belief that a stable and democratic Iraq is the best way to fight terrorism at its source. But we will fail unless America is united in our aim and is willing to make the significant sacrifices needed to succeed.

Discouraging Our Troops

On this point I truly believe that we can publicly dissent and still support the brave men and women in uniform that sacrifice so much for us. In fact, as Representative Murtha has pointed out: the best way we can encourage our troops is to make sure they know we're trying to unite as a country around a plan that will succeed.

Never having been in the military I cannot be certain how I would react if I were stationed in Iraq and heard my Congress calling my mission into question. Therefore, I recognize that my opinion here is speculation. However, if:

• the criticisms were leveled at the plan and the strategy,
  
• with the goal to make sure that my sacrifice would either be successful (or if success is not possible, shortened)...
  

...then I don't believe I'd be upset. And, if I was myself questioning the progress of the war I'd be downright grateful. I hope that you will ask active military personnel and their families for their reactions. Based on Representative Murtha's reading of letters from military families on the Floor last night, it sounds as though many in the military are pleased that someone is speaking up with another view.

What is the Answer?

Can you provide a process that allows for reasonable men and women to discuss, criticize and make their voices heard? If so, please help create that process. The resolution of that public debate is absolutely necessary in order to bring this country together so that we can complete the important work that we've begun in Iraq.

Sincerely,

A Reasonable American

An Islamic Alternative

The Iraq War has been a mess. In a future post I'll explain how and where our country went wrong to get us into this quagmire. That said, we need to be there and we need to be trying to do what we finally seem focused upon doing: supporting the creation of an Islamic Alternative to extremism.

Our efforts in Iraq are a critical step in the "global war on terror;" but not for the reasons so often given by the president and members of the Bush administration. Saddam Hussein did not have direct links to Al Qaeda.

However, Saddam Hussein was undoubtedly a monster and any government would have been justified in intervention. His regime was brutal to his neighbors and his own people. While Iraq was not the only government against which we could morally and ethically justify intervention, it was certainly on the list.

At the same time, America was (and is) in the throes of a huge battle with Islamic extremism. I believe the roots of this battle lie in one problem: the economic stagnation and political oppression under which much of the Islamic world suffers. This oppression is imposed by many of the goverments the United States supports. The environment is a breeding ground for scapegoating, hatred and extremism. Many of these governments tolerate (and even support) Islamic extremism as it effectively reflects blame from their own policies.

For the downdrotten masses of Muslims in the Middle East, there is no ideological alternative to extremism. The schools and mosques too often preach a version of Islam that leaves no room for tolerance. The dangers of permitting this kind of ideology to be the primary message heard by young Muslims were demonstrated clearly on 9/11.

The only solution is the creation of an Islamic Alternative in the Middle East. Young Muslims must have somewhere to turn that demonstrates that tolerance of others is not a weakness; that hard work can bring personal and community prosperity; that the rule of law need not be synonymous with fear; that their efforts can help their causes and that their voices can make a difference.

The Alternative must be viewed as "homegrown" in order to be successful. Anything viewed as having been imposed from the non-Islamic West is doomed to failure for the same reason that moderates have had such a hard time gaining ground in the Middle East up to now: their messages of tolerance are twisted by extremists to paint reformers as supporters of the West. Only if the government is widely viewed as independent from the West can it be a viable, trusted Islamic Alternative.

Iraq, teasingly taunting the U.S. with violations of Security Council resolutions provided the perfect opportunity to create this Alternative. We needed a country large enough to affect many people, and evil enough to allow the regime "changers" to be viewed as liberators: morally driven supporters able to give Iraqis a chance to set up their own moderate (homegrown) government.

Of course, the mistakes we've made in prosecuting the war and the peace may have undermined this great opporunity (though I'm not ready to give up on this yet). In my next post I'll summarize how I think the Bush administration has misled the American people and the rest of the world in a way that can only endanger the long-term success of this critical project.

In the meantime, I remain hopeful that the continued sacrifices of more and more American lives truly pay off to create an alternative so that the children growing up in the Middle East today can choose to respect and tolerate their neighbors. I also remain hopeful that my goals for Iraq actually do bear some resemblence to what President Bush would like to see happen in there.

About This Blog

This is my first blog posting. I wanted to create a blog about two separate things, and see where the blog takes me:

• Personalization: I work for a company called ChoiceStream that creates personalization software, so I end up spending a lot of time thinking about and theorizing on the power and dangers of personalization, collection of profiles and recommendations. The blog is a chance to create a record of those thoughts.
  
• Politics: I think of myself as a rare breed: an ardent supporter for regime change in Iraq who just as ardently stands in opposition to the methods and messages of our President. It seems to me that President Bush often tries to do the right things in such incredibly wrong and dangerous ways that I am literally frightened for my freedom. Of course, I'd be just as frightened in a world that wasn't helping solve the issues of islamic extremism in the only way that will ever work: by helping create a cultural alternative to that extremist way of life.

So I'll look forward to more posts as a way to "let it out" when I'm frustrated, excited or perplexed about the personalization or political issues of the day. Perhaps the two topics will someday even come together: a recommendation engine that tells you who to vote for? Hmm.