Another email from the loony. This one tells me I am a mercenary.
-----Original Message-----
From: autumn evans [mailto:ubliette13@hotmail.com]
Sent: Friday, June 22, 2007 12:29 AM
To: mxh181@psu.edu
Cc: ldsimp@comcast.net; pksimp@comcast.net; nelsaavallon@yahoo.com
Subject: RE: FW: RE: note left on my car
Captain,
i hate to admit that "professional warrior" is sadly an appropriate term for
today's soldier. one who is paid to engage in war is technically a
mercenary.
you say we are falling prey to our media - i'm sorry but which media is that
exactly? the voice we listen to comes from within ourselves - a loud
warning sign of when we know and feel that something is terribly wrong.
that sentiment is only echoed by our bumper stickers as most of us have
thrown out our cable television and magazine subscriptions. you make a lot
of assumptions, sir. i could make the same about your willingness to fall
prey to our government's ploys to capitalize on your fears and sadly
misplaced patriotism. degrees and intelligence mean little when fear is
thrown into the mix.
i have no doubt you've seen the darkest side of life. truly remarkable and
heroic actions will spring forth from human beings (on both sides) who find
themselves embroiled in this kind of base violence, but it does not change
the fact that you were unfortunately duped into being there in the first
place. over and over again it seems. the families of the soldiers caught
in vietnam
were never grateful, just as the families of the nazi soldiers
were never proud. the nationalistic propoganda you chose to digest is
really not so different from that of third reich germany
. hitler played on
his country's patriotic sentiments and fears in ways very similar to what
we're seeing now. i'm not an extremist, i just put 2 years into air force
rotc to know that, to them, ignorance and arrogance do indeed make for good
foregin policy.
i have never had a problem with fighting to protect our country until the
concept of "our" country grew outside of it's own borders. this country has
not fought for it's own soil ON it's own soil for a very, very long time.
there is no such thing as fighting for peace. if you're going to wage war,
do it, but don't try to delude yourself and everyone else by imbuing it with
nobility. with war there is only dominance and submission. it is ugly and
hard. everyone i know who has seen it knows that and some choose to cling
to the illusion that they did something important and noble becasue their
sanity depends on it. have you ever seen what an ex nazi goes through once
they've woken up to see what attrocities they've committed? the "peace"
that allows you to fall comfortably asleep at night is what keeps me awake
worried for the fate of our world.
i have never been aligned politically, i do not think ANYONE is inherently
evil. i believe in my heart you only want what is best for your family and
country, but i know with my eyes how this government abuses your desires
and, worst of all, how you allow it to.
"There is a movement in this world that opposes the active creation of a
peaceful global community. You are being duped into buying into their
argument of hate and isolationism. I am willing to fight them to help peace
in the Middle East
finally become a reality and not just a bumper sticker."
it is completely clear to me you and i want the same thing. i thank you for
confirming that. i'm learning that there really is only one difference
between us, and sadly i doubt there is anything that can be done about it.
it is simply your willingness to believe in this government, and my
willingness not to. i'm afraid we will both forever see eachother's
"willingness" as utter blindness.
only time will tell.
i hope for the sake of your daughters and wife you come home in one piece.
autumn evans
Here's my response:
_____________________________________________
From: Mike Hendrickson [mailto:mxh181@psu.edu]
Sent: Friday, June 22, 2007 11:17 AM
To: 'autumn evans'
Subject: RE: FW: RE: note left on my car
Ms. Evans,
Before I respond, I would like to say thank you. Thank you for caring about my family and hoping that I come home in one piece.
The fact that you refer to me as a "mercenary" is the ultimate offense. A "mercenary" engages in combat for the sole purpose of personal gratification (money, killing, raping, pillaging). A "professional warrior" is one who volunteers to serve a nation, adheres to the rules governing war and dedicates one's life to the study of history, technical and tactical proficiency, and the examination of the complexity of ethical/morale imperatives on the battlefield and always prays for peace. Further, I am a "citizen soldier;" a reserve officer in the United States Marine Corps.
You question my statements about the media, but you argue your points from an emotional imperative. Our media does not show this nation an objective view of anything, on any level. We no longer have a free press. We no longer have a press that subscribes to the cannons of ethical journalistic integrity. We have a corporate media that lives off of the sensationalism of big stories that they make last forever. They don't care about the news; they are out "to make a buck." That is a direct quote from Kevin Sites of NBC news, made to a very good marine friend of mine after he filmed the shooting of that wounded terrorist in the mosque in Fallujah. Kevin Sites didn't care about the story - it was a sensational story that his editor wanted to show on the evening news. The story lacked objectivity and context. Coupled with the abhorrent conduct of Soldiers at Abu Ghraib, it created a negative backlash so severe that people like you now compare us to Nazis.
What happened between the marines and NBC in Fallujah are a testament to the power of information and the enormous ethical responsibility that should be wielded by those who report as witnesses to the human condition.
I'm sure that the images of that marine, shooting a "wounded enemy combatant" made you cringe. I know it made me cringe, made me question the intentions of that marine. For almost a year I was extremely conflicted about what I had seen, until I sat down with several people that I trust and were there, and listened to them tell me about Fallujah and about the incident with Kevin Sites. The terrorists in Fallujah were ruthless killers. They specifically sniped at marines in the open because they knew that a corpsman (medic) would come to their aid; then they shot the corpsman. They killed children, they killed families and they killed marines. The fought from booby trapped homes, schools and mosques. They would suck marines in by shooting at them, and then blow up the building killing themselves and everyone else inside. They booby trapped their bodies so when they died and a marine searched them they would explode and kill more. If you believe that the terrorists of Iraq (those who use suicide bombs, IEDs, kidnappings, beheadings and terror to make a point) can be heroic - then you are truly lost in a world of your own imagination.
You need to ask yourself - why do I feel this way? Who is driving my emotions? If your answer is based on a conspiracy theory - you have fallen into the same trap that has consumed the Arab street and fermented so much violence in the name of Islam against the Great Satan, the evil of Israel and Western society.
Emotive reasoning alone is never a substitute for logic and critical thinking. The consequence of subscribing to your method of analysis guarantees that we re-live the mistakes of the 20th century - mistakes that led to the deaths of between 50 and 70 million people. You refuse to examine now, just as many did then, the reality of tyranny and the danger to the world by doing nothing.
You would like to believe, like Chamberlain in 1938 - that mere negotiation and hand holding will keep the peace. You ignore the torture, rape and murder committed routinely by the government of Iraq under Saddam, but you mistrust an American government's strategic imperative of exporting freedom. You ignore the fact that a state of war existed between Saddam and the United Nations for 12 years, beginning with the unprovoked invasion of Kuwait by Iraq, continued aggression and attacks by Iraq against its neighbors, its own people and the coalition forces that patrolled the skies over the northern and southern no fly zones. But you don't hesitate to expound on the "unjust" and "naked aggression" against Iraq and isolated (and horrific) incidents like Haditha to define the "destruction of a civilized society"(as your friend Dr. Simpson put it).
According to you (and many who made strikingly similar arguments in the late 1930s and early 1940s), we should never pre-emptively engage in warfare in the hopes of maintaining peace. Riddle me this - how many lives could have been saved if we had attacked Germany in Europe, on the side of the French and English in 1939? Wouldn't that act have completely changed the Japanese analysis of an American response to an attack on Pearl Harbor? If we had blunted the Germans, defeated Hitler in Europe in 1939 or 1940 and caused the Japanese to make a strategic recalibration, would atomic weapons have been developed for military use? Why didn't we stand up to Hitler and Germany, despite the evidence of German intensions flushed out of the Spanish Civil War? It's simple: Americans felt that "the concept of 'our' country" should not grow "outside of its own borders." In the end, we responded by converting our entire nation into a machine of war and at least 50 million people perished as a result.
But, you will dismiss all facts and the lessons of history as propaganda. You won't do any real research and you won't read a single book or source that contradicts your own worldview. You will continue to believe in your gut, and use the mere historical presence of Nazis, Hitler and the Third Reich in an attempt to paint me as a monster, blindly charging into the fray. Your lack of critical thought and unwillingness to believe that there is a time and a place to stand up against tyranny is exactly the type of ideology that allowed the Brown Shirts and the Nazis to gain a hold over Germany, cause the deaths of millions and the near eradication of an entire race of people. You, like the German people, refuse to believe in reality and instead convince yourself that peace is never worth fighting for.
There are those, like the German people in the 1930s, who blindly follow an ideology. I am not one of those people. I have spent nearly my entire life studying history, geopolitics and warfare. I have forced myself to play the devil advocate. I have disciplined myself to accept the validity of opposing viewpoint and consider them critically. I do not agree with much that has come out of the DoD or the Vice President's Office. I am extremely critical of the General Officer Corps who blindly followed Rumsfeld because they did not want to rock the boat. I believe that the President has failed in numerous ways to effectively communicate the strategic imperatives that guide the National Security Strategy of the United States
in the post 9/11 security paradigm. I am suspicious the role of capitalism in warfare and mindful of the corruption that can grow like a cancer, within the power of elected office. I believe that Republicans and Democrats in Congress are more focused on the 2008 election than dealing with Iraq and the other important issues that we face as a country today. I believe that people who oppose the Iraq war, those who supported military intervention in Bosnia in the 1990s and would support military intervention in Darfur, are hypocrites (and visa-versa). I believe that no plan survives first contact with the enemy. But I believe in the mission in Iraq. I believe in that mission for exactly the reasons I outlined in my previous email and that you discount as mere propaganda. I believe that those reasons are noble, and that doing nothing will result in a global religious conflict that will dwarf the crusades in ferocity and destruction.
Therein lies the disconnect.
I do not sleep in "peace." I believe that I have been required to sacrifice a portion of my soul for my convictions. Knowing everything that I know now, I would do it again so that you and your children would never be required to do the same. I would do it again (despite the fact that I vehemently disagree with your beliefs) so you are free to live life in the manner that you desire, according to your beliefs.
I wish there was no war in the world. I wish there was no need for militaries, guns, bombs, etc. I wish that people could put their egos aside and truly come together in peace as a human race. I wish that people could appreciate and celebrate diversity, as we attempt to do in this country. Wishing that the world will become this way is a utopian pipe dream. We have a saying in the Marine Corps - Shit in one hand, wish in the other and see which fills up first.
Semper Fidelis.
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