William Rutledge's Jan. 31 rebuttal to
Kevin Cross (Jan. 17 Soapbox) makes it obvious that he believes
that the so-called global war on terror is about freedom, but he
never explains what he means by freedom.
His leading argument for defending the war
and occupation of Iraq is the American Revolution. But let's be
clear that between 1776 and 1781, we were ejecting a foreign
government that was trying to control our land. Now we're the
foreign government trying to control somebody else's land.
Rutledge totally misrepresents Cross'
position by saying jettisoning the "war on terror" would mean we
stop protecting our airports and our cities. That's a ridiculous
conclusion. To quote Cross, "Terrorist acts cannot be ignored.
Such acts should be prosecuted and punished via the legal
system, as occurred in the case of the Madrid train bombings."
The Europeans, who are much more vulnerable to terrorist
bombings, protect their cities with police action. They don't
think they have to invade the Middle East to make their cities
safe.
Anybody who says we're fighting for
"freedom" in the Middle East should understand that the United
States is fighting for the freedom of our oil companies to
control the profits from the production of the oil that belongs
to the Iraqi people.
Ann Ruddy,
Fort Collins