My e-mail to Senator Chuck Hagel (R-Neb)

[Wetzelbill]

Senator Hagel,

I applaud and appreciate the candid statements you made regarding Bush having too much leeway in the fight against terror. I am also glad that you are not afraid to criticize someone who needs it whether they are a friend or GOP party member or not. We are taking the wrong direction in our foreign policy and we have squandered the goodwill afforded our country after 9/11 and that has been build up for the last 60 years.

I would also like for Congressional leaders- like yourself- to begin to acknowledge the concept of terrorism and the myths behind it. We are not attacked because fundamentalists hate our freedom, but we do create rancor because of our history in other parts of the world. Certainly 9/11 was a war crime by any stretch of the imagination and 3000 innocent Americans did not deserve that fate, but we need to look at the root causes of this anger. Our unobjective involvement in the Israeli-Arab conflict for one. Our financing of Turkish repression of the Kurds. Our past associations with Saddam and the former Afghan freedom fighters in the 1980's. We need to be wary of the aftershocks from our coup that installed the Shah in Iran and how that led to the creation of a fundamentalist theocracy under the Ayatollah Khomeini. Or our support of Suharto in Indonesia as he slaughtered 700,000 landless peasants. Let's analyze our involvement in El Salvador, Nicaragua and now Columbia. Some of our actions through both the Cold War and War on Terror lenses are dubious in the eyes of most of the world. We cannot afford to allow incognizance to create worldwide rancor towards us. Let's learn from the past and create a national-then worldwide debate- on these issues. Only then can we make genuine headway in the war against politically-inspired violence. The United States is a great country and we need to take the initiative in this fight, but in the proper way. Too much blood has been on the hands of our Presidents for all too many years, both Democratic and Republican leaders alike. Let's stop the bleeding and lead the way into a new era of global progress. Thank you for reading my comments and best of luck with everything in the future.

[gristy]

1. Nice letter, Bill.

Nice non-partisan tone.

[Postman]

2. Good letter. Only one problem....

your asking him to get the gov't to stop following orders from its corporate masters...

[Wetzelbill]

3. yup, there's the rub

I never said it would happen. :) Talking to these guys is like talking to a brick wall. But I need to get my concepts out there otherwise I'd go nuts, haha.

[spindoctor]

4. Chuckie and I are frequent correspondents

I write him nice long emails, his staff writes "me" two page letters with attached copies of newspaper clippings.

He has yet to agree with me for the first time.

Anyway, nice to meet a fellow Nebraskan here.

[Wetzelbill]

5. actually I live in AZ but I read his comments on Bush this week

then sent this. Originally from Montana, I may add.

[City Lights]

6. I emailed Hagel once and

a member of his staff actually called me to thank me for voicing my opinion.

Unlike my own senator - kyl - who doesn't bother responding to me at all. I've emailed and snail mailed and he's never responded. He's a pr(ck.

[Wetzelbill]

7. yuk, Kyl is awful

[creativelcro]

8. I listened to Hagel on NPR...

and I was completely caught by surprise... He's the guy who some people believe stole the election (the undisclosed conflict of interest with the electronic machine company etc). He was bashing Bush in a much more ferocious way than the Democrat on the program... I felt like I was in the Zone or something... I'll have to look into this because perhaps the guy is not too bad, after all... Apparently, he bought the domains Hagel2008, or something like that (many of them), which means he may be thinking of running for prez in 2008... -CV