KOLR 10's Town Hall Meeting on the War on Terror

I just watched KOLR 10 host their town hall meeting about the War on Terror ( News ) with Dr. Ibrahim, ex-CIA analyst McDon....oops, I mean McGovern, Retired Army Col. Robinette and what was...Fletcher? I think? The retired Marine whose son is serving in Iraq. It was a very interesting discussion. Dr. Ibrahim, gave the most food for thought in my humble opinion.

I couldn't help but note that Mr. McGovern would not answer the question posed regarding whether he was anti-Zionist directly...saying "I am pro-justice...." very telling that he would not answer the question as posed.

Dr. Ibrahim said something interesting in that Americans need to understand that Arabs view Palestinians as "very critically important" but would also point out that it is every bit as important for Arabs to understand that Israel is "very critically important" to a majority of Americans.

Discussions such as this are good and I'm glad to see them going on, but clearly McGovern does nothing to end the polarization over the war in Iraq. The smug...er...man obviously thrives on it...calling our intelligence community "cowardly folks in the intelligence community " and attributing that sentiment to the head of the House Intelligence Committee because he dared to hire his own person to do an assessment of National intelligence in a "little charade," when McGovern pulled that description out of thin air. No one but McGovern has called our intelligence community "cowardly folks in the intelligence community."

Then there was the straw man question someone posed which suggested that some people believe that "if you don't support our President you are anti-American," Who has ever really said that? That is what lefties think we mean when we disapprove their destructive criticism.

I know I am not the only one who is tired of discussing straw men and ready to get down to the business of meeting the goals we need to meet in Iraq and get our military out of that country.

What we need is better ideas, better plans, better results. Yes, there is a right to dissent in America, there are young men fighting for that right as I have repeatedly written. But with that right to dissent comes a responsibility, as well. It is simply not enough to shout "No blood for oil!" or "Bush is a liar!" Too many on the far left have the impression that they can shout talking points without any responsibility for offering solutions.

Perhaps it would be a good starting point for all of us to remember that every American wants our troops home safely at the earliest possible date and go from there.

Much of the solution is reliant on moderate Muslims taking on more responsibility themselves as Dr. Ibrahim suggested. Education should be a more important aspect of reaching our goals but, with that in mind consider all the schools that are being built, all the supplies being supplied to young Iraqi boys and girls...are they being taught to hate America? Are they being taught a love of democracy? A love of freedom? Is it inherent that all people seek freedom? I'd like to hear Dr. Ibrahim's reply to those questions.

This dialog is going on here and all across America. There are people who are getting their jollies from rhetorically jabbing their debate opponent(s) in the eye instead of listening to what their opponents have to say. That is unfortunate, we are not playing a game here though there are people who apparently think we are. In my opinion they are the ones who are helping to polarize our country and one can only ask why they seek to polarize and divide us, what is their motive? Dr. Ibrahim said that hatred is spawned out of ignorance...food for thought, indeed.

I'll be sending a link to this to KOLR 10. They are taking further emails at townhall@kolr10.com for anyone interested.