March 19, 2006

A Letter to Rush Limbaugh (email of 18 March 2006)

By Walter C. Uhler

Dear Mr. Limbaugh:

While discussing charges -- on your nationally syndicated radio show of March 14, 2006 -- that President Bush is a "liar" and that the war in Iraq is "unjust," you wondered aloud: "How many Iraqi women and children have been killed by insurgents who have been emboldened by the American left?" Moments later you asked: "What do you think this is doing for the morale of these insurgents who are probably in their last gasp over there or close to it?"

Mr. Limbaugh, I served in the U. S. Army and currently am a civil servant in the Department of Defense. I've studied defense issues for years and have written extensively about them. In a word, I know quite a bit more about national security matters than you. (By the way -- when, where, and in which uniform did you serve your country?)

Having read and written extensively about the run-up to war, I have no doubt that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Rice, Wolfowitz, and especially Feith are all liars. Moreover, you're among the world's extremely small minority, if you believe the Iraq war to be "just." It's precisely the "unjust" nature of the America''s invasion of Iraq that has turned most of the world against us, thereby further jeopardizing our national security. Bush's war of choice has created a new worldwide growth industry. It's called "international terrorism."

But, I was especially offended to learn that you delimited patriotic criticism of our immoral, illegal and incompetently planned invasion/occupation of Iraq to "emboldening" Iraq's insurgents. Besides indicating flaccid thinking in the service of bias, such tunnel vision smacks of McCarthyism.

Tell me, do you suspect the patriotism of (Ret.) General William Odom? Could you qualify as his butler, when it comes to the analysis of facts on the ground in Iraq? Do you have his contacts with America's senior military leadership? No? I thought not. Is his informed and unquestionably patriotic call for getting out of Iraq merely emboldening the enemy? How do you know? And is there no more to his critique than that?

Please, please. Let's have a little more honesty, integrity and DEPTH in your analyses. And quit deluding yourself about the insurgents "in their last qasp." When you say such things, you simply reinforce the belief among military experts that you do not know what you're talking about.

Sincerely,

Walter C. Uhler

Walter C. Uhler is an independent scholar and freelance writer whose work has been published in numerous publications, including The Nation, the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, the Journal of Military History, the Moscow Times and the San Francisco Chronicle. He also is President of the Russian-American International Studies Association (RAISA).

waltuhler@aol.com