As you know, I read my e-mails from viewers and try and respond to most of them (I have to sort through all the spam e-mails to find the ones from viewers.) I had a "three day weekend" so I did not get to the e-mails for three days. So Monday morning I opened my show e-mail account and was quite surprised by the content and the number of e-mails about the war and the August 6, 2001 Presidential Daily Briefing (search) just declassified. I decided to sort through them and present an equal amount on each "side" of the debate over the war but changed my decision when I scanned the e-mails.
To my surprise, and this is unique, the e-mails were overwhelmingly on one "side" of the war debate (in fact I could not find one in the last 36 hours that supported the war in Iraq. That does not mean there is no support for our troops.) What is different is that in the last approximately 36 hours of e mails, the "tone" of the e-mails has changed from last week -- I could not (in my quick scan) find one that supported the president's current strategy on Iraq and there was much criticism about the president and the August 6 PDB.
This does not mean that no one supports President Bush (and I can easily miss a favorable e-mail since there are so many e-mails plus spam.) It does mean that I had a difficult time finding e-mails from those who supports the president AND who e-mailed me in the last 36 or so hours. The number supporting him and writing me in the last 36 hours is very few -- I could not find one (I assume there are some but I can't emphasize enough how hard it is to sort through the enormous amount of spam.) Because of the number who had written opposing the president, I had no problem finding those critical of him. So rather than sort through them further and try to find both sides of the debate, I will just "grab" you a few to give you an idea of what some viewers who wrote me are now thinking.
As it turns out, because of the overwhelming number of e-mails on one "side" of the dispute, the e-mail grab will appear to be one sided. Please do not make the mistake of thinking that this is what everyone thinks or that this is some scientific poll. It is not. It is simply my quick and random "grab." And, I think it fair to say that people are more inclined to write when they are mad, or have great passion about a topic:
E-mail No. 1
Dear Sirs,
We know from President Bush himself that he does not read newspapers. We know he doesn't read books, and given his record at Yale there may be some question as to whether he actually knows how to read at all; so is it credible that he would fail to understand the importance of a document stating that Bin Laden intended to attack the U.S.? Yes, absolutely. The only question is whether anyone who supports this President actually cares about our country.
E-mail No. 2
Hello, my name is ____. I am a Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Army, I am
currently in Baghdad with the 1st Armored division. The reason I'm writing is to bring to light what we view as a story under reported this week in the press. We have been in Iraq for 1 year, when we deployed, we were told by our leaders and the DOD, that our deployment would be no more than a year. Well that promise has been broken, with 1 week remaining in Iraq, we have been told we will be here 120 days more. We understand the situation in the country is tense right now, but there are other units that can be brought here. The Pentagon does not want to request more forces, instead keep us here, our replacements have even arrived. The morale of the unit is dreadful, our families are in Germany are depressed. We have been told to "suck it up", I love the Army and my country, but in my 12 years of service, I have not experienced such lack of care for the soldier. We have done enough, seen our buddies killed and injured, and almost killed ourself. They should send us home! Please address this in the news, and hold these guys accountable. Thank you
E-mail No. 3
I would like to know why our news media is not reporting all of the news from Iraq. Even in Vietnam, we saw the body bags coming home daily and the innocent civilians who were being killed and maimed. However, during this war, it seems the media is colluding together to keep these images from the American people. I really do not think Fox is "fair and balanced". It is almost like the old Russian State TV wherein we get one view and one view only. The only way I am getting the other side of this is with Al Jazeera.
E-mail No. 4
Quit pussyfooting around over there. This is war. Quit worrying about what everybody else thinks. Kill or capture any of our troops causes an air strike on them. Beef up our bombers over there and make them pay dearly for everything they do against our troops. Quit worrying about what some of the world thinks, they are not losing their boys there. Get them and get them hard.
E-mail No.5
The 8/5/01 PDB was interpreted by the Administration from an historical perspective, and they attack Iraq from an hysterical perspective. Close! This President and his people knew what was coming!! They're evil people!
You news/entertainment people keep displaying concern and emotion every-time one of our GI's go down in battle over in Iraq. Listen they're dying for a very honorable cause; that being to get Republican's elected to Congress in 2002. Is there anything in the new campaign finance legislation that would deal with an administration that uses the prospect of war to win an election?
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