A letter to Michael Moore on terrorism

I’m glad you’re concerned about the terrorism threat, Michael, though I should note that this seems like a new found interest considering you once preposterously (though surely level-headedly) wrote “THERE…IS…NO…TERRORIST…THREAT!” Since we are reliving your greatest hits, I feel compelled to remind whatever voyeurs are reading my not-so-private letter to you of this brilliant piece of commentary you provided during the height of the Iraq War: “The Iraqis who have risen up against the occupation are not ‘insurgents’ or ‘terrorists’ or ‘The Enemy.’ They are the Revolution, the Minutemen, and their numbers will grow — and they will win.”…

For Pete’s sake, Michael, why do you always take the most radical interpretations of American actions abroad as truth? Al-Qaeda propagandizes that America is in the Middle East (and in the case of Afghanistan and Pakistan, the greater Middle East or South Asia) to rape and pillage — and that somehow makes sense to you. You seem to believe that what’s wrong with the Middle East is all the fault of America. Take America (and Israel) out, and the Middle East is a paradise.

That, of course, is utter nonsense. Agree or disagree with American actions in Iraq and Afghanistan, any intellectually honest person would have to concede that the default reality would have been — if those wars never happened — a sadistic madman in control of Iraq and an indescribably cruel, religious theocracy that drops walls on homosexuals and brutally oppresses women in control of Afghanistan. You and others can make the case that we should not be involved in those countries, Michael, but let us not pretend it is Disneyland in the Middle East if America has no presence. (I use the term “intellectually honest,” though I am aware the words “intellect” and “honest” are not ones usually associated with you.)