Charles Is All Tangled Up In His Own Webb

I found the cover story interview with retired music professor Charles Webb in the October 4th 2005 edition of the Herald Times particularly offensive and very ill conceived. For someone with his level of education and background to make such preposterous accusations and assumptions through his limited contact with people from mostly Arab / Muslim nations shows how easy it is for people’s opinions to be swayed and manipulated. To make a comment that many people even perceive George W. Bush "as a greater threat to world order than Osama bin Laden." is one of the most maligned and opportunistic assumptions that could have been derived from this report. His comments only show a narrow-minded viewpoint derived from an overly simplistic view of the world’s political and cultural climate, as it exists today. What kind of feed back did these people expect from the very region has birthed and swaddled the terrorist that roam the world today looking to destroy the very life that people like Mr. Webb lead? Until this article was published I must admit I had more respect for Mr. Webb, unfortunately now that respect has been lost. No President in history has been popular during war times and this is certainly no exception. Even Winston Churchill’s wartime heroics were not rewarded with a post World War II reelection. It grieves me to read articles that contain such duplicity especially when people allow themselves to be manipulated by a handful of liberal renegades into spreading this anti-American sentiment. An educated person would never make this type of broad-brush comparison.

Mr. Webb’s assumption is that through cultural exchange and diplomacy the world would be a much better place and that war could be avoided. If he and others would take off their rose colored glasses long enough to look around at the real world this concept is completely out of balance with reality. Where was the diplomacy when the terrorists flew planeloads of American citizens into the World Trade Center killing thousands of innocent civilians? History has proven time and time again that regardless of the amount of cultural exchange between countries people will always have differing views and beliefs and sometimes those differences result in conflict. Conflict and ultimately the resolution thereof often time results in war. It is quite obvious Mr. Webb allowed him self to be manipulated and used as a pawn to help influence and win the physiological battle over the American way of life. The vast majority of the Muslim nation, especially the extremist truly hate the American’s way of life. Their hatred and resentment is deep rooted and goes back many generations and is taught to their children at a very young age. To level the blame on President Bush and his staff makes about as much sense as blaming Churchill for Hitler’s actions during World War II.

There will always be tyrants in this world that seek out power and notoriety and no amount of civic and cultural exchange will ever totally rid us of them. There are also pacifists and others that feel war is never the answer and that we should always turn the other cheek until we have nothing left to offer. There are also those people that understand action is necessary at times and to sit back and allow our country to be attacked is not a time to offer up another cheek. War is never clean or cheap and people certainly will die but unfortunately it’s the only language some tyrants understand. Sometimes force must be met head on with force. It is our right as Americans to be able to hold differing opinions and opposing viewpoints about our government but those opinions should never result in undermining the nations resolve in good times or bad.