I am responding to Ray Dorbolo’s letter of Aug. 13 (“‘Sensitive war’ is an oxymoron”), that scoffs at John Kerry’s intent to be sensitive to the rest of the world in our battle with terrorism. Kerry wasn’t talking about dealing sensitively with terrorists directly. You can’t reason with radical fundamentalists of any faith, in the Middle East or in our own country, because their minds are made up and they don’t listen.
However, if we continue to discount and disrespect the whole world, as we have during the Bush regime, we will inevitably dig ourselves further and further into isolation, and we simply cannot win any wars on terrorism without the cooperation of the entire world, including the countries of the Middle East. We may not be able to win the hearts and minds of the hardcore al-Qaida members, but it would help to quit alienating citizens of Muslim nations and thereby recruiting new members.
I am not sure when the conservatives started sneering at diplomacy and making fun of the word “nuance,” but guess what, guys – the world is not an old Western movie, and we do have to be in tune with the other nations with whom we share this planet. To do otherwise is not only shortsighted, but dangerous. I am looking forward to being led by an intelligent president who is capable of working cooperatively with our allies rather than arrogantly dismissing them. It’s time to take the bull out of the china shop and send him back to Crawford, Texas.
Gina Parry
Snohomish
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