Ask Me If I Care

----- Original Message -----
From: Doug Patton
To: The Duff Family
Sent: Monday, June 20, 2005 1:59 AM
Subject: Re: Re your commentary
Thanks for your reply. It has taken me two weeks to do it, but I have read every one of the nearly one thousand e-mail messages I received about these two columns ("Ask Me if I Care About 'Mishandling' of Koran" and "Jimmy Crack Corn, Part Two: Readers Respond").

Because of this overwhelming response (99 percent of it positive), I am unable to answer each of you personally. Please forgive this stock reply.

Many of you mentioned that you would like to see my work in your local paper. I am currently published in papers all over the country, but it is hit and miss. I would encourage each of you to contact the editor of your local paper and urge him/her to carry my columns each week. Feel free to forward these two columns and my e-mail address to them.

Also, if you feel particularly passionate about it, go to www.Creators.com and contact them about syndicating my work so that every paper in the country has the opportunity to carry me.

I have attached the two columns, as well as my latest piece, for those of you who would like to forward them to others. Meanwhile, to those who read them on www.GOPUSA.com or elsewhere on the web, if you are not already on my personal e-mail list and would like to be, please let me know.

Thanks again,

Doug Patton
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Ask Me if I Care About ‘Mishandling’ of Koran
By Doug Patton
June 6, 2005

First, Newsweek pulled a Dan Rather on us, running a fabricated story just because they wanted it to be true. They told the world that an American guard at the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, detention center had ripped pages from a prisoner’s Koran and flushed it down a toilet. As a result, innocent people died when practitioners of Islam rioted in protest in Afghanistan.

Oops, said Newsweek, it seems we can’t back up our story. Oh well, it’s probably true; we just can’t prove it. (Isn’t it convenient for Newsweek that the media now have “Deep Throat” to talk about so they can revel in their glory days and divert our attention from their criminal negligence.)

The lie heard round the world about the flushed Koran has caused convulsions in the Bush Administration and forced the Pentagon to launch an investigation of unfounded allegations contained in an unsubstantiated story. The results of said investigation are now in, and it seems there are at least five incidents of “mishandling” of the Koran at Gitmo.

Well, guess what? I DON’T CARE!

Are we fighting a war on terror or aren’t we? Was it or was it not started by Islamic people who brought it to our shores on September 11, 2001? Were people from all over the world, mostly Americans, not brutally murdered that day, in downtown Manhattan, across the Potomac from our nation’s capitol and in a field in Pennsylvania? Did nearly three thousand men, women and children die a horrible, burning death that day, or didn’t they?

And I’m supposed to care that a copy of the Koran was “desecrated” when an overworked American soldier kicked it or got it wet? Well, I don’t. I don’t care at all.

I’ll start caring when Osama bin Laden turns himself in and repents for incinerating all those innocent people on 9/11.

I’ll care about the Koran when the fanatics in the Middle East start caring about the Holy Bible, the mere possession of which is a crime in Saudi Arabia.

I’ll care when Abu Musab al-Zarqawi tells the world he is sorry for hacking off Nick Berg’s head while Berg screamed through his gurgling, slashed throat.

I’ll care when the cowardly so-called “insurgents” in Iraq come out and fight like men instead of disrespecting their own religion by hiding in mosques.

I’ll care when the mindless zealots who blow themselves up in search of nirvana care about the innocent children within range of their suicide bombs.

I’ll care when the American media stops pretending that their First Amendment liberties are somehow derived from international law instead of the United States Constitution’s Bill of Rights.

I’ll care when Clinton-appointed judges stop ordering my government to release photos of the abuses at Abu Ghraib, which are sure to set off the Islamic extremists just as Newsweek’s lies did a few weeks ago.

In the meantime, when I hear a story about a brave marine roughing up an Iraqi terrorist to obtain information, know this: I don’t care.

When I see a fuzzy photo of a pile of naked Iraqi prisoners who have been humiliated in what amounts to a college hazing incident, rest assured that I don’t care.

When I see a wounded terrorist get shot in the head when he is told not to move because he might be booby-trapped, you can take it to the bank that I don’t care.

When I hear that a prisoner, who was issued a Koran paid for by my tax dollars, is complaining that his holy book is being “mishandled,” you can absolutely believe in your heart of hearts that I don’t care.

And oh, by the way, I’ve noticed that sometimes it’s spelled “Koran” and other times “Quran.” Well, Jimmy Crack Corn and — you guessed it — I don’t care!
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Doug Patton is a freelance columnist who has served as a political speechwriter and policy advisor for conservative candidates, elected officials and public policy organizations at the federal, state and local levels. His weekly column can be read in newspapers across the country and on selected Internet web sites, including www.GOPUSA.com. Readers can e-mail him at dpatton@neonramp.com.
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Jimmy Crack Corn, Part Two: Readers Respond
By Doug Patton
June 13, 2005

In four years of writing a weekly column, I have never been buried in such an avalanche of e-mail thanking me for an opinion.

Judging from the hundreds of responses (99.99 percent of them supportive of my position), “Ask Me if I Care About ‘Mishandling’ of Koran” touched a nerve like nothing I have ever written. They ran the gamut from the crude to the sad to the angry. And while I certainly would have guessed there was a lot of “I don’t care” sentiment out there, I could never have anticipated the sheer number of responses. Without revealing anyone’s identity, I would like to share some of them.

The most common theme running through the letters was that I had articulated exactly what they were thinking and feeling. “I don’t care” became almost a rallying cry.

A woman identifying herself simply as Leona wrote: “If I could give you a standing ovation, I would! Instead, I sent it to every stinking liberal I know that says we have no business being in Iraq and we are mistreating the Iraqi prisoners...To that I say: GIVE ME A BREAK! THIS IS WAR NOT A TEA PARTY!”

A man named Ron wrote: “I wish this e-mail to travel world wide. I absolutely, unequivocally cannot say strong enough these same thoughts! THANK YOU!”

A few well-intentioned (but obviously deluded) individuals wrote that I would have their vote if I ran for president (proving once and for all the incredible dearth of leaders).

A woman describing herself as a “retired military wife” wrote, “Bless you for saying all the things that we Americans would love to shout to the world! Just think of the millions you have reached. I am so grateful.”

Vietnam Veterans knew the frustration of being disrespected after laying their lives on the line. One who served in that thankless war wrote: “You said the same thing I’ve been saying for sometime now. You are right; I don’t care! Keep up the good work.” He signed it simply, “A retired Marine & Viet Nam Vet.”

It was especially humbling to receive praise from members of the Greatest Generation. Those who fought in World War II know what it takes to win a war. They remember because they know that losing is an unacceptable option. Some of these seniors were service men themselves during WWII. One identified himself as “French by birth, Canadian by choice,” and signed his letter “Ex-French bomber pilot, trained by the U.S. Air Corps, 1944-45.” He simply wrote, “I remember!”

Another said, “Doug, just to let you know that there are untold numbers of us who feel just as you do, only we can't say it as eloquently. Thanks from all us ‘old vets.’”

Another woman wrote: “I am 85 so I probably won’t see what is ultimately happening to this country, but I fear for my grown son and daughters and their children and my great grandchildren. You carry the name of a man deeply admired during the war…He could very well have uttered the same words.”

I was honored by the many letters from those currently serving in uniform all around the world. One particularly poignant letter came from a serviceman who has seen action in Iraq. Lamenting the loss of life on 9/11, he wrote: “My job is to keep America and her people safe, and I will not fail in that again. Every morning when I rise out of my bed the Towers fall again to remind me of the consequences if I should.”

Men, women, old, young, every nationality, service men and women, veterans of America’s last four wars, from every profession and walk of life, and from every corner of the earth, the letters came.

A handful of America-hating misfits called me names and spouted hateful rhetoric. Guess what. I don’t care.
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Doug Patton is a freelance columnist who has served as a political speechwriter and policy advisor for conservative candidates, elected officials and public policy organizations at the federal, state and local levels. His weekly column can be read in newspapers across the country and on selected Internet web sites, including www.GOPUSA.com. Readers can e-mail him at dpatton@neonramp.com.
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The Real Enemies of America
By Doug Patton
June 20, 2005
"We shall pay any price, bear any burden, meet any hardship, support any friend, oppose any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty."
- John F. Kennedy
Contrast that statement, made 44 years ago during JFK’s inaugural address, with the whining, anti-American claptrap coming from the leaders of the former president’s party today.
Indeed, based on his hawkish defense of America against communism during his 1,000-day tenure, the nation’s 35th president would be ashamed if he could hear the likes of Senators Harry Reid (D-NV) and Dick Durbin (D-IL), DNC Chair Howard Dean and JFK’s own brother, Ted, as they spew their disrespect for the nation’s brave men in uniform and give aid and comfort to our sworn enemies.
Reid called President Bush a “loser.” Ted Kennedy has said that Saddam’s death camp at Abu Ghraib was “open under new management, American management.” And Howard Dean has made so many stupid, outrageous comments since taking the helm of the rudderless Democratic Party, it is hard to know where to start.
Last week, it was Durbin’s turn. As the second ranking Democrat in the United States Senate, the senior senator from Illinois told the world (including our enemies, foreign and domestic) that making detainees at Guantanamo Bay detention center uncomfortable was tantamount to the treatment administered to prisoners by the likes of Hitler, Stalin and Pol Pot. Let us talk for a moment about that analogy.
In his remarks, Durbin read a list of some of the interrogation tactics used on terrorists caught trying to kill our soldiers on the battlefield in Afghanistan. These tactics included turning the air conditioning up and down to create extremes of temperature, chaining the prisoners to the floor in a fetal position and blaring loud rap music at them. While the latter may border on torture to those who appreciate real music, the idea that such mild procedures would have been used in the Nazi death camps, the Soviet gulags or the killing fields of Cambodia is ridiculous.
Sen. Durbin should ask his senate colleague, John McCain, if his POW cell in North Vietnam had air conditioning. Chained to the floor? Please. McCain can’t lift his arms high enough to comb his own hair because they were broken so many times by his captors. Loud rap music? What horrible treatment. I’m surprised they haven’t all cracked under the pressure and told us everything we want to know.
Here is what McCain had to say to Tim Russert on Sunday’s Meet the Press: “Dick Durbin should be required to read Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's ‘Gulag Archipelago’ and I think that he may have a better understanding that there’s no comparison whatsoever. And it does a great disservice to the majority of men and women who are serving in Guantanamo who are doing the job that they’re told to do and they’re doing it in a humane fashion. To tar the American servicemen and women with a brush that applies to the gulag or the killing fields is a great disservice to the men and women in the military who are serving honorably down there.”
The terrorists in Gitmo are being treated far better than they have a right to be treated. Their culturally prepared food (untouched by “infidel” hands) is superior to anything our own soldiers are eating in the field. Read the comments of a worried wife describing the hardships her husband is experiencing without complaint in Iraq:
“He served over nine months in desolate areas of Iraq where the rats and spiders had more favorable living conditions. He patrolled the camp in 160-degree heat in “full battle rattle” and slept at night in a tent with twenty men and one box fan. Their latrines consisted of a bucket and what he described as ‘sandpaper.’ In the middle of the night, he and his buddies would be startled awake by the sound of distant and not-so-distant machine gunfire. We scrape by on military pay, but I measure our wealth by his dedication to his values, his country and his family. I guess that makes us one of the richest families in the world.”
Those are values the enemies of America like Ted Kennedy, Howard Dean, Harry Reid and Dick Durbin will never understand.
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Doug Patton is a freelance columnist and who has served as a political speechwriter and policy advisor for conservative candidates, elected officials and public policy organizations at the federal, state and local levels. His weekly column can be read in newspapers across the country and on selected Internet web sites, including www.GOPUSA.com. Readers can e-mail him at dpatton@neonramp.com.
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----- Original Message -----
From: The Duff Family
To: dpatton@neonramp.com
Sent: Monday, June 06, 2005 11:47 PM
Subject: Re your commentary
Sir:
I agree with every politically incorrect word. Thank you for such a well written piece.
Regards,
Dawn G. Duff

Bluffton, South Carolina