Original URL: https://www.theregister.com/2001/09/21/were_not_all_rednecks/

'We're not all rednecks and warmongers…'

Americans disown hate mail

By Andrew Orlowski

Posted in Bootnotes, 21st September 2001 14:26 GMT

Reg's 'Dickless Armchair Warriors' go to battle


They're speaking out their arse.

Always an education to read the Outrage of the Ignorant and Flag-Wrapped.

The Register's coverage has been excellent.

I'm no particular fan of Cockburn, but it's very hard to find ANYONE who doesn't kneel and kiss the establishment ring.

Best wishes, and keep up the good work.

Ed Stearn


...please tell me that you received some e-mails from my fellow citizens that DIDN'T include such pointless and gratuitous use of scatology?

I'd like to believe that we, as a nation, still have the capability for reasoned, respectful discourse in disagreement.

Or should I just give up and move to England??

Lee Webber




Andrew,

I just wanted to say to yourself and The Register, a great job for bringing sanity to this debate, but why print the rantings of a complete hypocritical tosser like Nathan McCourtney? Is it any wonder with a nation whose attitude is thus, that people are willing to die themselves to chastise it?

All I can say to Nathan is that why is it ok for the US to mass murder 100,000s of civilians? Why is it ok for the US to carpet bomb other countries?

Please, to a "religious peoples" that Americans claim to be, what happened to only God can judge, turn the other cheek and foregiveness? Or is that only for elections and Sundays?

Regards

Vishal Vashisht




Perhaps a mass aid program for Afghan (and other) refugees might undermine the terrorists. I don't know many cases where the cause of the problem is also the cure. It would only cost a fraction of military operation as well.

Just think if you could hear the following :-

"OK apart from the food, education, health care, roads, employment, housing what have the Americans ever done for us?".

John Winney




Robert Davis was yesterday's correspondent who chastised us for mentioning Echelon. Igor Grunschev has this take:-


Robert Davis says "I've got nothing to hide, do you?"
If you could pass Robert's email on to me, I'd appreciate it. Since he has nothing to hide, I'd like to get his social security number, phone number, address, mother's maiden name, some bank account information and maybe some miscellaneous stuff like his driver's license number, a recent photo, that kind of thing. Since he's got nothing to hide I'm sure he won't mind sharing with me.

I'm always happy to meet people with "nothing to hide."

Igor Grunschev




Perhaps [the vitriolic letter writers] should read Mark Twain's "War Prayer" from 1905.


Bob Marsh




 
I hope you keep covering the developments, even if some people don't quite like the opinions.
 
As the sabre rattling intensifies I expect we'll see more jingoism and less sense.

Charles Manning




I just finished reading the replies you got from various coverings of the "Attack on America". I found humorous, though perhaps sickly so, that all (Or at least most) these responses came from Americans, such as myself. These are people who live in a country which guarantees the freedom of speech, yet they're blasting you and others for the opinions and criticisms you've voiced.

I must say that myself, I highly regard both The Register and all of your opinions, because they are just that; Your opinions. Of course, recently I do agree with many of them. Apparently when a tragedy of this magnitude happens, we are supposed to completely forget all injustices our government and people have done in the past (Even very recent past) and focus our attention on bombing the living hell out of somebody - anybody. I disagree with this, though I may get impaled by an American flag for saying so. I don't even think it matters who we attack anymore, as long as we don't like them. I can't quite recall what section of our Constitution gives us the right to bomb whomever we see fit, but I'm pretty sure it is under the heading "Impatient Rednecks".
 
Keep on voicing your opinions. Please.
 
Rick Geerling



I have to say that I'm angry -- but not completely surprised -- by some of the less perceptive readers who have been criticizing the Register's perspective on the Bush administration's actions. Not only do they fail to see the cause and effect of U.S. actions abroad, but they exhibit an alarming lack of self-examination or critical thinking when it comes to the
behavior of our nation as a whole.


I have repeatedly asked some of the more vociferous warmongers among us what they thought motivated the terrorists in the first place, and no one seems
to know. Or they parrot Dubya's puerile comment, "they hate freedom." Very few people even think to question U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East.

Indeed, many think that this attack came out of the blue, and don't know the tendency of the United States to push its own interests abroad with little
regard for the sovereignty or interest of other nations.

And no one dares criticize Dubya's dunderheaded isolationism, for fear of being labelled un-American. Hell, even Colin Powell is starting to get
angry with him.

While the full complexity of foreign relations undoubtedly escapes the majority of educated people in both the U.S. and Europe, I fear that it's the arrogance of most U.S. citizens, let alone our government, that will lead to the death of more innocents. The lone fact that many would rather
attack you than try to understand your differing perspective drives this point home.

Regards,
Michael Ryan