O’Donnell’s view on Iraq war belittles troops, hurts credibility

Dear Editor,

    Tuesday morning I tuned into the television show “The View” and was shocked and completely turned off by the unprofessional and down-right rude antics of Rosie O’Donnell.
    In the show’s “Hot Topics” segment Ms. O’Donnell recalled President Bush’s statement in an address the night before, “The safety of our country was being fought in the streets of Baghdad.”
    She argued that the safety of our country didn’t reside in Baghdad but rather in the streets of New Orleans. I feel I need to remind Ms. O’Donnell that a complete and utter act of war was declared on our country Sept. 11, 2001.
    We are still waging that war with the people and nations who support them.
    By pulling out and throwing in the towel before the race is finished, the terrorist would see themselves as victorious at our surrender. We have invested too much and made too much progress to do that now. She believes our focus should be in New Orleans rather than in Iraq.
    I am not sure how fond she would be at the idea of sitting at Café Du Monde,eating her beignets with dirty bombs exploding around her and biological warfare being commonplace in her or her children’s lives.
    By smothering out Al Qaeda and other terrorists in Iraq and Afghanistan we are building two windows of democracy and peace that would serve as an oasis of example for the rest of the region. It is imperative that we do all we can for New Orleans, but we must be mindful to not abandon our obligations in Iraq along the way.
    When asking the panel what they thought about the president’s speech last night, she was open to everyone’s opinion except that of Elizabeth Hasselbeck who thought positively of the speech and the direction our country was taking. O’Donnell continually cut Mrs. Hasselbeck off not allowing her a word in edgewise.     She used her abrasive rhetoric to degrade Elizabeth and make her appear wrong and completely uneducated. “The View” is an important exercise of the First Amendment and allows debate and different opinions on a variety of topics. Their different views on politics and debate about them are an essential part of democracy.
    I celebrate “The View’s” efforts to contribute to a healthy democracy. What I don’t celebrate is the fact that everyone cannot equally present and debate their opinion on the show. This morning it was as if the whole panel was teaming up on Elizabeth and the president. This was a disservice to the forum of healthy debate they have worked these nine years to establish.
    I seriously question Ms. O’Donnell’s credibility and place on the show. She needs to be willing to allow others the floor if she would like the same in return. She also needs to be mindful that there are troops in Iraq risking their lives everyday for her safety, and she need not belittle their efforts by saying the real battlefield for safety rests in New Orleans.

Sincerely,
 Adam Hammond
Political Science
Junior

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Sep 15 2006. Filed under Letters to the Editor. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry