Personal Fallout Over Andrew Sullivan's Address

This relates to class, but not the G20. Seriously, if anyone doesn't think it belongs on this blog, let me know somehow and I'll take it off.

As I mentioned in class, I shared a link to Andrew Sullivan's article with my father on his facebook wall. Today I had an emotionally agitating conversation about it. The other person involved is my father's, best friend's, son. All three of his friend's sons served in Iraq and my dad sent them a lot of mail and support while they were there. I've grown up knowing them too, although all of the sons are several years older than I am, so we haven't had much in common. Still, I see the man I'm debating with several times a year, which is why I was very surprised that this escalated so quickly.

I think the stakes were high on both sides of the argument, and I admit that my first response to his post was a bit inflammatory. Here it is, I've only used his initials and resisted the temptation to edit my typos:

Ellen (to my father)
"This article is written by a conservative journalist who (I think) very
fairly evaluates the Bush administration's use of torture and urges the
former president to take some sort of action.

http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200910/bush-torture"

C.B.
"President Bush,
You don't know me, so I'll appologize for the personal tone of this letter.
I voted for you in 2004, and I'm damn proud of it. I didn't agree with all of your domestic policies, in fact, some of them piss me off, but you were spot on in your foreign policy. I respect the hell out of you for your backbone, and I wish our current president had one just like yours. I understand the need to kill those that would kill us, before they kill us. I know that you had intelligence that said that Iraq had WMDs, and that you acted in good faith. I also understand that Saddam Hussein was one ruthless mofo who killed many thousands of his own people with chemical weapons, and tortured countless others in ways that would make water-boarding look like pattycake. But no worries Mr. President, I'm sure the American people will one day grow up and stop trying to burn you for doing what you thought (and I agree with you) was right.

Thanks, and God Bless"

Ellen
"'I'm sure the American people will grow up and stop trying to burn you for doing what you thought was right.'"

It's pretty easy to state a personal opinion. It's harder to make a reasoned argument based on specific evidence from many first hand sources and multiple definitions of torture, including ones that president Bush has stated that he subscribes to.

I don't know if you actually read the whole article, but I would care more about your opinion if you had some convincing reasons why Saddam, killing and torturing Iraqis is somehow worse than Bush killing and torturing Iraqis."

C.B.
"My published opinions are always based on a degree of factual knowledge, and usually firsthand at that. (Can I help it if MSNBC doesn't cover it?) Whereas you have cut and pasted a link, I have written of my own violation, which lends itself to my argument being the more considered. I have no desire to banty words with such an impertinent and heavily opinionated young Lady such as yourself. My original letter to Pres. Bush was posted for the benefit of your esteemed father, as 'evidenced' by it being on his page, because, as I'm sure you'll agree, it is always better to present two sides of an argument, rather than one.
I'm sure you will forgive me for my dismissive tone.
Best regards,
[see above]"

Ellen
"First of all, I do appreciate your service to your country and respect your decision to follow what you believed to be right, and to stand by it. However, I don't think that gives you a monopoly on the truth of the situation. The link I posted includes the testimony of several soldiers who served in Iraq and probably had similar experiences to yours, but came to different conclusions as humans are apt to do in any situation.

I never expressed any opinion on the topic of torture, the war or anything other than what constitutes a valid argument. I was sharing an article that I found to be interesting with my father, so that we could discuss it rather than yelling at each other. Granted my tone truthfully betrayed my shock at your statement.

Of course anything posted in a public forum is open to criticism, so we both have that right. I'm surprised and offended to hear you calling me "an impertinent and heavily opinionated young lady" when you yourself have expressed an extremely controversial opinion that human rights violations are justified as a matter of national security and the people making those calls are above responsibility. The "young lady" is extremely cutting, and, as I'm sure you intended it to be (I withhold my forgiveness), extremely dismissive."

C.B.
"Very well. I appreciate your commitment to your argument."

END

That got really mean, very quickly. And though I stand by what I said, I feel kind of sick about it all. The worst part is, what happens when I run into this guy again? Without facebook we would have gone our whole lives never caring or giving a second thought to the other's politics. Even if we both had very vocal views online, the chance of our paths intersecting would still be slim. Through social networking (and I'm not even friends with C.B. on facebook) we now have an extremely antagonistic, public relationship that can be viewed by all of our family and friends.