The following is an excerpt from my radio program from last week:
Dr. Laura: Jay, welcome to the program.Jay: Doctor, thank you very much for taking my call, ma'am.Dr. Laura: My pleasure.Jay: I am an ex-military soldier with a loss of limb, and I'm having a difficult time reconciling between being revered as (quote) "a war hero" and reviled as an oppressor. Friends, family...Dr. Laura: Who reviles you as an oppressor?Jay: Believe it or not, my family.Dr. Laura: You mean your mother and father?Jay: And my sister as well.Dr. Laura: Who do they think you oppressed? I mean, how stupid is your family? Jay: My family is....ah, they're not "with" the current times. My sister is currently in India, in her second marriage. She married a Pakistani of all things.Dr. Laura: Oh. And she doesn't understand the problems between Pakistan and India?Jay: No.Dr. Laura: But she's living there...Jay: Well, she chooses not to...Dr. Laura: Has she been on a train that's been blown up yet?Jay: No, and I certainly hope she's not.Dr. Laura: I mean, this is just stupid. I always want to tell these people, gee, why don't you go march in front of, let's do some history, I don't know....let's march in front of Imperial Japan, Nazi Germany, Fascist Italy, militant Islam right now, you go march in front of the Taliban, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Brotherhood, Al Qaeda....you go march over there and talk about oppression! To tell an American soldier that he oppressed somebody is somewhere between stupid, ignorant and evil.And you know what, Jay?Jay: I did my job.Dr. Laura: Jay....Jay: I did my job.Dr. Laura: You can't just say you did your job. They said that in Nuremburg. That's not the truth. You stood between the innocent and evil. And more evil cropped up. So now we have a worse time dealing with evil. People who have killed their own just for the sake of some power in their town. These are oppressors. You don't see anybody in Minneapolis taking out a whole segment of Minneapolis, because they're of the same religion, but they believe a little differently.Jay: You don't think that's a little extreme, in comparison?Dr. Laura: No. Why would that be extreme in comparison? That's exactly....that is a fair, complete, absolute parallel. They go to schools and mosques, and kill each other, for no other reason than power. That's oppression. You don't see one city in the United States of America or Britain where that happens.Jay: Well, that's true.Dr. Laura: Right. Amoral, uncivilized people, versus moral, civilized people. We worry all the time if we're doing the right thing. The militant Islamists don't worry for a moment whether they're doing the right thing - the right thing for them is killing as many people as possible to have power. So, it is two different world views.Jay: Which would be....Dr. Laura: But Jay....you can choose...Jay: I love my country, and I love...Dr. Laura: No. Jay, JAY, Jay...I would expect more of you. You are a warrior. If people in your family are this stupid and this cruel, you cannot wear it as a blanket.Jay: I'm not trying to.Dr. Laura: Well, you said you're torn apart between them. I don't see being torn apart by ignorance.Jay: Minor...Dr. Laura: There are people who love me and love my show and love what I say. There are people who hate me, hate my show, and hate what I say.Jay: Excuse me...Dr. Laura: No, I'm not done. Now, If I woke up every morning worrying about the haters, I couldn't do my job, which I think is to
un
oppress people from bad ways of being, thinking, and doing.Jay: Can I ask you a question?Dr. Laura: Sure.Jay: By ignorance, do you refer to my own?Dr. Laura: I refer to your family.Jay: My family.Dr. Laura: Your family. Your own? I don't know if you're ignorant or not. Your family is. Oh, you mean you agree with them? You think you gave your leg for nothing?Jay: Not in the least.Dr. Laura: Good. Okay, well, then you're not ignorant. They are.Jay: I'd have done it again. And again. And again.Dr. Laura: Because you're a real man and a real warrior. And if your family can't appreciate that, I feel sorry for them, because my son is over there, protecting the right of your family to be ignorant. And that's what you did, and I admire you. I'm Dr. Laura Schlessinger.Anybody who doesn't show absolute respect for what we're trying to do, who's using Iraq and Afghanistan and all the rest of this simply for political power, are becoming more and more like Al Qaeda and Taliban in their thinking. And that's what I watch when I see Republicans, sub-Republicans, Democrats, sub-Democrats, all of this fighting - it's only for elections and power. It isn't for what is good for the world or for America. I don't believe that for a minute! I see people saying the most God-awful things strictly for power.No intelligent, rational, reasonable, decent person is for war. No intelligent, rational, decent person is for war. But if my father and your fathers didn't go off to fight World War II, I would have been incinerated in a German concentration camp oven. So I'm very grateful to the guys who didn't believe in war, but fought it to protect the free world from vile evil. And that is exactly what's going on now. Militant Islam is vile evil. Every day, they're blowing up their own people for power. It's inhuman. And you really believe we shouldn't stop that?Should we go to Africa when one tribe tries to eliminate another? It's funny....some of the same Hollywood types who say we should go to Africa and stop one tribe from eliminating another don't seem to understand what's going on in the Middle East. But this gentleman who called, my son, your sons and daughters, your fathers, your brothers, your children, are fighting the good fight. Am I for war? Are you nuts? Who in their right mind would be? But the rest of the world doesn't necessarily show evidence of being in its right mind.When I hear pain in a soldier who then says he would go
back
...do you realize this is a volunteer army, and we have guys re-enlisting to go back three, four times? Because they're over there and they see the danger, and they know that they're just watching CNN spin or the New York Times spin-they
know
what's going down. They're watching body parts fly all over the place as one Islamic group kills another Islamic group - men, women, and children.This is a fight for a world view. [sigh]. That's my gift to all the soldiers - my ranting and raving for five minutes.
