Rob,

Thanks for the notes and perspectives of the past week.

I have maxed on TV reporting since the propaganda is flowing on revenge and war but am trying to keep a finger on the pulse of what's going on.

I do NOT like Letterman but was passing the channel last night and saw Dan Rather. I wondered how Rather could have the energy to make an interview since he's probably not gotten enough sleep the past week so I stopped to catch him off his throne.

Unbelievable. While asking for a 4-10 year war in which we will "send our boys and girls" he choked up. He rocevered his voice. He said there will be casualties greater than we have seen. He choked again.

Not knowing quite what to do, Letterman stumbled into a very good question immediately after that and said essentially,

"Why such a war?"

Rather started to say, we should all be there at "ground zero" (Hiroshima is ground zero not NYC) and see those firemen. Then he broke up again and said, "Dave, you-you take it...:" He could not tell us why this war he asks for is necessary. Then Letterman went to a commercial.

Now, with most people I would say okay that guy's upset because he's seen the body parts and body bags and we haven't, the shock is going to wear off later. The shock & emotion will wear off and he will get his head and think this through. However, this man is THE VOICE AND IMAGE of the way America interprets events. He is probably in the top 10 persons with the most poweful influence on public opinion. We will see what he wants and it will be framed in exactly the way he wants to frame it. He can build a war.

I hear and see this old man saying, get out your flags, get out your wallets, get out your boys and girls, it's time to kill and it's time to die. All this from the network who has been selling us violence for entertainment for the past 25 years.

I remember the lie that was the Gulf of Tonkin which started the American War in Vietnam. I remember when Iran and the Shah was Nixon's buddy and we sold arms. I remember when that group fell and then Iraq was our buddy and we sold arms to Iraq. I remember when Kuwait was formed out of Iraq after WWII and then we were to believe the US installed monarch there was threatened so we took up the Gulf War over it.

I cannot accept being herded like a sheep into selling arms and training assasins all over the world for decades and then expect to trust my government or the mainstream press to suddenly work in a way that won't make the situation worse.

-Matthew