Reply #127: Unfortunately what Tom Ridge said reminds me of something a former friend said

[MikeH]

I had a friend who voted for Bush in 2004, felt that what we were doing in Iraq was the right thing for us to do, and said that he was not bothered that we did not find any of the weapons of mass destruction because, as he pointed out, intelligence is not an exact science.

This was a friend whom I met at one of my jobs in the mid 1970's when we were both students, and working under a special program sponsored by our university. He was a fundamentalist Christian, but did not fit the worst stereotypes of people of that persuasion. I was a Christian, but not a fundamentalist Christian, at the time I met my friend, and he was somebody with whom I could discuss issues of the faith, even if we disagreed. I later came to realize that I was unhappy with the Christian faith and the lack of help it was to me, and he was able to accept it, and we were still able to be friends. He was never "in your face" about his faith or his politics.

I was disappointed that he was going to vote for Bush in 2000. Anybody but Gore, and he was strongly against abortion. I tried to accept it at the time. I was definitely worried about Bush, but had no idea how bad he was really going to be.

I got together with my friend in October 2004, right before the election that year. I wanted to find out if he was going to be voting for Bush again. Much to my disappointment and consternation, he was. I was especially bothered that my friend showed no hesitation in saying he was going to be voting for Bush a second time, and seemed to have no misgivings or second thoughts, and that he seemed to have no struggle in deciding he was going to.

I asked my friend what he thought about the Iraq war. He felt it was necessary to remove Saddam Hussein, a brutal and dangerous tyrant, just like we should have removed Hitler before World War II. However the thing he said that really bothered me was that he felt it was OK for us to go to war even if we did not find the weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, because intelligence is not an exact science. And I also seem to recall that he was not bothered by our use of torture; I do not remember exactly why.

Especially since Bush got a second term (I don't want to say he "won" a second term), I let my friend know that I needed to reevaluate my friendship with him. For instance I thought his saying that intelligence was not an exact science was a way for him to excuse a pResident who was "his type" of pResident (i.e. ostensibly a fundamentalist Christian, opposed to abortion, and did not have a sexual affair in the White House like Clinton), and I said that to him.

I proposed to my friend that if we got together in the future we could talk about old times, and about school and work, and about people we both used to know. However I could not respect either his politics or his religion any more, and did not want to discuss either with him. (That is something that sometimes works with families.) I did not want to hear my friend's thoughts on any controversial issue, and I did not want to hear about any of his church or Christian activities. And I did not want to hear about his wife's or his family's church or Christian activities, and I said that to my friend knowing that his wife has a singing ministry that is very important to her.

My friend indicated that he preferred that we end our friendship, and we did so on amicable terms. We agreed we could have fond memories of our past relationship, and we both wished each other the best for the future.

My friend and I ending our friendship was one of those things that was necessary. He was a good friend, and we had good times together, and he was "there" for me as a friend many times over the years when I needed a friend to be "there" for me. However Bush was (and still is) really that bad, and it was not OK for my friend to be in favor of the Iraq war. And I especially cannot respect the religious faith of anybody who is for Bush or who is in favor of the Iraq war.