Help me convert my DAD ==McCain supporter.

My Dad is 65. He only watches Fox news. He's part of the 20% who still supports Bush. Do I have hope? I was part of an anti-terrorism task force in Bosnia in the late 90's... I'm trying to educate him on terrorism and why McCain would be a horrible commander in chief. Here is my response. Can you guys help me edit it a bit? The second part of this email to my Dad is cited from outside resources

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As far as John McCain goes. I guess I'll agree to disagree with you on this one. I agree that we should NOT have another Dem in the office, but I don't think John McCain would make a good commander in Chief. I have done a lot of research on his past military record and it's not too pretty. I _do_ think that it is horrible that he was a POW, and he deserves my respect for that.

In regards to terrorism... I experienced this first hand when protecting troops as part of the anti-terrorism task force when I was in Germany... The logical conclusion, and what is portrayed on TV is that terrorists are attacking us because we're free. The reality is that our foreign policy, which stems a LOT from the Clinton Era and even before Bush and Reagan has fueled terrorist ideologies across many generations. It is not just the US foreign policy, but western thought. Around the mid 1980's the mujahedeen and what is now called 'al queda' (I'll get to that later), pronounced at "Fatwa" or "Rule of Law" against western civilization that basically allowed terrorist acts against civilians rather than military targets. This is very significant in which prior to the mid-1980's it was rare that you would see "terrorism" as you see it today. Harming civilians has proven to be the best scare tactic and way to effect millions by only harming thousands. I also believe strongly that media responds to this type of terrorism much more than just military conflict. Which of course you see in the media everyday....I believe strongly that it was Osama Bin Laden's intentions to not only bankrupt Russia but also the United States (in which he admitted in the interview with Peter Burgen of CNN).

The success of 9/11, and Bush's premptive strike into Iraq has further helped Al Queda's cause and by us being there and taking over a country is a perfect recruiting tool for Al Queda. How would we feel if say the 4 Billion Chinese decide to come on our shores and tell us we all had to learn Chinese and convert to communism? Yes, maybe it was horrible being under an oppressive dictator, but we can not be policemen of the world unless we are called upon by solid proof and it is approved by congress to declare war. This is stated in the constitution. As much as Bush has helped our country I think this was his greatest mistake and has given Democrats the fuel they need to win the election. It is kinda sad really. Yes, Islamic extremism needs to be combated. So does neo-Nazism and people who want to shoot our children at universities and schools. But this should be treated like any other illness. We shouldn't have to go to war and kill thousands of innocents to try to prove that we can defeat the terrorists. See that is the ugly beauty of terrorism... it is not organized, it feeds off people's weaknesses....both the supporters and non-supporters.

Al Queda, Bin Laden, etc. The origins of the group can be traced to the Soviet war in Afghanistan. The United States viewed the conflict in Afghanistan, with the Afghan Marxists and allied Soviet troops on one side and the native Afghan mujahedeen (Or "Freedom Fighters" as we called them) on the other, as a blatant case of Soviet expansionism and aggression. The U.S. channelled funds through Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency to the native Afghan mujahedeen fighting the Soviet occupation in a CIA program called Operation Cyclone.

At the same time, a growing number of foreign Arab mujahedeen (also called Afghan Arabs) joined the jihad against the Afghan Marxist regime, facilitated by international Muslim organizations, particularly the Maktab al-Khidamat, whose funds came from some of the $600 million a year donated to the jihad by the Saudi Arabia government and individual Muslims - particularly wealthy Saudis who were approached by Osama bin Laden.

The Afghan mujahideen of the 1980s have been alleged to be the inspiration for terrorist groups in nations such as Indonesia, the Philippines, Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Chechnya, and the former Yugoslavia. According to Russian sources, the perpetrators of the first World Trade Center bombing in 1993 allegedly used a manual allegedly written by the CIA for the mujahideen fighters in Afghanistan on how to make explosives.

Whether the al-Qaeda attacks are "blowback" from the American CIA's Operation Cyclone to help the Afghan mujahideen is a matter of some debate. Robin Cook, former member of the British House of Commons and Foreign Secretary from 1997-2001, has written that al-Qaeda and Bin Laden were, "a product of a monumental miscalculation by western security agencies" and that the mujahideen that formed al-Qaeda were "originally ... recruited and trained with help from the CIA".

However, CNN journalist Peter Bergen, known for conducting the first television interview with Osama bin Laden in 1997, calls the idea "that the CIA funded bin Laden or trained bin Laden ... a folk myth. There's no evidence of this. ... Bin Laden had his own money, he was anti-American and he was operating secretly and independently. ... The real story here is the CIA didn't really have a clue about who this guy was until 1996 when they set up a unit to really start tracking him." Bergen and others maintain the U.S. aid was given out by the Pakistan government, that it went to Afghan not foreign mujahideen, and that there was no contact between the Afghan Arabs (foreign mujahideen) and the CIA or other American officials, let alone, arming, training, coaching or indoctrination.
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If you've made it this far thanks for reading!!!
-Brian