From: gwb
To: Hank Blakely
Sent: Sunday, May 5, 2002
Subject: Why I can't do without Dick

Thank God for Dick C. If it wasn't for him I wouldn't have a clue to my name.
 
Whenever I ain't sure what's goin' on — which happens a lot more than it used to — I know I can always go to Dick to get my head fixed.
 
This is been 'specially necessary with all this Middle East stuff. Take today for a instance. George Tenet over to CIA brought me up some papers what make it absolute clear that Yassir's been authorizin' payments to terrorists and suicidal bombers right along. It also ain't no doubt that he had a hand in them arms shipments goin' from Iran into the Palestinian Territories.
 
No bout adoubt it, Yassir's a bad, bad man. So it ain't no wonder Ariel, 'long with Dick 'n Rummy, wanna drop the hammer on 'im soon's possible. As Rummy put it, "Take him out, put him away, or send him to hell or Gaza."
 
But it started to seem like it wasn't all that simple — awful lotta ins and outs to this thing.. So I went to Dick. "How come we don't just sit down 'n solve this mess?" I says, "Tell Yassir we'll help his people outta the hole they's in, so they don't got to blow up themselves or nobody else?"
 
"Can't do it," he says.
 
"How come?" I says
 
"Because," he says, "Arafat's got blood on his hands, he sanctions murder."
 
" Well," I says, "I total gets that. Ain't no doubt he's some kinda murderer and all that, but seems to me we ain't always been so picky. Hell, ain't a day goes by but what you ain't got me talkin' to some murderer or the other. We has 'em to dinner 'n even takes smiley pictures with 'em. I mean, hell, look at ol' Ariel, twenty years ago his own government blamed him for massacreein' hunnerds a' men, women 'n children in them refugee camps. And some Belgium folks is tryin' a make 'im out a war criminal, and like that. Ain't he some kinda murderer too?"
 
"He certainly is not," Dick says.
 
"Oh," I says.
 
"He is a fighter for his nation's survival in a hostile land," he says.
 
"Oh," I says.

Then I says "Well, seems like Yassir's land is a mite hostile right now too, 'specially with a whole army surroundin' him. Shouldn't he be a little upset about that?"
 
"He should not," Dick says.
 
"Why's that?" I says.
 
"Because he's giving asylum to assassins of Israeli officials," he says.
 
"Now, see," I says, "Right there's where I keeps losin' track a' this thing; 'cause I know for a fact Ariel's got people what assassinates Palestinian officials too, and they ain't no army 'round his house, not even a boy scout with a air rifle."
 
"That's completely different," Dick says.
 
"Why's that?" I says.
 
"Because," he says, "Israel is a state. When Israel kills foreign officials it does so as a matter of state. Arafat has no state, so for him it's just murder."
 
"And the reason Yassir ain't got a state's 'cause Ariel won't let him have one?" I says.
 
"That's essentially correct," Dick says.
 
"So if he gets his own state, it'd be okay if he killed some a' Ariel's guys?"
 
"it certainly would not," says Dick.
 
"How come?' I says, thinkin' I was feelin' one a' my headache's comin' on.
 
"Because then he would be the leader of a rogue nation that condoned state-sponsored terror." He said.
 
"Wait, now," I says, "Just yesterday you 'n me was talkin' 'bout how Israel helped arm 'n train Apart-Height South Africans back in the 80s, and how they was responsible for the deaths a' thousands a' black folks."
 
"Yes," said Dick, "But that was completely different."
 
"That right?" I says. I was right, it was another headache.
 
"Certainly," he said, "Israel's actions were a matter of national security, but more importantly, it was because they're fighting for their survival —"
 
"— in a hostile land," I finished.
 
"Exactly," he says.
 
"So, let me get this straight," I says, "No matter what the Palestinians does, it's wrong 'cause they ain't got a state. And even if they gets a state, they's still wrong, 'cause 'they's —"
 
"Palestinians,' he says.
 
"— and Israel can do anythin' it wants, 'cause it is a state, but even if it wasn't, it'd be okay 'cause it's —"
 
"— Israel. Exactly," he says..
 
And that's what I mean. Who else but Dick coulda explained it with such succinctity? It's hard as hell to know who to root for when both sides is wrong, but it gets easier when you realize that it ain't so much what you do, as who you is while you is doin' it.
 
That really appeals to my simplified way a' thinkin'. No need for all that pain-in-the-ass figurin' out each little thing somebody do or don't do. You already know what you believe, all you gotta do is get your reasonin' to line up with your conclusionin'. That way they ain't no trick to knowin' who's right and who's wrong.
 
It's just a matter a' faith.