I sent Kos an e-mail and he responded. Before I composed it, I cleansed myself of as much anger as possible and took great pains to be more civil and conciliatory than I really feel, in order to try and gather the response. I'm very curious to see if this guy can be reasoned with.

Here's the first round:

From : "William XXXX@hotmail.com
Sent : Friday, April 2, 2004 9:08 PM
To : kos@dailykos.com
Subject : Kos, Regarding Your Post About Fallujah

Mr. Zúniga,

I had some comments and questions about your earlier post today that sparked so much furor in the blogosphere. I realize that you have quite a large readership and cannot respond to every e-mail, but if you get the chance, I would really love to hear your feedback about this matter.

First of all, I'm on the "other side" of this issue; I support the War in Iraq. That being said, I can understand many of the more intelligent motivations of those on the left of this issue that were against the war. Most reasonable and moral people can find reasonable and logical arguments that come to major disagreement about the validity of invasion, so I by no means hold your position in contempt.

But - your comments today strike me as baffling, especially coming from a former soldier. These men were Americans, and while they may have been paid mercenaries (as you describe them), private security contractors are responsible for a variety of tasks in Iraq that are considered vital for the potential success of any emerging government. They serve the function of training Iraqi security forces, protecting contractors that are rebuilding the infrastructure and providing aid, and as body guards for representatives of the nascent Iraqi government.

While I understand why you may feel that this war was unjust, and that the consequences of military action should be well-publicized and made clear to those of us that supported the war, I can't understand how this translates into dismissal about the deaths of these men. I really don't understand why their sacrifice is made invalid because they were privately employed and well-compensated. If you were merely emotional at the time you wrote the comments, that is understandable as well; I have certainly also been moved to anger by events that I found unjust. Please clarify.

The purpose of this e-mail is not to lecture you, it really is an attempt to understand what you meant and hopefully start a meaningful (if brief) dialogue; I'd really like to understand your position. if you get a chance, please e-mail me back.

Regards,

William

His response:

From : kos@dailykos.com
Sent : Friday, April 2, 2004 9:40 PM
To : "William XXXX@hotmail.com
Subject : Re: Kos, Regarding Your Post About Fallujah

Hi William,

I actually appreciate your thoughtful message. While none of the conservative bloggers attacking me would ever link to it, I further explained the reasons for my outburst here:

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2004/4/2/175739/8203

If you have read that already, or if you have other questions, I'd be more than happy to continue discussing it with you.

But in short, the reason for my outburst was that I was upset that the death of 5 marines the same day was essentially ignored, as were the deaths of 51 US soldiers in March. As a former soldier, I have a natural kinship with our men and women in uniform. The attention showered on mercenaries who were there voluntarily, when our brave soldiers were all but ignored, was too much for me at that moment in time.

I realize my comment was stupid. There are more civil ways to make that point. But my emotions got to me at the time.

Again, I appreciate your note. We can keep discussing if you'd like. Civility is in short supply these days.

Thanks,

markos

More to come ... jump to Part 2.