Peace Action West responded to Diggs Brown’s response to the a survey about foreign policy that I wrote a diary about last week. Their response is so full of logical fallacies that it would take a month to deconstruct. Most of it is an appeal to authority of a list of dubious foreign policy experts (really, Arnold Schwarzenegger?). Rebecca Griffin tries to play off of Brown’s humorous introduction with one of her own.

I am an advocate of a smart foreign policy that actually makes Americans safer. You’re someone who thinks a 30,000-pound bunker-busting bomb is a “diplomatic tool.” This is not going to be pretty.

Smart Foreign Policy to Rebecca is to send some civilians into a combat zone with who knows what to talk with terrorists who would just as soon kill them and themselves into living peacefully together. The reference to Goodwin’s Law was a good one, well except that Diggs referred to many other treaties that were broken through the years and recently. The entire article is a pick-and-choose to reinforce their talking points. They gloss over or completely ignore important aspects of Brown’s response; primarily that he has been there, and they have not.

Unfortunately, Griffin didn’t really respond directly to Brown’s response, but rather used it to just re-iterate the same talking points again. Most glaringly, this can be seen in her response to Brown’s statements that no civilian organization can respond as quickly as the United States Military,

Mr. Brown appears to find the idea of civilian humanitarian efforts hilarious. However I, along with millions of generous Americans, funneled our money to those efforts through the Red Cross, Doctors Without Borders, Partners in Health, and other civilian organizations that are doing amazing, life saving work on the ground in Haiti.

Brown no where mentioned that these organizations aren’t important. In fact, I know he’d say they are vitally important. The simple fact is they don’t have the resources to respond at a moment’s notice. There’s no reason to duplicate this ability with a civilian force. The United States military can provide this service now, and has been extremely effective in the past.

People like Griffin have the idea that if we just use the right words all these people that hate us will just stop fighting. They’ll lay down their weapons and nukes and we’ll all sit around the campfire singing Kumbaya. The terrorists in Afghanistan and elsewhere have no intention of ever doing that. They live by force, and only understand the diplomatic tool of a ready response of force.

If you appreciate what Diggs Brown has done for America as a soldier, and support what he wants to do as a congressman, there’s something you can do about it. There’s a money bomb for Diggs this week. Throw him a few bones and show the constituents in Colorado’s 4th District that there’s someone willing to go fight for them in Washington.

Cross-posted at Night Twister