In case anybody's interested in what Hawley *really* thinks, rather than the
phony right wing spin being circulated in his name, here are his actual
thoughts on the subjects addressed in the perjured piece probably innocently
posted by RGrew.

General Hawley said of the words now mistakenly attributed to him:


There is a piece zooming around the internet that attributes some pretty
forceful statements to me, Dick Hawley - one time fighter pilot, General,
thoughtful consultant, neophyte strategist, master of the artful compromise.
The words did not flow from my pen, but if the e-mails mean anything, those
words are now indelibly linked to my name. So do me a favor - if you receive
this, please send it on to the same people to whom you forwarded the one that I
did not write. It's not that I don't share many, if not most, of the sentiments
attributed to me, but the piece is just not my style.
Here's what I would have said if I'd been asked to comment on those five
important issues.

1) Goodness, Evil and Relativity: There are some really good people in this
world. They volunteer to help those who need it, and ask nothing in return.
There are also some really bad people in this world. They exploit those who
need help, or who have less wit or "charisma", and motivate them to join in
committing unspeakable acts of cruelty against people they don't even know.
Then there are the rest of us. Average people who try each day to do no harm,
to provide for their families, to do an occasional act of kindness. The evil
that was perpetrated against our land on 9/11 was the product of Mullahs who
see our prosperity and power as a threat to their control over the uneducated
Muslim masses on whose shoulders they ride through life. And so they preach
hate. They are evil.

2) Violence begets violence: It's true. Violence does beget violence. But
sometimes there is no alternative but to confront those who would perpetrate
evil acts against us. This is one of those times. We are blessed to have
courageous men and women willing to put their lives on the line to track down
and annihilate those who have been so imbued with evil as to be beyond
redemption. But violence is not a strategy. It is a necessary and fully
justified reaction to an unimaginable threat. But it is not a strategy. If we
are to win this war, we must defeat the Mullahs. And to defeat the Mullahs, we
must find ways to separate them from their uneducated flocks. We cannot kill
all those who have been taught to hate us, nor should we wish to. Far better to
change their minds than to change their state of being.

3) The intelligence community let us down: Well, maybe just a little. Lots of
senior and not so senior intelligence people became just as enamored of high
tech gadgets as their political masters. The protests over our evisceration of
the human intelligence component of the agency were not very loud or forceful.
Keeping spies on the ground is a high risk and often dirty business, and it
wasn't just liberal politicians who didn't have much stomach for it.

4) Poverty is the breeding ground for terrorists: No, it isn't; but religious
extremism is. The Mullahs fear our wealth and power because it shows that a
secular society with democratic institutions and a free market economy can do a
better job of taking care of its peoples' needs, both spiritual and physical,
than the oppressive Islamic regimes that they aspire to lead. The Mullahs are
the problem, not poverty, but poverty does make it easier for the Mullahs to
spread their evil - as do governments that tolerate and even reinforce their
hateful message.

5) Profiling: We are at war here! We are not talking about traffic stops. If we
were at war with Iceland, I would expect those charged with our defense to pay
very close attention to any Icelander who ventured near our shores. In this war
I expect them to pay very close attention to Muslims with ties to the places
that spew hatred against us. Random checks when there are no such obvious
targets available are a good way to keep the evil ones guessing, but let's not
make small children and grandmothers take their shoes off while we watch far
more likely candidates walk aboard unchecked.

6) Resolutions:

a. Never forget that what happened on September the 11th of 2001 was an act of
war.

b. Never sit silently by while someone tries to justify what happened on that
day as an understandable reaction to U.S. policies in the Middle East or
elsewhere.

c. Fly our nation's flag proudly - it represents this world's greatest hope to
move beyond the pain and suffering that inflict so many across the globe.

Richard E. Hawley
General, USAF, Retired
Former Commander, Air Combat Command