<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">MILWAUKEE -- An American GI in Iraq who e-mailed a Wisconsin company to ask for a shipment of some floor mats got a brusque reply: "We would NEVER ship to Iraq. If you were sensible, you and your troops would pull out of Iraq." The two-line e-mail response quickly circulated on the Internet and has led to threats against the Muslim-owned business and demands for a boycott. Bargain Suppliers, an online retailer based in the Milwaukee suburb of West Allis, shut down its Web site Monday and fired the unidentified employee who sent the e-mail, WTMJ-TV reported. Co-owner Faisal Khetani, a Muslim from Pakistan, has received threatening calls, the TV station said. An answering machine at a number listed for the business said the mailbox was full and would not accept a message Tuesday. In an e-mail dated Jan. 16, Sgt. Jason Hess asked about getting floor mats from the company. "Do you ship to APO addresses? I'm in the 1st Cavalry Division stationed in Iraq and we are trying to order some mats but we are looking for who ships to APO first," the e-mail said. advertising A response e-mailed the same day said the company did not. "And even if we did, we would NEVER ship to Iraq. If you were sensible, you and your troops would pull out of Iraq," said the e-mail, which was signed "Bargain Suppliers." In an e-mail to the AP, Hess said Tuesday the employee's firing did not ease his anger over the original response. "There should be standards set and upheld (by) the company on responding politely to e-mails from whoever goes to their site," wrote Hess, a 31-year-old Fayetteville, N.C., native who is stationed in Taji, Iraq. Hess said he wanted some mats to cover the ruts in a concrete floor in a former parking garage or storage unit now used as a conference room. Bloggers spread the original e-mail exchange far and wide, along with the company's address and phone number. At least one site included a link to a photograph of Khetani's home. "It's really getting out of control," Bargain Suppliers vice president Sajid Nasir told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. "Our main concern is for the safety of the family. That's more important than the business." West Allis police said they were watching the situation but had received no immediate reports of any vandalism or threats from the Khetani family. Othman Atta, president of the Islamic Society of Milwaukee, said the employee's response was inappropriate. He said feared a backlash against Muslims. "This whole thing is taking on a life of its own. It's making me nervous," he said, adding that the center would increase security. Sgt. Colby Howser, spokesman for the 1st Cavalry Division at Fort Hood, Texas, said it is not unusual for soldiers to make purchases on their own. "He wasn't ordering for the unit," Howser said. "If the unit needed to purchase something, it would be a lieutenant colonel placing the order, not a sergeant."</div> E-mail angers military supporters
They fired the dude, so I'm guessing the fact that the owner is Pakistani has something to do with the continued hate mail.
Typical America. You can come here to own a business and make money for our economy, but if you don't fall in line with our politics we're going to call you a sand something and leave a bunch of threatening messages on your phone. This country needs to fucking grow up. We are in the wrong for almost everything we're involved in. Don't get mad at a guy for expressing his frustration with a horrible war.
<div class="quote_poster">Schaddy Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">Typical America. You can come here to own a business and make money for our economy, but if you don't fall in line with our politics we're going to call you a sand something and leave a bunch of threatening messages on your phone. This country needs to fucking grow up. We are in the wrong for almost everything we're involved in. Don't get mad at a guy for expressing his frustration with a horrible war.</div> I agree with you, but just to play Devil's Advocate, imagine how the soldier feels... I'm out here risking my life to protect another American's freedom, and this guy won't ship me a floor mat.
<div class="quote_poster">shapecity Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">I agree with you, but just to play Devil's Advocate, imagine how the soldier feels... I'm out here risking my life to protect another American's freedom, and this guy won't ship me a floor mat.</div> That's a good point too man. Yet another example of the fustercluck that this whole situation has put all of us into. No matter who we side with, or whose opinion we agree with, everything is still flawed. I don't mean to sound so anti-American. It's just that I have two very close friends (one Marine, one Navy) and about six other acquaintances/friends who are serving in Iraq right now, and hearing from them about the situation over there, it honestly just eats at me to hear the politicians drone on about our need to increase troops and stay the course. I know that there are a lot of people who share those feelings on the war, and I feel even worse for people who have children or spouses over there - I would've probably shot a politician if they tried to send some closer to me over there. It's just so hard to sit here and watch the people who represent us commit aggregious errors that cost good people their lives, with no accountability or intelligence factored into the equation. We simply have to get out of Iraq - if it means that country falling back into the wrong hands, well, I hate to say it, but that's becoming a risk we must take. It's simply inexcusable anymore that our guys are dying every day. It just makes me sick.
There's having your own opinion, but sometimes you have to keep it to yourself and do your profession and most of all have respect for the people who are putting their lives on the line for you every day, as shapecity mentioned.
<div class="quote_poster">Butter Wrote</div><div class="quote_post">There's having your own opinion, but sometimes you have to keep it to yourself and do your profession and most of all have respect for the people who are putting their lives on the line for you every day, as shapecity mentioned.</div> "Bloggers spread the original e-mail exchange far and wide, along with the company's address and phone number. At least one site included a link to a photograph of Khetani's home." These bloggers are the REAL idiots. They should all be sent to Iraq in a coffin boat like the people they claim to support. Meanwhile the guy, while he shouldn't have sent a business email like that if he wants to support the business, is right. Those troops should never have been there in the first place. The guy was actually HELPING the GI by enlightening him. And then the real "freedom-haters" post photos of his home? Get the priorities straight here.
