Bush Blind to the Truth

On Veterans Day, a day reserved to honor our war dead, President Bush chose instead to deliver a political speech filled with the usual charges that critics of the Iraq war help the terrorists and hurt the morale of our troops. He also introduced a new charge that those same critics are now rewriting the reason for his going to war. If nothing else, you must credit this president with incredible hubris.According to people formerly in the administration, Bush and the hawks in his administration were given questionable information that they turned into “proof” of weapons of mass destruction that posed an imminent danger to the United States. They seem to have ignored all the caveats from the CIA and our allies and forged ahead with a pre-emptive strike against a country that did not really present an imminent threat to our security. Another blunder committed by Bush was disbanding the Iraqi army, which we are now trying to rebuild in order to enable the Iraqis to defend themselves. The Iraqi army with new leadership could have allowed us to extricate ourselves more quickly.So, here we are unable to leave and watching our death toll increase daily while any nation friendly to us or Israel suffers the wrath of suicide bombers. It is hard to believe Bush when he says that the world is a safer place because Saddam Hussein is in custody and our military is in Iraq.

KAREN PADMORE

Cape May Court House

Letter published in Press of Atlantic City, November 19, 2005

http://www.pressofatlanticcity.com/opinion/letters/story/5708937p-5726308c.html