It has occurred to me that GW Bush is fighting for his political life. And well he should! I am shocked at what has happened on his watch, and am at a complete loss as to what Iraq had to do with 9-11 and Al Qaeda. I think Saddam Hussein is despicable, and should be held accountable for his crimes. But what has happened to Iraq? A formerly secular government has been replaced by a collage of various religious groups and some secular politicians who are using the religious partisans for their own ends. A marriage of convenience, if you will. If any reasonable person in the states thinks the Iraqis will tolerate an endless occupation, they're wrong. No one as proud and independent as Iraqis are will accept outside governance for long, nor should they. It is time to pull out, and leave Iraq alone. Then maybe America will regain some credibility in the Arab world again. I am sure I'm not alone in seeing the many parrallels between Iraq and Vietnam. Does America have to lose another 55,000 of the best men and women around and billions of dollars again before some coward of a politician who never fought for anything other than votes senses a "sea change" and finally ends a pointless conflict?
On another tack, I don't understand how you can so easily accept the ongoing erosion of your civil and legal rights under the PATRIOT acts. Is it really worth sacrificing every liberty for safety? Total safety is not possible, and never was. If American military might and repression of freedom work so well, why are there still terrorist alerts? Why are there still fanatics willing to die for their beliefs? Repressing the rights of Americans only cows Americans into behaving, not Al Qaeda or any other group that seeks to destroy anything in America. The free interchange amongst people should be inviolate, no meddling allowed! It takes just as much courage to disagree with the mainstream as it does to go along blindly in lockstep. Is America still free, or has "do as we say or else" replaced your bill of rights?
Finally, why vote Bush? All GW has done is the same thing his father and Reagan did before him, namely give inexcusable tax breaks to the wealthy and run up a deficit that defies comprehension. In the meantime, what about the 95% of Americans who aren't wealthy? Fewer services and more taxes, direct and indirect in the form of more state levies and user fees as they scramble to claw back lost revenue from the tax cuts. Do Americans really want more of this? Does anybody in America think past today? What are your grandchildren going to do when the terrible day comes and the bill is due? Think! Use your heads! just because you'll be dead 50 years from now is no reason to short change the next generations.
What will it take? Will America wake up when the greenback is worthless and Euros or Duongs are the favoured currency? Does America have to become a pauper state, a backwater dictatorship where the ruling Oligarchs own everything, and live in fortified enclaves that exclude the poor? Save your country and do it in November, because I don't think America should become a Bush dynasty run corporation, where the wealthy are held unaccountable and the shrinking middle class and exploding poor class are squeezed to death to pay for their excesses. America has been very good to them, and for them, and it is high time they had to pay their fair share back. It could be said that ducking taxes simply because you do not want to pay them is unpatriotic, and as seditious and harmful as any idiot with an axe to grind and the will to do horrors in the name of God.
Do the right thing: VOTE!!! I don't care who you vote for in the end, just exercise your rights before some bureaucrats decide that ordinary Americans are too dumb to do what's right and they take your choices away. As always, it would be done for the sake of national security. Does anybody really want that to happen?