Stop Appeasing
The President

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld recently chided Democrats opposed to the war in Iraq for not learning the lessons of history. If Donald Rumsfeld and President Bush had learned the lessons of history, we would never have invaded Iraq, as strong foreign powers cannot solve the problems of the countries they invade and occupy. It was foolish, wasteful, and horrific for us to invade Iraq.

Rumsfeld said that appeasing Adolph Hitler did not work, and that we should not appease the terrorists now, but I am more concerned about our current appeasement of President George W. Bush in his continuing murder of Iraqi citizens (some 45,000 to date) and repeated attempts to curtail our domestic freedoms at home.

He is defying the constitution by spying on our citizenry, and he is asking to treat prisoners of war as he wishes and to try them without letting them see the evidence against them--in defiance of the Geneva Conventions. He has now sent out a "Prepare to Deploy Order" for our troops to be ready to move on Oct. 1 against Iran.

President Bush threatens us daily with increasing doses of fear in his assertions that terrorists, "a single movement, a worldwide network of radicals," are out to destroy our way of life and to "impose a dark vision of tyranny and terror across the world" and that if we don’t stop them in Iraq, "we will leave our children to face a Middle East overrun by terrorist states and radical dictators armed with nuclear weapons."

He warns that we must "stay the course" to win the war on terror. Who does he think he is that he’s going to win the war on terror, as if terror can be eliminated? Jesus and Mohammed did not end evil on earth and neither can George Bush.

If Bush would listen to Osama bin Laden, he would hear that hostilities toward the United States are indeed CAUSED by the meddling of the United States in the affairs of Arab nations. Former Iranian President Mohammed Khatami said Saturday that U.S. foreign policy triggers terrorism and violence in the world.

Our President is putting American citizens and the entire earth into grave danger with his arrogant policies and refusal to be a part of a global conversation. George Bush is wrong when he says the decisive ideological struggle of the 21st century is our fight for freedom against tyranny. Rather, the challenge before us is to prevent Christian fundamentalists and Islamic fundamentalists from moving us into World War III.

We Americans must stop Bush, the Decider, before he brings the world crashing down around us.

Tom Schersten

Randolph