Dear Backwash:

[Mythsaje]

Are you insane? Oops, sorry. If you are, you're not very likely to realize it, or admit it if you do. I withdraw the question.

Is there NOTHING that this administration can do to undermine the Constitution and the legacy left to us by the Founding Fathers that you won't cheer about?

I wonder. Apparently tapping our phones, spying on our bank records, and assigning hapless FBI agents to follow peaceful protestors around (thus keeping them from actually hunting down REAL potential terrorists) is all okay with you.

What's next? Where do YOU draw the line? I'm scratching my head here. My line was drawn a ways back--for all the good it did. If they'll ignore OUR protests, what makes you think they'll pay any attention to yours once they finally step past your breaking point? And they will.

I wouldn't feel too confident that you managed to win on the ports deal. You were, for once, standing on the same side of the fence as we were, (weird, huh--considering you think of us as being more likely to give terrorists a free pass?) but yet you didn't bother to glance around and notice the other Americans also opposed to that particular political move. Or bother to ask why.

I think what gets to me the most is that had a Democratic administration done any one of these things, you would've been up in arms. Is the mere fact that they're ostensibly Republicans that allows you to give them a pass? Or is it that FOX News, which plays up to your prejudices and assumptions, goes so far in promoting their radical agenda that you're starting to really believe they're doing this for our own good?

Call me crazy, but I don't really see the point of saying that the terrorists "hate us for our freedoms" then taking away those freedoms. Isn't THAT giving them what they want? Or, at least, what we're being TOLD they want?

War isn't a sport. There's often no clear winners or losers, and, as often as not, particularly in modern times, it's even hard to tell who the good guys are. If OUR homes had been invaded, and our culture threatened, wouldn't WE take up arms to fight? There's no need to answer that--I already know the answer.

Even if Iraqis wanted to be free of Saddam (which they probably could have been, had they wanted it badly enough) that doesn't give us either the right or the responsibility to take care of that little problem on their behalf. The fact is we're now learning that Saddam might well have been a necessary evil, so far as he managed to keep the different factions from killing one another and innocent civilians along with them.

None of this should be seen as some sort of support for Saddam, or even tacit support for the insurgents in Iraq. Saddam was a tyrant. A dictator. Someone, based upon his OWN WORDS, your esteemed President would have liked to emulate. You remember. "This would be much easier if this was a dictatorship. As long as I was the dictator." (Insert stupid laugh here).

We've wasted a lot of time and money trying to stabilize Iraq after we toppled Saddam. Time and money better spent trying to keep WMDs out of the hands of people who might be crazy enough to use them. Saddam, even if he HAD have had them, would never have used them on us. He was a bastard, not a raging lunatic.

This country has strayed far from its original path, and it's sad how much you're willing to support the whole ball of wax as it goes off-roading over increasingly dangerous terrain. We have more important issues to deal with than flag burning and gay marriage. You should know as well as we do that all of that's just a distraction from the real matters at hand.

Please, please, please consider spending some of your hard-earned money to buy a clue. We've tried to give you several, but apparently you have to spend money to actually value something. Of course, you're now spending not only YOUR money, but that of your children and grandchildren, to prosecute a war that has only succeeded in getting American soldiers killed.

I'd pity you for your foolishness, if it weren't so damned dangerous to our very way of life.

We're waiting for you to come to your senses. Turn off FOX News and go talk to one of your liberal co-workers or relatives. We're willing to explain things to you. Again. All you need to do is open your mind and listen.

It's not too late to open your eyes. But you'd better hurry. The dream of America is slipping away while you celebrate your alleged 'victories.' But the fact is, the only thing you're winning is an America NONE of us will want to live in.

[Ringo84]

1. Also

Don't tell me that you've "got nothing to hide", therefore it's OK for the government to spy on us! That's bullshit logic. Whether or not you have anything to hide doesn't make Big Brother OK. Anytime.

Also don't tell me that the Patriot Act and other wartime laws won't be abused. Power corrupts, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. The government even having the power to hold citizens indefinitely, search their bank records, search their houses without a warrant or without a citizen's notification is enough to say "enough".

What are you thinking, Dubya? You speak so much about bringing Democracy to the Middle East. Well, where's our Democracy at home? If the United States expects to regain the support of the world, we're going to have to start practicing what we preach.

Do you have any idea how overjoyed Al-Qaeda probably is to hear that we've begun wiretapping and suspension of our laws? Whenever a country goes to such lengths to feel safe, you know that that country is scared. It's not that that fear is necessairly unjustified. But it's a good indication to Osama and company that their primary goal of terror has been completed. You're playing into their hands.

If you can't fight the "War on Terror" without taking away rights from home, Duh-bya, maybe you shouldn't fight it at all. Perhaps we need to find someone who can fight this war without compromising what America means - both home and abroad.
Ringo