mkl5321,
(Apologies to Tom for helping to carry on this thread.)
I am not going to get into a discussion with you, but I'd like to give you a few points to think about.
1. The Attorney General, according to himself and the President, has the right to decide that an American citizen is a terrorist. When that is done, they have the power, according to Ashcroft to arrest that citizen at any time of the day or not and take that citizen off shore where they are not allowed to speak to anyone, be represented by an attorney, be subject to Habeas Corpus, or have any other of the basic rights of American citizens. Remember, this is not legal or illegal residents we are speaking of, this is an American citizen. We must trust the Administration not to abuse this power.
Conservatives, more than anyone else, should reject this bid to change this country from a free republic to an authoritarian regime.
2. Many of us support attacking terrorism wherever it threatens. Problem is, there is NO evidence that Iraq has ever been a state supporting terrorism. Al Qaeda wants to remove Hussein as much as Bush does. Iraq is a strongly secular majority Islamic state. To Bin Laden, a secular regime is anathema.
Even in the Secretary of State's attempt to link the two, he stated that there is an Al Qaeda setup in Kurdish controlled territory in Iraq.
The last time these guys were in office they armed and trained the Mujahadeen in Afghanistan, many of whom later became Al Qaeda. We are arming and training the Kurds. How often will these guys arm and train our enemies. Would the British Prime Minister give weapons and training to the IRA, even if they had a common enemy.
3. Iraq is contained and can possibly be disarmed by diplomacy. Did you see one of the few times Bush answered questions extemporaneously a few months ago and said (this is a direct quote) at the end of a few points justifying going against Saddam, "Besides, he tried to kill my dad."
This might be a legitimate reason to put hundreds of thousands of Americans at risk, to certainly kill tens of thousands of Iraqis and to severely damage our economy; drowning our children in debt. But many thinking people both on the left and the right suspect that the primary reason we are going after Iraq is a personal vendetta of the Bushes.
Please also remember that Osama Bin Laden is alive and well, Mullah Omar's Taliban is regrouping and taking back territory in Afghanistan and a reconstituted Al Qaeda is a bigger threat than ever, all according to the Administration. So why are we spending all our energy on a War on Iraq instead of the now ignored War on Terror?
Sometimes both sides use intemperate language but many Liberals, Conservatives and Independents believe that the damage done to our foreign relations, our Constitution and our economy by this Administration is a significant threat to our security. In the future, please look behind the rhetoric to the actions being taken and ask yourself if the rhetoric fits the facts.
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At 08:59 PM 02/28/2003 +0000, you wrote:
I am shocked and saddened by the depth and vitriol of the opposition
to George Bush and his war on terrorism, both here and abroad.
