A Letter To Readers

Writing for the public has always
been a challenging task. However, President Bush`s

declaration that

“you are with us or against us” has intensified
readers` tendency to see columnists in the same way.

Awareness is fading that a writer
could be an independent thinker not in either camp.

A number of writers have made a

powerful case that the invasion of Iraq was not in
the long term interests of the US or Israel. Yet, many
conservatives dismiss this cogent argument as aid and
comfort for terrorists.

Neoconservatives damn their

critics as “anti-Semites.”

Similarly, criticism of Bush`s
policies labels the writer as a Democrat, and

defense of John Kerry`s medals means the writer is a
Viet Cong sympathizer and Bush hater.

A writer who criticizes Bush is not
necessarily an advocate for John Kerry. I wish Kerry
would show the same courage and guts in criticizing the

US invasion of Iraq and the attack on our civil
liberties as he showed in

criticizing the Vietnam War and turning his swift
boats into the enemy fire and chasing down the
attackers.

Nevertheless, the only way Bush can
be held accountable for Iraq is to be voted out of
office.

However unappealing the alternative
candidate, if the electorate fails to hold Bush
accountable for invading Iraq on false pretenses and
multiplying the recruits to al-Qaeda, American democracy
will have failed.

This will be understood everywhere
in the world, and American power will fail as well.

COPYRIGHT CREATORS
SYNDICATE, INC.

Paul Craig Roberts is the author with Lawrence M.
Stratton of

The Tyranny of Good Intentions : How Prosecutors and
Bureaucrats Are Trampling the Constitution in the Name
of Justice