Iraq war: Final straw

(Visalia Times Delta Letters to the Editor)

By Bill Osak

Forget the State of the Union for a moment and look at the real accomplishments of this administration. The Bush administration has:

Pushed through anti-terror legislation that threatens basic personal liberties.

Removed mileage standards that had reduced oil consumption and improved air pollution while withdrawing our leadership from the Kyoto treaty.

Removed pollution standards on fossil-burning power plants for undefined future improvements.

Pushed through a tax package in 2001 that has set the stage today for the greatest financial disaster since the Great Depression and followed that with a "new" 2003 tax plan that continues to increase the debt ceiling and market instability.

Blindly ignores the economic consequences of the $50 billion to $300 billion needed to overthrow Iraq, which had no concrete connection to Sept. 11, while supporting an autocratic Saudi Arabia, whose citizens did successfully attack the United States.

Supports "right to life" in the US but ignores the "collateral" damage expected on the innocent in Iraq.

All of this is coming from an administration that says in so many words, "Trust me. We are morally superior and intellectually correct."

Unfortunately, overwhelming evidence supports the contrary.

It is time to question this administration whose only apparent platform of questioned success has been 9/11. Going to war under the conditions set by this administration should be the final straw for impeachment proponents.

BILL OSAK

Visalia

Originally published Wednesday, February 5, 2003