bush's racial slur

I agree with Kendall.  Bush's remark is a racial slur and
think he has clearly illustrated the point.  He has defended his
position with logic while others have attacked HIM and NOT his position.
For those fascists out there who stand behind Bush no matter what he does
and wave the American flag shouting "Go America!", I have but one thing to
say:

"It is my patriotic duty to be "vigilant" (as Bush has instructed us to
be) and that means to watch what our government does and what they say,
especially our president, and to voice my opposition to positions I
disagree with."

A big part of fascism is "silencing dissent".  Having our civil liberties
reduced by the "PATRIOT" Act is one step in that direction.  Those of you
who aren't disturbed by this ought to be.  Try giving it a read.

Bush sidestepped the issue of "abortion" during his campaign by letting
Laura and Barbara take the front with their "pro-choice" positions, while
he hid behind them in his staunchly "anti-abortion" position.  I use this
to draw a corollary between his views and his Christian beliefs.  Bush is
a Christian and when he says "God Bless America" at the end of every
speech, those words resound throughout the world not from a position of
neutrality but from a strong Christian perspective.  The rest of the world
hears "God Bless America" not "Allah Bless America".

Ultimately, the conflict in Afghanistan IS a "conflict of civilizations".
No one seems willing to admit that.  We make it appear that it isn't by
supporting Northern Alliance troops esssentially getting them to do our
work for us.  I admit that we needed their intelligence on the Taliban and
the terrain to find our way around, but look how long it took for us to
finally put troops on the ground.

The country of Afghanistan is a pile of rubble littered with live
ordinance.  The poverty that exists in that country is incomprehensible to
most Americans.  It is a civilization that has not progressed past the
middle ages, in fact, it has declined.  We played a role in that because
we helped the Taliban retain power against the Soviet Union.

Now, pay attention.  This next point is very important:

"Abject poverty breeds fanaticism".

As Americans, we cannot live on an island of prosperity in a sea of
despair.  Did we cause Osama Bin Laden to mastermind his al-Qaeda
network?  No, not directly.  Could we have done something that might have
prevented it?  Maybe, just maybe.  But what we did or did not do obviously
did not prevent the destruction on September 11.  Perhaps a new approach
is warranted; one that doesn't involve bombs or killing.  I doubt that we
can stop all attacks on America and the new office of "Homeland Security"
is not likely to affect the number of attacks, especially when our own
government believes the anthrax letters came from one of our own citizens.

The greatest danger we face in the world today is "fundamentalism" because
fundamentalists see the world only one way: "theirs".  It is important
that we not allow our own government to see things "only one way" and we can do
that by voicing our dissent and offering other perspectives.  There are a
lot of people throughout the world who depend on us (because we CAN voice
our opposition without fear [or can we?] of our government silencing us)
to defend freedom of thought because they do not have that luxury.

Apropos Bush's racial slur:  If I thought that I had offended the
population of a country who hung their asses out to help us defeat
al-Qaeda, I would apologize most unreservedly. (unless I really didn't
care what they thought which is what got us into this in the first place).

Hugh Redmon