Letter: Bush brings another war, same results

Friday, Nov. 2, 2001 | 4:58 a.m.

Like letter writer Brett Bahn, I am also disappointed of the tired old thinking by our leaders regarding America's current crisis. We stand and rattle our sabers at the "evildoers" in Afghanistan while 85 percent of the people in Pakistan (our supposed ally in the war on terrorism) support them.

I hear and see the same old reactions to prior crises. Then we built bomb shelters and stocked them with food and water to protect us from nuclear blasts, now we buy gas masks and stock up with antibiotics to protect us from anthrax. Then we had civil defense, now we have homeland security. Then we hunted for communist cells in the U.S., now we hunt for terrorist cells in the U.S. Then we attempted to win the hearts and minds of the Vietnamese people while bombing their villages, now we attempt to win the hearts and minds of the Afghan people while bombing their villages. Then there was Sen. Joe McCarthy to deny ordinary Americans their civil liberties, now there is John Ashcroft. Then we supported a weak and unpopular regime in South Vietnam, now we support a weak and unpopular regime in Northern Afghanistan. Then we bashed Japanese-Americans, now we bash Muslim-Americans.

Let's face the truth. This war is a mere continuation of the first President Bush's popularly supported war against the then-evil Saddam Hussein. The first President Bush was voted out of office in 1992 with the evildoer still residing in Iraq and the U.S. economy in shambles. Then came the son to bring us the same tired old faces from his father's administration advancing the same old thinking. He now wages a popularly supported war. I predict that in a little over three years this President Bush will also be voted out of office with the evildoers still residing in Afghanistan and the U.S. economy back in shambles.

TED O. HALL