Letter: Blind obedience isn’t patriotism

Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2002 | 8:25 a.m.

Patriotism does not mean that we roll over and play dead just because there is an undeclared war going on. Patriotism does not mean that we are obliged to be "bipartisan," which is Bush's code word for "my way or the highway."

Let us not forget that the initial purpose for our "war" in Afghanistan was to get Osama bin Laden. That was clearly stated by G.W. Bush, and unequivocally so ("dead or alive").

I have noticed in the past few days the speaking heads of the Bush administration have been downplaying the importance of getting bin Laden and are starting to say that the real purpose is to defeat the Taliban and al-Qaida. That, to me, is setting us all up to accept failure to get bin Laden and still declare "victory."

A similar thing happened under Senior Bush 10 years ago when he let Saddam Hussein off the hook and declared the Desert Storm a "victory." Desert Storm was, indeed, a victory for Kuwait -- and a victory for Saddam, who still thumbs his nose at us.

We, as a nation, won absolutely nothing except the burden of deploying our troops there, patrolling the no-fly zones while Saddam continues unabated in building his weapons of mass destruction.

Patriotism comes in many forms. One such form is that we do not have to blindly follow G.W. Bush, right or wrong.

JAMES J. POUPARD