Letter: Iraq convenient diversion while nation crumbles

Monday, May 19, 2003 | 8:59 a.m.

Is this all a bad dream or has just about everything gone to hell since President Bush took office? Let's review the facts.

Record budget surpluses have vanished and we now are facing huge deficits for the next decade or longer. Two million jobs created during the Clinton administration are history. Crime is on the rise again after steady declines during the '90s.

The term "consumer confidence" has become an oxymoron. Smaller government crusaders on the right aided the terrorists of Sept. 11 by surrendering the crucial task of airport security to the airlines and their lowest-bidder contractors. Even McDonald's and Burger King paid their employees as much as the untrained workers who were on duty at airport checkpoints that tragic day.

Yes, the list is long but wait, there's more. As an added bonus, we've got widespread corporate corruption (also the result of lax oversight and weak regulations) and a stock market that's being pummeled.

Box cutters, budget cutters and $2 a gallon gas. Since things couldn't possibly have gotten any worse, it must have been the perfect time to wage war and wag the dog in Iraq.

JESSE GILLES