Thursday, June 1, 2006 | 7:24 a.m.
It's sad that so many Americans still link our invasion of Iraq with the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Saddam Hussein treated terrorists brutally and there were fewer terrorists in Iraq before the invasion than in any other Middle Eastern country (with the possible exception of Israel).
The chaos caused by our invasion allowed Iraq to become a haven for terrorists and it brought to power Muslim extremists who are establishing another theocracy in which people of other religions and beliefs have few rights.
Iraq had absolutely no involvement with the 9/11 attacks. Of the 19 hijackers, most were from Saudi Arabia, others from Egypt, United Arab Emirates and Lebanon.
I challenge the patriotism of any American who believes it is proper for the United States to attack other countries that posed no threat and to allow our government to take away our constitutional rights for the alleged purpose of "fighting terrorism."
Under the current administration we are seeing massive deficits to finance our war, condoning of torture, illegal detentions contrary to international law as well as to our Constitution, stopping scientific advances in stem cell research, ignoring the very real threat of global warming, illegal government wiretapping and a complete breach of the constitutional concept of separation of powers.
The Constitution was drafted with the intent of assuring that the abuses of King George III could not be repeated. Unfortunately, President George II is trying to undermine those constitutional protections.
Osama bin Laden was not successful in his attempt to eliminate our freedom. Our present government has been much more successful in doing that.
Mel Lipman, Las Vegas
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