Letter: Trustworthy? Record proves otherwise

Wednesday, March 1, 2006 | 7:15 a.m.

During the 2000 elections, George Bush assured us to trust him: "I am a uniter, not a divider."

But the country was divided 50-50 and the conservative Supreme Court decided in his favor, and six years hence it still is. Right after the terrorist attack, President Bush stood on the rubble of the World Trade Center and promised to unite the country and get Osama bin Laden (where is bin Laden now?).

Bush said to trust him when he convinced most of us that Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, and if we didn't take him out first we would see "mushroom clouds" on our cities. Bush said to trust him when he promised us that the invasion in Iraq would be a cake walk and we will be out of there in no time.

He said to trust him when he nominated Harriet Miers to the Supreme Court and then cast her aside to satisfy his most extreme conservative base. We trusted Bush to take care of our citizens of the Gulf Coast after Hurricane Katrina struck and all we got was, "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."

Bush told us to trust him to let the National Security Agency, the Pentagon and the FBI snoop around private citizens' lives without a court order.

Then there is the potential takeover at many of our vulnerable ports in the United States by the government of the United Arab Emirates, a financial conduit of al-Qaida terrorist operations, the involvement of two of its citizens in the terrorist attack on America, and only one of three sovereign nations to recognize the Taliban. Bush also insisted to trust him on this. Why should we?

Joe Beltran, North Las Vegas