Told ya so!

Heard on the news this morning that Bush and his minions are launching a PR campaign to shore up flagging public support for his war in Iraq.

Three years ago I penned the following letter to all my elected representatives, including Bush. I believe history has proven me right and them wrong. When are we going to learn?

March 7, 2003
Sen. Bill Frist (and our congressman plus Bush)
United States Senate
416 Russell Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510‑4205

Re: Please no war

Sen. Frist (and all the above):

As your constituents, we urge you to oppose the war against Iraq. Those terrorists who hijacked the airliners on 9/11/01 were not Iraqis but Saudis. No conclusive link has ever been proven between Iraq and Al‑Quaida, and Sadaam Hussein poses no imminent threat against the United States.

We should use this nation's resources toward more productive ends, such as defeating the spread of HIV and AIDS in Africa and educating our own children here at home.

For many generations the citizens of this nation believed, and rightly so, that our country represented a bastion of civilization against the Evil Empire of the Soviets. Now it appears that we are on the verge of waging an unprovoked war against another nation, which is exactly the kind of international behavior for which we criticized the Soviet Union during the years of the Cold War.

One of the arguments that have been used in favor of this war is that we need to spread democracy in the Middle East. This sounds very much like the kind of colonial nation‑building in which the British Empire engaged during its heyday. What leads us to expect that a democratically elected regime in Iraq would be friendly toward the United States, after we have spent decades destroying their infrastructure and pushing their citizens into abject poverty in our attempt to oust Sadaam?

Our country is in economic peril. Nearly every state budget is in crisis. The last thing that we need to be doing with taxpayers' dollars is prosecuting a war that can only drain more precious resources away from more important needs.

We are concerned about the impact that this campaign is having on international solidarity. Regardless of our perceptions that we are the most powerful nation on earth, we need our friends. In addition, we fear the ramifications of establishing such a precedent and thereby encouraging international lawlessness.

What the world needs is not another war but a return to the values of decency and respect for law that have nurtured our democracy for 227 years. Our forefathers fought and died for these principles, and we ought to respect them now.

Sincerely,