t bob, My thoughts & more

Dear All:
I guess the best place to begin is to tell you about me. The 'About Me' section will tell you some of the basics about me. I am not a very good writer despite having three college degrees so be forewarned. My high school senior english teacher probably looks down from heaven in great dismay at my writing skills. She was 4'8" and the most feared nun in the school. I was probably placed in her class because I talked so much. She was a wonderful teacher.

My parents live with me, Dad is 90 yrs old, Mom is 87 yrs of age. They are both in reasonably good health and are in far better health than I. I have a brother and a sister, both younger and both 'blind, lock-step Republicans'. If I have to choose between my relationship with them and my love for America, I will choose America.

I was born during WWII while my father was serving in the merchant marine service doing what has been described as very hazardous duty. He served aboard Liberty Ships whose life span was estimated as being approx. three weeks. He sailed out of New York ports traveling in huge convoys on the Atlantic ocean. Ports his convoys sailed to included England (London and Southampton), North Africa(Algeria etc) and Russia (Murmansk). The war turned Dad into a very serious person who laughs almost never.

I can remember Dad laughing at the 'Daniel Boone' series and the 'Beverly Hillbillies' series on tv which our family loved so much. I have read that it takes three generations of children before the emotional damage war causes a family to wear off. The effects of that war on my parents are still with them and those effects are clearly obvious in my brother,sister and myself.

My brother was a Marine Corp sergeant in Vietnam and though I was against the war I was very proud of his service to our country. I, being a psychologist, can easily see the damage that experience did to him and his children. His son, my nephew has just joined the Army. I fear for his safety and that of all our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Many of those who come back physically safe from these wars will sustain emotional damage as will their wives, children, grandchildren and great grandchildren for their entire lives. As a result of the aforementioned family experiences, I know the damage that war causes. This same damage will occur to Afghan and Iraqi families for their entire lives, etc.

What has all this to do with me? I am so conservative about war that basically I am against war. Remember, war is just a failure of diplomacy so just tell the diplomats to go back to their diplomatic bargaining and do what we pay and elect them to do. Diplomats are like corporate CEOs', if they can't do the job we should get rid of them and hire(elect) some who can do the job. America, lets just get rid of those in government who fail us.

The damages that occur to our veterans also damages me and many millions of other Americans. Those are the reasons why I disapprove of war and most especially the Iraq war. This war seems to have been waged for the personal reasons and benefit of Bush /Cheney/Republicans and the radical religious right. This war is not being waged to protect America from Osama/Al-Qaida, if it were than our government should have just quietly gone after Osama shortly after 9/11 when his whereabouts were known.

I know I am going to get hate mail for my views, from the radical right, but I feel strongly that I must speak up.

I believe that all Americans must do far more to make themselves knowledgeable about what is happening to America and our troops. Why do I think I'm so knowledgeable, because I got my news from 20-25 different sources with 1/2 of those being outside of the US. Those sources outside the US are from countries who are all friendly to us. Despite being friendly to the US they nevertheless had viewpoints that were different than those of american news sources. These sources are not owned by Republicans who are afraid of Bush & Co/the Republican Party or the radical religious right.

"We the people" must take back America from those who do us great damage for their own selfish reasons. These people are not patriotic Americans, they do what they do only for themselves and their very narrow constituency. This constituency includes Bush/Cheney/Republican Party/Radical right wing evangelical fundamentalists and Catholics. In other words this war is being fought for and on behalf of those who voted for Bush & Co. I can speak about Catholics and not be considered anti-Catholic because I am a Catholic.

I have read that America could feed the starving children of the world and educate them for 10 billion dollars a year. That strategy will do far more to win over the hearts, minds and views of all the people of the world including those of the Arab nations. Islam teaches that to care for others is what God requires of all of us and I believe it. Instead, Bush/Bushies/Republicans/Radical right wing religious/Catholics have spent over 200 billion dollars to prosecute this war with no financial end in site. This war may and probably will cost the american taxpayer $600 billion or more.

The money to prosecute the war really represents a transfer of dollars from the pocketbooks of the poor and the middle class to benefit the very narrow 'Bush constituency'. I say let the 1-4% of the extremely wealthy, Bush, the Bush family the Cheney family, the Republican Party, certain american corporations and the radical religious right pay for the war themselves because it benefits only them. Moreover, let them send their own family members to fight and die. This 'very narrow constituency' must be held responsible for what it does.

As far as ending the war is concerned the US cannot just immediately withdraw troops from Iraq the country will deteriorate into civil war, which it will probably do despite our best efforts though I sincerely hope it will not. God knows the Iraqi people deserve much peace in their lives and I hope this war delivers peace to them. Now we are stuck there, we have damaged the lives and security of the Iraqi people and we must stay long enough to bring stability.

However, we must have a timetable and clear benchmarks for gauging the timing for US withdrawal. I am cognizant of the fact that US troops are still in Korea after forty years and Iraq probably will become the same situation. Otherwise why would Bush & Co. be building four large military installations in Iraq if they were not planning to stay. So the cost of this war estimated at $600 billion will in the future probably cost trillions of dollars. We have people right here in America who need some/most of this money for their daily survival.

Now that I have criticized, I want to offer suggestions for improvement to the terrible situation going on in this America I love so much. Bush himself has no morals and very little character but if he wants too, he can turn his administration around. He must fire Cheney, Rove and all of the staffers who advise him. These people do not serve Bush well because they think just like him. These people have their own agendas which support and propel Bush along the path they are all on. Cheney serves Halliberton and the oil industry, Bush serves the oil industry and other industries such as pharmaceuticals, insurance and war industries. These entities are Bush's gods, he serves false gods as do the republican party and the radical religious right.

After firing the aforementioned, Bush should try to get people such as David Gergen, Pres. Jimmy Carter and Brent Scowcroft to advise him. Bush should use these people to advise him about others he should ask to join his administration. Were I GW I would dump Gonzales and try to get someone like law professor Anita Hill. Rumsfeld has absolutely got to go, he is a disaster that just keeps on happening. He is the single person most responsible for the ever climbing number of deaths among our troops.

Bush can still turn his administration around and regain some respect from the American people but I don't think he will do so. Instead, he will go down in history as the worst president in America with Nixon as second. I really don't care how Bush goes down in history as far as I am concerned he is already the worst president in US history. I do care about the damage that is being done to our troops, their families and our country . This war is the work of a very narrow constituency and benefits only that narrow constituency.

Now some comments on the Catholic Church and Catholic voters. I still, even after much reading, cannot understand why Pope John Paul II would align and commit the Catholic Church and Catholic voters to the Republican Party some thirty years ago. Why is this commitment going on just as strongly today. The merging of church and state is extremely dangerous to America, the Catholic Church and the world. The Catholic Church's meddling in American politics violates the American Constitution. I was taught as a Catholic that the Church steered clear of politics, apparently such is not the case. The Catholic Church steered clear of nazi politics and six million jews died. The Catholic Church did not speak out for those victims of nazism. If the Church could steer clear of nazi politics then why can't it do the same in american politics. The Vatican must disalign itself from the Republican Party and stay out of American politics.

More later...