Open Forum

"That madman", President Bush, desperately wants war against Iraq, using "weapons of mass destruction".

Why?

Bush proposed using nuclear weapons. Remember Bush Sr. namecalling Saddam Hussein "that madman"? We hear "weapons of mass destruction", over and over. This sounds like a mantra, something Germany used against Jews before WWII.

"Homeland" sounds like the Nazi phrase "Fatherland".

American people are brainwashed, and don't realize it. Was Germany also "united" and sure of its righteousness before WWII?

We've flown 250,000 Iraqi missions in 10 years: 25,000 per year; 68 per day. Iraq is the size of Minnesota plus Wisconsin. I think we'd consider it a long term act of war, if some foreign power, with religion strange to us, had been flying 68 missions per day over us for 10 years.

But I'm curious: don't you have to stop one war against a country before you start the next one? Pres. Bush, Jr. would want this next war named after him. (It's now the Bush-Clinton-Bush War.)

We could give it some John Wayne name, like "Desert Storm".

How about a nationwide contest: Name the war? "Desert Injustice", "Christianity Comes to Arabia", or "Exxon's Excuse"? Children from grade schools could participate! It could be a lesson in patriotism, or at least a lesson in blind nationalism. First prize: $500 U.S. Savings Bond. Or free prosthetics for a military family member losing a physical part.

Of course, government policies would deny medical treatment for chemical or biological effects and wouldn't allow for psychiatric help. We know from our two big recent wars that soldiers who complain of Agent Orange, Gulf War Syndrome, etc. are lazy malingerers unwilling to go back to work. Best to just turn them loose until they kill somebody or themselves.

A. Martin

Merrifield