by James Glaser
May 28, 2002

Some people don't know when to keep their mouths shut. We have people in leadership positions in Washington that are out there spreading wild stories about suicide bombers coming to America, terrorists with nuclear weapons, and the new Bush Administration tag line, " it is inevitable."

These are our leaders out there spreading fear and sometimes panic in the country. This is just to take some heat off the President for his failure to tell the American people about possible attacks on America. These guys are going over board and there are many older Americans that still trust those in Washington and take their word for these claims and it is tough on them

We have some loose cannons out there like Vice President Dick Cheney saying that it is a real possibility that suicide bombers are coming to America. Right after that we have FBI Director Robert Mueller saying "I think it is inevitable" that walk-in suicide bombers will come to America. Then there is Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfled telling us about terrorists with nuclear bombs.

None of these "leaders" can tell us where, when, or how these attacks will take place. President Bush has told us that the warnings that he kept to himself wouldn't have done us any good because they were just "general warnings" with nothing specific about the attack. This is what his Administration is spreading around now. Nothing concrete, just some general warnings, but coming from men in their positions in our Government, they can scare the "holy bejesus" out of a lot of really fine people and that is wrong.

I don't doubt that there are many in this world wanting to attack America and many of those would commit suicide to get at us. That just begs the question of why? I don't care if you are a total religious nut case, the act of suicide is still a big step and we should be asking ourselves why so many are willing to take it?

Are there things that America can do that will stop some of the hatred directed at us? Is some of this hatred unwarranted and can we explain our position without telling everyone that they are evil and we are going to attack them. Could we apologize for the deaths of over 500,000 Iraqi children caused by our sanctions on Iraq and admitted to by then Secretary of State Madeleine Albright? I sure want to make that apology.

If really millions of Muslims are angry at us for having our troops on their holy ground in Saudi Arabia then take them out. Really if we are offending that many people, I don't care if the "House of Saud" wants us there to protect them. We can be "Big" about this and admit we goofed on that and I think the whole world would think better of America for that move. Sure a few War Hawks in Washington would say that we were showing weakness by that move, but I think the rest of the world would look at America as a better country and one that can admit a mistake. It would be a move of strength in the end.

Israel, I really don't know, but am real sick of America taking sides in a war fought by two terrorist countries. Any way you look at it the Israeli/Palistinian conflict is a lose-lose for America. I say walk away. Fifty years of war and no end in sight, walk away.

We are the super power. We don't have to prove anything, to any one. We really have a choice, we can lead with a gun or we can lead by our example.