by James Glaser
February 13, 2003

That is the question that all Americans should be asking right now. We as a nation have failed to have any sort of national debate about terrorism and we have had the time. Congress passed the ball to the White House, the very White House that wants to have a war with Iraq so bad they can taste it. The War on Terrorism has taken a back seat to this new War and we still have no idea of why nineteen young men would get together and commit mass suicide to attack our nation.

Yesterday it was reported that American bombers killed another 17 innocent civilians in Afghanistan. Afghanistan is a country that we were supposed to have won the war in already. Now we are in the "nation building" phase of that war and the killings we were told, were over. With each and every incident like this we are adding to the buildup of hate for America that brought terrorism to our shores.

Now we are on the brink of attacking Iraq. We have no idea of what is to happen after we win the ground battle. What I personally find hard to understand is that only American citizens are in favor of this war. There is not one other country, even those that are Iraq's neighbors, that have a population in favor of this war. America is standing alone in this one.

Sure there are countries whose governments have said they will stand with us, but at what cost? What have we paid them above and below the table? Some we have promised most favored nation trading status to, others we have forgiven their debts, and still others we have used the old fashion "threat" method.

In the recent past White House officials have been fired for saying that this war in Iraq could cost 200 billion dollars. Now we are told we can get by with 60 billion. What ever the number, there is no estimate of the total costs after the war phase is over. We could have troops in that country for the next 10 to 20 years. We still have troops in Germany 58 years after WW 2 and in Korea 50 years after that war. Nobody knows how long this time, because there is no plan other than we are going to bomb the heck out of Baghdad.

Will the killing we do in this war make us friends? I have not even heard the White House say yes to that. Will that killing cause more terrorist attacks? How will we know that we have won? When will the troops come home? None of these questions have answers because our government has failed to even discuss them.

Is this about oil? I think it is, but again America has failed to ask that question of our leaders. Does America have the right to kill thousands of women and children so that we can remove Saddam? Will we kill more innocent people and cause more suffering for the Iraqi people by going to war to remove Saddam than would die and suffer under his continued rule?

We have given George Bush free rein to move over a hundred thousand troops to the border of Iraq. We have allowed this President's lust for war to take over every facit of our national agenda while millions of Americans lose their jobs. While tens of thousands of Americans are homeless. While millions of Americans have no medical insurance and that number grows every day.

Our Country now has colored warnings about terrorist attacks, while millions of illegal foreigners roam our country and use our assets because this President like those before him has failed to protect our own borders. Millions of senior citizens have died waiting for the promises of prescription drug cost reform. Hundreds of thousands of Veterans have died waiting for their country to help them from the ravages of disease caused by being used as nuclear and biological weapon guinea pigs in sick government experiments

We as a nation have lots of questions for our government. From Colin Powell to George Bush we have seen that our leaders are not bound by the truth when it comes to telling us what they think we should hear. Little do they know that if the American Government was truthful with its citizens and those citizens could learn to trust their government again, America would again be the leader of the world.

Not only are American citizens in greater and greater numbers learning to distrust their own government, but billions of people in the rest of this world feel that way too.

The real question still is, "Why Do They Hate Us" It took a lot of hate to get nineteen men together and get them to kill themselves in order to tell us something. What was that terrorist attack telling America other than people are willing to give up their lives to kill some of us. That is a lot of hate.

Why are we as a people afraid to explore this question? What are we afraid we will find?