by James Glaser
August 27, 2003

President George Bush claimed victory over regimes in both Iraq and Afghanistan in a campaign speech Tuesday. It was also announced that just as many Americans have been killed in Iraq since President Bush said major combat was over, as were killed during that major combat.

The President was in Saint Paul, Minnesota, raising more money for his reelection campaign. During a speech to the "faithful" who paid $2,000.00 to hear him, the President said, "Terrorists declared war and war is what they got."

Seeing that none of the terrorists that attacked America came from either Afghanistan or Iraq, I don't know what war he is talking about. If the terrorists that attacked America on September 11th were declaring war, it would stand to reason that we would have attacked the countries that they came from, Saudi Arabia and Egypt.

George Bush went on to say that we are going for "Total victory over Terrorism." Well it would seem like that is a tall order, considering that we haven't even started attacking the terrorist states that attacked us.

Also it seems that we are going about this "War" the wrong way. Instead of getting every country on this globe that has suffered a terrorist attack to help us, we have told the world to keep their hands off and we will go it alone.

We haven't defeated anyone in Afghanistan and President Bush now refuses to even say the name Osama bin Laden or Mulla Omar. Both men are still leading their followers in Afghanistan and the puppet government Bush set up only controls the capitol city of Kabul. In the rest of the country, the War Lords still rule their little fiefdoms and the heroin trade is the Afghan's only agriculture export. They have, with American help, become number one in the world in opium and heroin production, which I view as terrorist products.

Today, a year after we were supposed to be finished with military operations in Afghanistan and be well on our way to a terrorist free state, both the Taliban and al Qaeda are attacking our troops and scores of civilians are getting killed along with a few American soldiers.

In Iraq, Saddam Hussein is still calling the shots for his followers, but now he is getting help from every terrorist on the globe that ever dreamed of attacking the United States Military. While George and his Department of Defense refuse to send more troops to stabilize Iraq, Saddam and those trying to throw us out of Iraq are getting new fighters every day.

Many American Generals and Senators have called for increased troop strength, which they all agree is needed to seal the borders and keep Islamic radicals from coming to Iraq to kill Americans. While many in Congress from both parties realize that we can't do it alone in Iraq, George Bush refuses to get help from other nations. George wants total victory for George Bush and he is willing to sacrifice as many of our troops as is necessary so that other nations have no say in the new Iraq and any money gained from Iraqi oil only flows to American companies

A lot of fine young American men and women are getting killed and maimed so that George can some day claim that victory and pass that oil money off to his supporters.

Total Victory over Terrorism will take decades and the cooperation of much of the world. We don't even talk about the reason that we have international terrorism. There are billions of people that live on less than two dollars a day on this globe. Poverty and hopelessness are two major reasons that people are willing to kill themselves to attack us. We are the "haves" and they are the "Have nots." People living in mud huts with no water or electricity know that the United States of America calls the shots in this world and they don't like the way we are doing things. There are billions of people that really have nothing to live for nor do they have any hope for their future.

No money, no job, along with no hope for a better future will make a lot of terrorists. Terrorists do not hate freedom or democracy. Terrorists have no idea of what either is. Terrorists are created in nations that suppress their citizens. Countries in the Middle East for the most part have no freedom or hope for their citizens, unless they were born to the right family or tribe. It is the same thing in every country that has an oppressive government.

In many of these countries, those people with no future and no hope can see that the United States gives those in power over them, the weapons and the money needed to keep them in those mud huts. They watch as American Corporations take their labor and natural resources and give back little.

Those same poor people now can see American movies and see Hollywood's vision of how we live. Mass media has given those people a visual taste of how we live and they want it. They can't attack their governments because we have armed them to the teeth, they can't attack us over here because the don't have the technology, but they can support those that do attack us.

Those people that attack America know they can't defeat us, but their attacks can say to the American Citizen, "we are here and look what you are doing to us." It does not matter if what they think about us is true or not. Our years of backing corrupt and oppressive governments around this globe has built up a lot of hate that we can't turn off in a short time or can we stop that hate with guns and bombs.

It is going to take decades of America really helping the poor of the world get back some hope for their children's future. If we don't do that and continue to attack poor nations the world over, we will never win.

POST SCRIPT DEATHS IN IRAQ

One Soldier was killed and two wounded in an attack on their convoy northwest of Baghdad