by James Glaser
March 9, 2005

I am kind of stuck liking honesty in government, especially in our government. Because of that I tend to look a little closer to what our leaders say and lots of time I find them lacking where honesty comes into play.

President Bush scared me today when he said, "America is answering new dangers with firm resolve, no matter how long it takes, no matter how difficult the task, we will fight the enemy and lift the shadow of fear and lead free nations to victory."

Bush then told Syria, "to end its 30-year occupation of Lebanon or become even more isolated from the world."

Well when the President talks about fighting an enemy no matter how long it takes and then starts telling other nations what to do, I would have to think those nations would take that as a threat.

I don't think George knows that the United States and George Bush are what most nations on this planet fear. A few days ago there were some comparatively small anti-Syrian demonstrations in Beirut, but even as George was giving his speech, over 500,000 Lebanese were peacefully marching in Beirut, with signs thanking Syria for helping their country out.

George and his administration have this hard on about Syria and their "occupation" of Lebanon. It is hard to call it an occupation, because a democratically elected government in Lebanon asked Syria to help them. Syria never attacked Lebanon, but they did help them repel Israel, who did attack Lebanon.

We have 150,000 troops in Iraq and we cannot secure that country, while Syria has 14,000 troops in Lebanon, so it is pretty hard to say that they occupy that country, with that number of troops.

In today's pro-Syrian march, there were banners in English proclaiming, "Thanks to Syria" and "No to Foreign Interference."

There is a vast difference between American troops in Iraq and Syrian troops in Lebanon. Syria and Lebanon are neighbors. Hundreds of thousands of Syrians live and work in Lebanon and they have done that for decades, maybe centuries. Syria is not fighting in Lebanon and its troops are not under attack, where as our troops are under attack every day in Iraq and we are destroying whole cities (Fallujah) and we are constantly attacking some group or taking young Iraqi males to prison on suspicion of doing something. Today we have thousands and thousands of Iraqis in custody in Saddam's prisons. Iraq has no legal system, so those we hold are in limbo.

I have no idea of why George Bush wants to start another war in the Middle East, other that he hasn't a clue on what to do here at home. George Bush has no domestic policy and his War on Terrorism is the only thing he has going for himself in the polls. So, maybe to finish out his term, he is going to keep right on attacking who ever he can so that the American public will know he is doing something.

If we only listened to George, we would think Syria was this truly evil country that was holding its thumb on Lebanon and that America was coming to bring "freedom and democracy" there. Lebanon is a democracy now and has been for decades. Today we see hundreds of thousands of Lebanese out on the streets of their country telling us the exact opposite of what Bush is saying.

I really think that we have enough work right here at home in the United States of America to keep us busy for decades and that our meddling in other nations will only make other nations fear the United States more and more. We can not, as George says "lift the shadow of fear," because we have become, what other nations fear.