My letter to the Columbus Dispatch, please send it to yours if you want

Dear Dispatch,

Dick Cheney said it would "last weeks rather than months". Donald Rumsfeld said early on, the outcome "is assured". George declared Mission Accomplished far too early and years later stood in front of a sign that read, "plan for victory". I'm talking about the Iraq invasion which commenced ONE THOUSAND DAYS AGO! With all eyes glued on those embedded reporters, Americans were fixated with what was told to us would be a quick skirmish.

Some 2144 dead soldiers later, America remains strained financially to the point of defaulting, and day after day, mother after mother tries to find a reason in prayer, why her son or daughter died from a roadside bomb in a country that had no connection to 9/11, had no WMD's, and was told right after 9/11 by our own White House, had no connection with Bin Laden.

Why the change? They wanted a war, because they saw an opening to go after Saddam, and in turn have plunged America into the worst farce of a reason to galvanize our patriotism behind our honorable fighting force! They should only be sent into harms way for the right reasons, not for something as fallible as the way we went into Iraq, through false intelligence garnered from a tortured captive who had nothing to lose by making up a story to stop being tortured.

The shame this president will bear historically, let alone spiritually for allowing thousands of troops to fight a false enemy now turned into a real enemy, and for the deaths of well over 30,000 innocent Iraqi CITIZENS like you and I, will grow only with time. The fervor of anti-war sentiments will only grow as further information comes out about the actions by our White House to lead a march to war, and makes its way into the kitchens and cafes around America.

Our president is out of touch with reality, literally. Bush has designated authority to a select few of his closest advisors who have made massive errors of judgement and are on the verge of indictment in the CIA leak case, his Vice President's top advisor has been indicted, his House of Representatives Majority Leader, Tom Delay, has been indicted for dirty dealings, a top Republican war hawk representative in California has admitted taking millions in bribes for guaranteeing military contracts, and a top lobbyist and fundraiser with deep ties to the Republicans, Jack Abramoff is involved in numerous scandals, from the Majority Leader's problems, the murder of a former Sun Cruz Casinos owner, to the swindling of Native Americans millions. Even the once highly respected man who stood before the United Nations asking for approval to invade Iraq, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, has recently declared shamefully and humbly, he was wrong, and is embarrassed, as he should be.

There are dozens more of crimes being investigated (Katrina response and appointment of unqualified individuals by Bush to head it, journalists paid to write pro-Republican articles in the U.S. and abroad, Diebold voting machine fraud, etc.), but after so many, what difference does a few more matter when you're already covered completely in corruption?

This "White" House may be called that in symbolism, but it is mired in total darkness.

Enough...

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Westerville, OH 43081