Dear Editors,

You’d have to be living in a cave, an idiot or a Fox News viewer to still feel safe under the “leadership” of the Republicans. They have controlled the federal government with deadly results. 9/11 could’ve been prevented had the warnings been heeded. The infamous memo titled “Bin Laden determined to attack inside U.S” didn’t register with Condoleezza Rice, neither did Italian intelligence’s wiretaps uncovering a plan to attack enemies of Islam with aircraft and the FAA’s 15 warnings to airlines. The W.H. claims “were vague.”(The warnings remain classified).

The Bush admin fought the forming of the 9/11 Commission. Understandable, since the failing grades it gave this admin are embarrassing and many recommendations remain unresolved. The reasons for the Iraq invasion escape me. If Mexico invaded Texas, would we attack Canada?? There’s lotsa oil up there!

The lasting insurgency and looming civil war was predicted by Middle Eastern expert Paul R. Pillar, a CIA vet of 28 years. He also charges that the W.H. cherry picked intell, only reporting info supporting their case for war. Former anti-terrorism expert Richard Clarke warned “the worst thing we could do is invade and occupy an oil rich Middle Eastern country.” Al Qaeda support, recruitment and anti-Americanism have multiplied. The newly elected Shiites are friendly to Iran and could pass along U.S. secrets to Tehran.

Cost of the war is approaching half a trillion dollars. How much safer would our borders, ports, water supply and nuclear power plants be with that kind of cash? The United Arab Emirates just purchased the company in charge of some of our most vulnerable ports. Only a complete moron would think this is a good plan. Bush threatens to veto anything Congress hands him that could kill the plan. The Katrina debacle is another example but worse since we had advance warning and (based on the weather models) knew that the levees would certainly fail. Clearly, Republican cronyism (Michael Brown) and lack of compassion share the bulk of blame. With hurricane season only 100 days away, have any meaningful changes been made? Please edu

cate your cave dwelling or uninformed Fox News-viewing friends and family of the evils of this empire and ask them to vote Democrat next year.

– Bill Vana, Durango