For sure for sure we know for a fact that Little Dick Cheney was a serial draft dodger.We know that,decider Dubya decided that his final National Guard file was lost,he also decided that he did finish his Guard obligation.

Now Little Dick and the Gay Old Party have decided to hate another NAM decorated hero. This one is their own Republican Sen.Chuck Hagel.When will the GAY OLD PARTY swifties follow Little Dick's lead.Other heros the serial draft dodger and the Gay Old Party hate are Murtha,Kerry and now Webb with more to come.

I for one am repulsed every time i see Little Dick draft dodger and "obligation complete Dubya" making a closed to the public (except the chosen) speech with members of the VFW and American Legion standing behind cheering their serial lies.

I have asked a leader of the VFW why they cheer a serial draft dodger.No response.Is it because they are hate spewed war mongering republicans???? or are they war profiteering employees of Halliburton in rented for and aft caps???

Now we find that Sec.Gates is just another Rummy playing the Cheney game,during his confirmation he came on as honest and caring for the USA,now we find he is another team Cheney player.

How many Generals have our American Axis of Evil, fired or retired befor finding one more looking for another star?? Too many to count.

Funny thing !! I watched Tony Snow-job talking about the administrations concern over the Iraq oil.Could it be,oh no,yeah right.

Alex Campbell

On a number of occasions, including during a press briefing before his speech two weeks ago announcing the troop surge, George Bush alluded to his conviction that people living 25 or 50 years from now will look back on this time and appreciate the wisdom and correctness of his policies. He is viewing the present through the eyes of those he believes, with great certainty, will live in the future. The truth that these people living decades from now will see is that the crisis of our time lies in freedom loving peoples being threatened by dark fanatacisms aiming at destroying our way of life. On what basis does Bush arrive at the certainty with which he holds his beliefs in this connection? It appears he genuinely thinks he is doing God's work and that his Heavenly Father is guiding his brave hand in these times of peril. A loop in time is created by this situation, wherein the present is continuously being channeled through the future, a kind of psychological time travel the result of which is to immunize Bush and his associates in the administration from all conceivable counterargument and all possible counterevidence. The danger presented by this immunity is that no meaningful correction of current policy can take place, and if that policy fails, as it looks like it will, the only alternative will be an accelerating of the violence and escalation. Our country may be in more serious trouble because of its leadership than most people have realized.

"Why of course the people don't want war... It is the leaders... who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along... all you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."

--Hermann Goering

Moira sure knows how to push your buttons.

*So, I guess she is right that you've never been in uniform? It's not too late. People in the fifties are dying in Iraq. You can volunteer, too.

*Um, republicans DID say those things. Pat Buchanan and Kate O'Beirne come to mind immediately. Note: Both are first-rate fearless chicken hawks.

*Um, maybe you should read (for the first time??) her letter. She never uses the word "victim" to describe our military.

*The right-wing and MSM talking heads keep referencing a study that was published a year or so ago, that claimed that most of our GIs were middle class. The data from this study are flawed. You would know that if you listened to something other than the drival coming out of the right-wing and MSM entertainment industry. Please list the children of the 1,000 richest families in the country who are in uniform. Then, please list the children of the right wing talking heads who are in uniform. Then, please list the right wingers who have actually BEEN in uniform. I await your epistle with bated breath!

To everyone else, there is a march in Washington, DC tomorrow to protest the war. If you cannot attend, please consider making a donation to one of the local Democratic Committees. We send "goodie boxes" to adopted troops containg everything from toothpaste and shampoo to candy bars and paperback books. We could use some help.

It is bad enough that Net messageboards and have to devolve into back-and-forths between troll hijackers and Those Who Talk To Trolls. But I always saw Letters to the Editor as something better than your basic usenet flamewar battleground.

Trolls and their flamewars are so 90s. Why do people still fall for them? They detract from real discussion about topics, they hijack discussions and they distract people from the real points that need to be made.

Please don't let Salon's Letters to the Editor devolve into a soapbox for trolls and for those who get sucked in by them.

All of that yummy internationalist support for the U.S. after 9/11? Who wants it? I don't want other nations feeling sorry for the U.S. I want terrorists to fear the U.S.

Chest-beating aside, the point of international support is so that we can be more effective in going after violent extremists. As it is now, our resources are spread too thin to make as great an impact as we could had we not alienated our allies. More effective prosecution of the GWOT translates into more fear of the US by terrorists. See, elephant, everyone wins.

The Taliban resurgence in Afghanistan? It might be because the country is more free than it ever was under the Taliban, and therefore the Taliban-linked drug lords are more active than ever. You want more Taliban-style social order in Afghanistan?

Big oxymoron you've provided there, eh? The Taliban resurgence (and the criminal totalitarianism they bring with them) is a sign of...wait for it...greater freedom! Very interesting theory. Everybody else, including NATO commanders, thinks that it's simply due to an abject lack of security, but what do they know?

As for the 9/11 Commission, let's not forgot that one of their great contributions to American life and the history of New Orleans was lumping FEMA in with the Department of Homeland Security and reshuffling that bureaucracy. We need more 9/11 Commission recommendations like we need another hijacked airliner.

Elephantman, FEMA was integrated into the DHS before the 9/11 Commission report. A little research will do wonders for you.

You want to leave our national security to people like John Conyers, Nancy Pelosi and Russ Feingold? Give me a break.

This seems to imply that the current folks overseeing national security are doing a bang-up job, instead of the piss-poor job that we see here in Reality. Tell me, in your world, has Al Qaeda recruitment not skyrocketed as a direct result of the unnecessary Iraq war? Is the military not spread so thin that it's unable to address our most pressing security concerns (Iran and North Korea)? Are the national debt and deficit not the highest they've ever been in history?

If so, let me know what drugs you're taking, or whatever it is that allows you to occupy this alternate reality. Sounds like a lovely place.