Demanding several apologies of his own

I'm responding again to another baseless and emotional rant from John Skaritka. This time, he would have you believe that liberals are to blame for the decline in civil discourse in this country and the fact that Saddam Hussein lied about WMDs is somehow "news."

But who coddled extremist right-wing ideologues at every turn (anyone remember Terry Shiavo?), who promoted an atmosphere of "you're either with us or against us," and who put politics ahead of country when a CIA agent, responsible for tracking nuclear materials in the middle east, was outed. It was the Bush administration.

The only thing liberals have to apologize for is for going along with unfounded assertions made by this administration and failing to stand on principle. The entire Democratic party eagerly stood by this president when our nation was attacked. For years, he was allowed to pursue his vision of victory. The problems started when people started asking questions.

Where are those weapons of mass destruction? Bush joked about not finding them at a DC Press Club dinner while soldiers were dying on foreign soil. Why are we in Iraq after Bush declared "Mission Accomplished"? Why would the Bush administration disband the office responsible for tracking Osama bin Laden?

In the past year, we have seen nothing but furious stonewalling from this administration due to long overdue Congressional investigations.

Rather than focusing his anger on liberals, Skaritka should become acquainted with factual information.

The facts are that Bush and his administration have continually shown poor judgment with regard to foreign affairs. They repeatedly ignored information that did not corroborate their preconceived notions and they have failed to plan for the welfare of our troops in harm's way and their well-being when they return from performing their duties.

Skaritka can call me a fool if he wants, but I don't believe that voicing an opinion rates an apology. In my way of thinking, liberals deserve an apology for the right-wing idea that we can trade freedom for security.

While we're at it, I want an apology for domestic spying and for ruining my country's reputation in the world by torturing prisoners, "rendering" suspects to be tortured by others and for revoking habeas corpus.

I also want an apology for the disgraceful treatment of service members at the Walter Reed Army Hospital and for under-funding the Veteran's Administration while willfully ignoring war profiteering by contractors in Iraq.

The bottom line is that this administration has failed at or botched up nearly everything it has attempted. The American people are beginning to understand the consequences of these failures and I pray that we can pull together to change direction, apologies notwithstanding.

Michael Franquelli

Elgin