Bush has failed leadership test
William Parrot would do well to reread his letter to the editor and follow the advice of his last paragraph.
He didn't do his homework nor did he get any facts. He blames Democrats for the current condition of the economy and gasoline prices and credits Bush with saving us from evil. Right propaganda isn't fact just because it comes from the Right.
George Bush is hardly responsible for keeping this country safe for the last seven years. Taking off your shoes at the airport and throwing away your shampoo hardly constitutes any measure of safety. Our National Guard is in shambles. Money for Homeland Security has been squandered. Our borders are still a sieve for illegal aliens. If Bush is to be credited for keeping us safe these past years, then he is also to blame for Sept. 11. The conclusions are equally irrational.
Bush is responsible, however, for two to four times as many Iraqi deaths as Saddam Hussein: 250,000 to 290,000 Iraqi deaths have been attributed to Hussein. Hussein was condemned to death. Bush will receive a nice pension, premium health care and other benefits for life. More than 4,000 Americans are dead and more than 30,000 were injured through a war that was based on lies.
Many of those returning can't get the health care they need. Jobs have been lost and families destroyed.
The Democrats have nothing to do with the high cost of gasoline. The price of gas is based on supply and demand, taxes, refining, marketing, distribution, political instability, weather and speculation. Tax breaks, tax subsidies, environmental concerns and other factors add hidden costs so the true price is far in excess of what we pay at the pump.
Big oil companies have made no effort to expand production in the U.S. because it's more profitable to get oil elsewhere. They hold leases on thousands of acres of unexplored land. There is no incentive to produce more in a deregulated market where profits reign supreme and tax liability on those profits is limited.
Our troubles are only beginning as we watch prices of natural gas and electricity escalate in the face of no serious cohesive effort to develop other alternatives or expand energy capacity.
The real problem with government today is that we vote for parties instead of leaders. There is a lack of moral leadership with any vision or backbone to do what needs to be done. Everyone has their hand out and uses government as a vehicle to enrich themselves and their friends. The few people who go into politics with character and conviction don't survive because these are no longer valued traits of leadership. It's about power and money instead of the people.
Leadership is forged in times of crisis. Bush has failed this test repeatedly and he certainly doesn't stand alone.
Robert B. Morgan
Elburn