An Open Letter To Bush: Are We Fighting The "Trrrr-ists" In London So We Do Not Have To Face Them At Home?

BY MANIFESTO JOE

It was bad enough for one of the journalism charlatans at Fox News to talk about the London bombing in terms of how one could profit from it. (The swinelike Brit Hume suggested this would be a good time to buy futures.) But for loutish insensitivity, he was topped by our own "president," who told his Saturday morning radio audience that we are "fighting the terrorists abroad so we do not have to face them at home."

Mr. Bush, did you imply that it's better to have the London subway system be a battleground than to have al Qaeda blowing up folks over here?

This mantra of your was insulting enough in the context of the Iraq war. Never mind that it was your foolhardiness that turned that country into a terrorist magnet, and the best training ground al Qaeda ever had. What you expressed is sort of a not-in-my-back-yard school of anti-terrorism -- essentially, let's keep them on the run so they can only hit foreign targets!

Mr. Bush, I never quite understood how shallow you really are until you invoked this mantra of yours in this particular address. Despite all the gushing rhetoric, this shows a ludicrous lack of respect and empathy for the civilians who are being killed daily in this conflict, whether Britons or Iraqis. You have denigrated the value of their lives; indeed, those of everyone, except "Murkans."

It is bad enough that neither you nor Mr. Blair seem to understand that your totally unrelated invasion of Iraq actually played into the hands of terrorists the world over. Thanks to this needless quagmire:

• The U.S. is militarily overextended, unable to deal effectively with those actually responsible for 9-11, the London bombing, and the other atrocities.
  
  
• Terrorist recruitment has probably spiked greatly because of outrage in the Muslim world over your poorly veiled oil grab.
  
  
• Terrorist activity, in any case, has definitely increased. MSNBC reported that a RAND Corp. database shows that the number of deaths from terrorism worldwide has sharply risen since the Iraq invasion.
  
  
• Again, Iraq is a perfect training ground for the recruits.
  
  
• World opinion of the United States has probably never been worse.
  
  
• And, all in all, the world is much more dangerous -- and, your mantra aside, it is likely only a matter of time before our own infrastructure, and people, come under attack again. Our Coast Guard and border patrol aren't good enough to keep our real enemies at bay much longer.
  

What would you say if they bombed the port of Los Angeles, or took out the Golden Gate Bridge during rush hour? That we're fighting the "trrrr-ists" in California so we do not have to face them in Washington? Or Crawford? Your mantra was disrespectful enough to the nearly 1,800 soldiers who have died so far in your and Mr. Blair's extracurricular misadventure. But in this radio address -- well, I thought I had already heard as much bovine excrement as you could muster for one speech. I was wrong. Mr. Bush, you owe the British people an apology. And your fellow "Murkans" your resignation. Then we'll see if Cheney can be impeached. MANIFESTO JOE IS AN UNDERGROUND WRITER LIVING IN TEXAS.