An Open Letter to George W. Bush

7 July 2005

Dear Mr. Bush:

I know you're a busy guy, what with running the world and everything, but in light of today's tragedy, I'm feeling a little vulnerable and insecure and I wanted to ask you if you would do one small thing for me:

Please, tell me again.

Tell me again about the weapons of mass destruction.

Tell me again how invading Iraq has made me safer from al-Qaeda.

Tell me again how going after Saddam Hussein instead of Osama bin Laden has made me safer.

Tell me again about how we were greeted as liberators, with flowers and smiles.

Tell me again how major combat operations over there have ended.

Tell me again how the mission was accomplished.

Tell me again how we have to fight them over there so we don't have to fight them over here.

Tell me again how a volunteer force that no one wants to volunteer for, armed with equipment they have to buy themselves, is winning a war against an enemy that is everywhere and nowhere.

Tell me again how Burger Kings and spas in a heavily fortified Green Zone in the middle of chaos and destruction are making the people of Iraq feel less like taking their poverty and frustration out on Americans and their allies.

Tell me again how our torture chambers are better than their torture chambers.

Tell me again how Negroponte's death squads are better than Saddam Hussein's death squads.

Tell me again about how funneling my tax money to Haliburton instead of to the soldiers in the field is making their job easier.

Tall me again how paying mercenaries ten times what the troops in uniform get is improving our soldiers' morale.

Tell me again how curtailing my liberties here at home is making me safer.

Tell me again how making it look like you're making me safer instead of making me safer, is making me safer.

Tell me about how a second Patriot Act is going to make things better.

Tell me how I will be safer if Congress approves your nominees for ambassadorships, judiciary positions and Cabinet posts without dissention or debate.

Tell me about how what happened this morning in the London transit system couldn't have happened to the transit system in New York, or Chicago, or Los Angeles, or Boston or Seattle or Atlanta or Billings or Wichita or Ann Arbor or El Paso.

Tell me again how my liberal friends and I caused all this.

And tell me about how, if you and your friends are allowed to stay the course you've set us on, it's all going to get better.

Please, sir?

Just one more time?

You know how I love a good story.