LETTER
March 29, 2003
What's Happening to America?
I just came across the HeadBlast page -- WOW!
So absolutely to the point!
I just want to share a letter I recently wrote to my local paper, since one of your articles reminded me of it:
Boston Globe
In the midst of feeling the fear of our troops' families -- and the misery of Iraqi civilians -- I find my head frequently shaking, and thinking: "What's happening to America?"
I just came across Congressman Waxman's March 17 letter to President Bush. In it Waxman details, and questions, the Bush administration's inexplicable use of a known questionable document -- easily shown to be a forgery -- to make the case for war against Iraq. This use included presentations to the Congress, the American people, and the United Nations. The CIA confirms that the document was known to be questionable, and the International Atomic Energy Agency has described how obvious was the forgery.
And then I remember that it was only about five years ago that President Clinton was impeached for lying in a deposition about a sex act.
How have we, in that short time, gone from such a high standard to be applied to presidential conduct, to essentially, no standard at all? And now we are at war.
Have we the American people changed, or have our press, our TV networks changed? The media were filled with criticism, and even outrage, at what Clinton did. Now the media, especially the TV media, are silent on what should be a major scandal. Is the difference that Clinton's offense had nothing to do with politics or public policy, and thus no constituency benefited from the lie? Is the difference that Clinton lied alone, whereas Bush's deception was a "team effort"? Does the fact that war resulted, and is now going on, make Bush's lie a moot issue?
Clinton was impeached for trying to conceal a sex act.
Bush and his team repeatedly told a known lie to justify a war.
What's happening to America?
-- Bob Fleischer
Groton, Massachusetts