Is Bush Fighting The Right War?

Web_loafer, you can find his blog here, left a comment on my post about America's unprovoked attack on Pakistan the other day and a couple of things struck me from what he said, that have given me some food for thought over the weekend. One was where he said "I know you hate Bush", and I will address that statement in a future blog.

I was more concerned about his heartfelt plea: "I too long for peaceful times in America....", and it is this statement I want to talk about here.

Why has George W. Bush gone out of his way to make, clearly, loyal patriotic people like Web_loafer so frightened? Why has terrorism become such a major issue in American politics that grown men are almost hiding under the bed in fear? Why is it that these people generally accept that it is Muslims that are terrorists, and need to be dealt with without recourse to the rule of law?

I'm sorry, but the facts just do not stack up. There are no hoards of Muslim terrorists ready to attack, rape and pillage the infidel America, as the administration would have you believe, and on the back of that, I see no need for America to act, as it presently does, illegally and foolishly at the cost of international respect.

Lets look at a some undisputed facts.

1. In the four years since al-Qaida launched its war in earnest, fewer than 5,000 people have lost their lives in terrorist attacks - throughout the world! (That is less than double the number of US troops who have died in the illegal and, as far as the West is concerned, unnecessary war in Iraq).
2. In 2002 alone, there were 30,242 gun deaths in just the USA!
3. Comparison of U.S. gun homicides to other industrialised countries: In 1998 (the most recent year for which this data has been compiled), handguns murdered:
   373 people in Germany
   151 people in Canada
   57 people in Australia
   19 people in Japan
   54 people in England and Wales, and
   11,789 people in the United States
4. Taxpayers in America pay more than 85% of the medical cost for treatment of firearm-related injuries.

The above is just an abstract from the Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence which contains further facts that would shock and sicken most people.

So, Web_loafer, perhaps you should not be railing against those who have seen through the vail of lies that your administration puts out, but start asking Bush to declare war on the real danger to you and your fellowAmericans, - guns.

One final point that imerges out from what Web_loafer said, and in particular, the way he said certain things. Now, I'm sure Web_loafer is not a rasict, but there is an under current of racism when he talks about terrorists, and I think that has come directly from the way those, who should know better, talk about the subject of terrorists. The sad fact is that, internationally, the Stars and Stripes is being seen by an increasing number of Muslims, in the same way that Jews regarded the swastika. Americans may see this war as some honourable, but ill-defined "war on terror", but for a good quarter to a third of the world's population, Bush is conducting a "war on faith", - the Muslim faith.

If honest, but understandably frightened people like web_loafer are so fearful of terrorists that they allow Bush to dismantle freedom and justice in America without question, then I believe it is time for Bush to go and to vote in a President that deals in hope, not fear.