‘For the good of the country'

To the editor: Ed Klein believes that I am “blinded by hatred of President Bush” (My View May 12). Not so, as Mark Twain noted: A patriot is one who supports his country always but supports its government only when it deserves it. My dispute with this administration arises from a deep sense of concern that we are being led very badly by a President who lacks regard for laws, the land, military personnel, the economy and finally, the American people. I have no energy or time to hate George W. I want him out of office for the good of our country. If Mr. Klein had read my previous letters he’d have known that I specifically cited WW II, in which Mr.Klein fought, as a moral and necessary war. I thank the men and women in our military for the service they have given. My opposition to invading Iraq is and was based on solid evidence that Scott Ritter, the Marine intelligence officer and UN weapons inspector, presented at an open meeting at a church in Goshen several months before we invaded. He told anyone and everyone willing to listen that it was extremely unlikely that Saddam Hussein had WMD since we were the ones who provided the weapons in the first place. More than 95 percent of said weapons had already been accounted for. History has totally validated the truth told to us that evening. Our premonitions on why this war was a bad idea have proven eerily on target. Perhaps it’s time to start listening to advice based on intelligence rather than knee-jerk belligerence. In 1968, Lyndon Johnson, after escalating the ill-fated war in Vietnam, which caused the loss of thousands of American lives, judged himself unfit to lead the country further and withdrew his bid for reelection to the presidency. Is it too much to expect George Bush to show this much humility and contrition and step down from office? After all, Iraq has been shown to be based on information that was knowingly false. Johnson’s faults were at least plausibly due to mere misjudgment. Ronald Reagan called America “the shining city on the hill” - a reference to our traditions of justice, fairness and transparency. Now we are confronted with an administration that espouses torture, spies on its own citizens, runs roughshod over legal protections and lies to Congress on the most important issues of the day. If we succeed in squelching terrorism by compromising our integrity, the enemies of America will have succeeded in diminishing our influence and our “victory” will be a bitter one. Richard Bennett Warwick