I find it truly dismaying that you cling to the belief that George W Bush, Richard Cheney and their administrations have not lead the United States to very dire straits with a growing litany of failures not only of policy but of moral rectitude.

Surely you must admit that considering

the de-valuation of the dollar, the sky-rocketing national debt, the worrisome American indebtedness to the PRC, the astronomic rise in oil and food prices, the sub-prime crisis, the housing crisis, rising unemployment, the despicable, loathsome shyster-like lexical dissembling attempted by the Bush administration to justify the torturing of "detainees" the kidnapping and "torture-by-proxy" program of "Special Rendition" the waiving of "Habeas Corpus" as a matter of policy, the illegal spying on American citizens conducted by the government, the illegal wars in Iraq and Afghanistan that continue to devastate those countries and our economy, the horrific loss of life due to those conflicts, the growing clamor for investigation of war profiteering by Halliburton, KBR, Bechtel and other corporations with ties to members of these administrations, the unlawful politicization of the Justice Department, the loss of prestige by America in the international community of nations, and the nose-thumbing at international efforts to address global climate change,

have all happened on George W. Bush's "watch"--surely you must admit that he and his administrations have not exactly been a boon for our nation or the world.

It is sad and dismaying that any of you would prefer to pass off all of the above mentioned catastrophes as partisan smoke-screens set by "liberals" to salve their sense of pride about not winning the political beauty contests of 2000 and 2004.

It is understandable that you would prefer to do that rather than face the truth about the horrific, disastrous political and economic situation that is the legacy of George W Bush and his administrations, but it is sad.

It is sad and dismaying that you actually believe that there remains the possibility of anything remotely close to what might be even loosely construed as a military victory in Iraq --a deplorable military mis-adventure that the Pentagon's premier military educational institute, the National Defense University, called a "debacle" in its April, 2008 report. (I say "believe" because it must be faith, there being no logical argument or rational thought or consideration of substantive data involved.) This deeply felt dismay has been brought on by the lying, conniving, obfuscating, dissembling, misrepresenting, mis-informing, dis-informing clutch of greedy, self-serving ultra-nationalists "serving" in the US government (such as Karl Rove, Donald Rumsfeld, Colin Powell, Condi Rice, Dick Cheney, David Addington, etc) whose actions have resulted in an illegal invasion and violent military occupation of a sovereign nation; the reduction of the "Cradle of Civilization" to a bombed-out shell of a looted museum ruled by murderous force of arms; the continued occupation of another ruined wreck of a third-world nation; the death of thousands of Americans and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Afghanis, an estimated 4.7 million Iraqi refugees; and the eviscerating of US banking regulations that took the legal restraints off of "predatory lenders" (aka loan sharks) leaving thousands of Americans bankrupt and homeless.

It is sad and dismaying NOT because the vast majority of Americans who presently disapprove of Bush's policies hold you personally responsible. It is sad and dismaying that you have swallowed the Neo-Conservative propaganda hook, party line and sinker.

It is sad and dismaying that many of you continue to denounce as "unpatriotic" those who didn't take the bait. It is sad and dismaying that you do not see that the clay feet of your "heroes" are crumbling in a rising tide of irrefutable evidence of stark criminality and arrogant disregard for the fundamental values of this nation and the expressed will of the people.

No one would expect you to admit publically that the pastseven and a half years have been ruinous to the US, Iraq and Afghanistan. No one would expect an admission by you that you chose badly in placing your trust in Bush and Cheney. No one expects you to change your political stripes.

What is dismaying is that you would choose to place your sanity and your own moral rectitude in peril by not at the least admitting to yourself that the bandwagon you've been riding on in a high dudgeon of patriotic fervor is on fire and headed over the cliff with millions of people, millions of your fellow Americans, in tow.

That is cause for much sadness and dismay.

Sincerely,

DC Rapier

The Institute for National Strategic Studies, National Defense University (NDU) Report for April, 2008.