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2003-03-10

As we approach the one year anniversary of the devastating terrorist
attacks on the United States I must pause to ponder the American response to
those events as well as the leadership and actions of President Bush. The
shock of those actions offered a President an unprecedented opportunity to
seize the moment. A great leader would have summoned his people to
greatness. President Bush has utterly failed the test of greatness and
history will duly record that failure.

A great leader would have immediately recognized that the foreign policy
of this country vis a vis the Mideast reflect the interests of the oil
industry more than anything else and was a fundamental factor in those
attacks. A great leader would have called upon his nation to launch a
massive campaign to make his country energy independent by (insert a year).
A great leader would have announced a national program to promote and invest
in all sorts of alternate energy programs including the development of
hydrogen as a fuel for cars, fuel cell technology, solar power, geothermal
power, wind power and a rebirth of an efficient modern rail transport system
getting millions of trucks off the road. The American people would have
rallied to the cause unlike any since W.W.II. Remember how the country
rallied to the cause when Kennedy called for a program to land a man on the
moon and return him safely before the decade was over? There is little doubt
that the country would have rallied to the cause had they only been presented
with and led in such a national effort. What did our great leader advise his
countrymen to do? Go shopping. Shopping!

The United States enjoyed the sympathy and goodwill of virtually every
nation on earth in the aftermath of that stunning disaster. The United
States could have rallied the world to its side by committing itself to the
legal pursuit of the criminal elements responsible for this act of terrorism.
Instead, the United States has decided to continue on its unilateral course,
dismissing international agreements, reneging on treaties, announcing we will
attack anyone we see fit to, and generally thumbing our nose at the concept
of international law. Whatever happened to the vaunted Republican commitment
to ""the rule of law""? By ignoring the rule of law we have squandered
whatever goodwill and support the world exhibited in September. The United
States is now feared and hated as much, if not more so, than it was before.
Good God, read some international press!

The leadership, or rather the lack of leadership, demonstrated by this
inept imbecile and his minions have caused the world to view the United
States as a 800 pound gorilla gone berserk.