Most of us treat Memorial Day as a day marking the change from spring to summer. If we are a nation at peace and enjoying prosperity we should remember that we are the beneficiaries of persons before us who did give the last full measure of devotion.
We should also remember that it is our duty to the people of the future that we act to preserve their freedom and ensure that ours is a government of the people, by the people and for the people.

America is now experiencing a time of war. As such, Memorial day should have a more sobering meaning.
Our war, begun in 2001 is a just war to find and eliminate the perpetrators of the attack against us on September 11 of 2001. A war we should be perusing with full devotion. A war we should win, in part, by capturing Osama Bin Laden and dressing him into one of those fashionable orange jump suits and locking him into a prison where he will quietly, wordlessly and pointlessly spend the rest of his life. This we must do to show to his followers that he is no favorite of any god. We must finish this work.

However, the Bush administration mislead us into an unrelated war which strengthens, not weakens, Bin Laden's standing in the eyes of much of the islamic world. There was no "Al Qaeda in Iraq" until the Bush administration created the conditions for it. The Bush administration completely misunderstood the situation they were creating in Iraq and seam to be at odds with the reality there today

It would be bad enough if this was an honest mistake of the Bush administration. It is not an honest mistake. The 911 commission report makes clear that Rumsfeld was immediately looking for ways to tie the 911 attack to Iraq. The Downing Street memo reveals that the Bush administration was "fixing" intelligence regarding Iraq. The administration made personal attack against ambassador Wilson and his wife rather than address the substance of ambassador Wilson's arguments that there was no evidence that Saddam was being sold uranium ore. This administration LIED to us. They have hijack the nations military resources, and they spend the very lives of our men and women to conduct a war from which they will financially profit personalty.

On the excuse it was waging war against the attackers of 911, The Bush administration continues to squandered the resources which it extracted from the nation The Bush administration equates every criticism of their misguided war in Iraq as support for the attackers of 911. This is the opposite of the truth. This is the opposite of government of the people, for the people and by the people.

Forrest Erickson