Bush Visits U.S. Troops
President Bush, in his Thanksgiving Day address to the troops, voiced three key reasons for United States’ presence there:
“We’re here to protect freedom.”
“We’re here to protect our future.”
“We’re here to protect innocent life.”
The “freedom” we are protecting there is Islamic domination. As The Times reported on the same day, the effort of Placerville volunteers to send Christmas trees to our troops ran into the Saudi Arabian law which prohibits the importation of any product for religious holidays other than the Islamic religion.
Our presence there threatens rather than protects our future. Already our economy and our social lives have been severely disrupted by Bush’s determination to be the dominant force in the world and to protect one tyrannical Islamic country from another.
Our presence there continues to put more innocent lives at risk than our absence would. Estimates of potential American casualties run into the tens of thousands. The number of civilians at risk in Iraq and the neighboring countries is probably many times this number.
ERNST F. GHERMANN
Winnetka, Calif.
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