Matt Gardner

To the editor,

I have grown tired of the Bush Bash that creeps into this paper and others on a regular occurrence. They point out that Bush is a divider and not a unifier. Yet, let us not forget that Bush tried to reach out to the other side of the aisle with such things as education reform and was then left holding the bag by the likes of Ted Kennedy and John Kerry.

Their big gripe behind No Child Left Behind is not the legislation (which Kennedy had a significant hand in crafting); it is that Bush has not spent enough on education. Well guess what? President Bush has spent more on education than his liberal predecessor President Clinton, who was lauded by both teachers and the same hypocrites criticizing Bush today, as the “Education President.” If Bush goes to church or mentions God, he is a religious zealot, but let us not forget that President Clinton utilized the word “God” more in public speeches and occasions than Bush ever thought of saying it. It is clearly just a double standard.

Another burr under the saddle of the Liberal/Socialist Democratic Party is the war in Iraq. We must understand that if Bush had not gone into Iraq and we had been attacked in the last two years, then Kerry would be saying that Bush is incompetent for not being preemptive. These same people NEVER would have supported an attack on Afghanistan on September 10, 2001, even if there were overwhelming intelligence that there was going to be an attack from Al Queda terrorists based there.

These are the same people that thought Bush should have done something in his first eight months, but don’t want to criticize former President Clinton for his lack of action over the previous eight years. You see, I was not angry with Clinton for not preventing the first Trade Center bombing, but I was after the bombing of our embassies and one of our Naval ships (The USS Cole). Where was the outcry from Kerry and Kennedy and the other liberal bomb throwers after the Cole bombing?

Bush is making tough decisions during a tough time and should be commended for taking a hard line stance to protect our future. It sure beats a candidate who seems to change his position daily in order to try and gain some traction with the electorate. Kerry saw the same intelligence and came to the same conclusions as President Bush, Director Tenet, Lord Butler, Tony Blair, former President Clinton and a host of others. Even Vladimir Putin has come forward to admit to phoning in warnings about Saddam’s cooperation with terrorists to President Bush in the aftermath of 9/11.

Yet, there are those who continue to malign the President instead of standing behind him and the troops. Dissention for the war would have been best served before the first combat mission had begun, not after. This war has its best chance of being lost here at home not in Iraq with the brave men and women who are fighting for the freedom of the Iraqi people and us. I am not inferring that the rhetoric of John Kerry’s surrogates that we are losing in Iraq and “bogged down in a quagmire” are anti-American, I am flat out saying it.

When did these opportunists forget that many people have died over the last two hundred plus years to preserve democracy and hope, both here at home and abroad? The heroes fighting everyday for our freedom do not need this anti-war rhetoric as it is the same painful drain on the morale that eventually caused the downfall of the Vietnam War and cost us many American lives. This war in Iraq has a mission of hope that goes beyond WMDs and tyrannical and murderous dictators. The hope being that with a steadfast commitment to democracy in Iraq and Afghanistan the dominoes will begin to fall and democracy and peace will replace the ideologues of hate and discrimination.

As I mentioned previously, I am tired of the Bush bashing. Why are we questioning the President’s motives and decisions when I cannot find one Kerry supporter that can even describe his position on the war, as it changes almost daily? The war is being won, although tough times are ahead, the economy is slowly getting better, and with productivity at a record high, the prospects are even better. Interest rates are low and home ownership is growing rapidly. As far as the 2 million jobs lost, most of those came within Bush’s first year, due to the post-election recession and then 9/11. Jobs are starting to come back, and certainly only pessimism and maybe tax increases could detract from this recovering economy.

Matt Gardner

Laconia