James V. Zedak – 10/4/07

This page was last updated on October 6, 2007.

What has Bush accomplished?; James V. Zedak; Beaver County Times; October 4, 2007.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“Only the future will tell if President Bush goes into the history books as a rogue, out-of-control, Wild West cowboy president who committed this country into a civil war without foreseeable end or as a president with a vision that ended a dictatorship and united a country into a country of peace.”

[RWC] In case Mr. Zedak missed it, President Bush didn’t take us into Iraq on his own. Congress – including some of today’s Democrat candidates for president – approved the Iraq War Resolution. It’s interesting that folks like Mr. Zedak tend to forget that little fact.

“What bothers me to this day is a president dressed in a flight suit, landing on a warship and, with a banner above him, proclaimed ‘mission accomplished.’

“As a member of the volunteer fire service for close to 30 years and as an American, the news that more than 400 emergency service personnel (fire, police and EMS) desperately trying to save more than 2,000 civilian lives on Sept. 11, 2001, perished, I would think that ‘mission accomplished’ would mean the capture or confirmed death of the mastermind behind that tragedy.

[RWC] It’s been almost four-and-a-half years, and people like Mr. Zedak still misrepresent the “Mission Accomplished” banner on the USS Abraham Lincoln.

“Yet, Osama bin Laden is alive and well and a hero to the sick minds who flock to his cause.”

[RWC] It probably bothers me more than Mr. Zedak because bin Laden and his minions constantly spew many of the same talking points as Mr. Zedak.

“What also bothers me are the billions of American tax dollars paying for a civil war in Iraq without foreseeable end with a government that is corrupt.

“Let’s also not forget the more than 3,000 of America’s sons and daughters killed and more than 20,000 injured, with many requiring lifetime care due to their disabilities. We still don’t know how many of our military will have permanent psychological problems, how much of an increase in the suicide rate, how much of an increase in spousal abuse, child abuse and divorces will be the result of the multiple and extended tours of duty in a country where the enemy can’t be distinguished from the civilians.”

“Maybe this is what Bush meant by ‘mission accomplished’.”

[RWC] What a mean-spirited comment to make.