Exactly what we don't need

is another Bush toady, beholden to him for his job and powerless to set policy and budget, with "overall responsibility" for foreign and domestic intelligence. This would be the barest effectuation of Big Brother, an unconcealed congealing of power in the single executive. Bush's critics are correct in finding his plan intolerable.

But neither they, nor Kerry, are taking on this major issue in dealing with terrorism. We are under attack by a specific (but now gaining more generalized, because of Bush's weird, irrational armed reaction to 9/11) batch of people, with very specific complaints and objectives. Our century-long support of repressive regimes in the Middle East, in furtherance of our oil interests in the region; our unbridled support for Israel's policies; our constant intervention in military terms and the rape of their natural resources, without due compensation to those (other than a few sheiks) who own them. And on and on.

Isn't there someone who's listening? Doesn't anybody see that "terrorists" are attacking their enemy in the only way they can--at the cost of the lives of innocent civilians--because of our overwhelming military might?

We bombed and killed hundreds of thousands of innocent Germans and Japanese during World War Two, especially at the end in the bombing of Tokyo, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Dresden, Hamburg, and on and on, to bring the totalitarian regimes to their knees by influencing the populace through the terror of the aerial attack, made without discrimination, with murderous results. (Check out this discussion of our atomic bombing of Japan). They're doing the same thing now, and the only way they'll relent if the causes of their fury are addressed by our leaders.

Okay, I'll get off the soapbox now.