biggest threat to America is deception« Thread Started on May 23, 2004, 12:08am »--------------------------------------------------------------------------------George Bush's Dangerous DeceptionThe themes of George Bush's 2004 campaign are now clear: tax cuts and national security. Both have appeal to many voters -- tax cuts because no one likes taxes, and national security because of the September 11, 2001 attacks -- but both are based on the lies and deception for which Bush is becoming famous.In order to get his tax cuts through Congress, Bush allowed most of them to expire after a period of time, but they were no sooner passed than he began to clamor to make them permanent. Ridiculously, he now argues that to allow them to expire constitutes a tax increase.Given that no one truly likes taxes, Bush generates considerable enthusiasm for ever more and bigger cuts. What he rarely mentions, however, is the deficit, that $1.4 trillion albatross that so deservedly hangs about his neck. Neither does he mention the cuts in services necessitated by his tax policy. In excess of 150 federal programs are set to be eliminated in his most recent budget request. It seems there's no money.Bush's second campaign theme, that he's the best one to keep us safe, doesn't stand up to scrutiny any more than his tax cuts. A highly-condensed history shows this: Bush was not interested in terrorism until they struck on 9-11. Then, when it was learned that nearly all of the terrorists were from Saudi Arabia, Bush brow beat a coalition into attacking Afghanistan! Apparently unsatisfied, he then turned his ire on Iraq. Hardly anyone would join him on that quest, except Tony Blair, but Bush bullied the UN, the US Congress, and several smaller countries to join him and soon overthrew Saddam Hussein.Clearly, Afghanistan was a breeding ground for terrorists, but was it truly necessary to overthrow the government and occupy the country? Concerning Iraq, the choice was even clearer: there was no credible evidence that Iraq aided or supported terrorists that threatened the US. Neither was there any evidence that Iraq possessed weapons that were a danger to anyone.So what is the nature of the danger Bush wants to protect us from? Will he protect us from further terrorist attacks? Maybe, but are his policies and plans any more thorough or effective than the Democrats could offer? Obviously, he wants us to believe so, but Bush has been faulted time and again for ignoring real threats to our safety, especially when he launched the invasion of Iraq. Has he done anything to understand the nature of terrorism, other than to call it "evil," or taken any steps that might lessen the hatred of America that breeds it? Well, not yet.All the evidence suggests that Bush has made the world more dangerous, not less, in spite of spending hundreds of billions of dollars on the military, overthrowing two countries, and promising us endless war against an ill-defined enemy.George Bush will continue to deceive us with these two stories, perhaps in the belief that a lie repeated often enough becomes the truth. And he has the money to spread his message widely and frequently, all the way to election day. It is up to the rest of us to point out each time, as clearly as we can, that the biggest threat to America's prosperity and safety is deception.