Dear George:

This is written on the day President Bush is presiding over a $40-million Inaugural party celebrating his re-election. The money is being spent at a time when public services in many cities in America have been stretched beyond the breaking point; when we cannot feed all who are hungry and provide housing for all those in want. The money is being spent while a war of aggression saps billions in American tax dollars that could be used to rejuvenate our communities and replenish our ravaged natural resources. The $40 million, of course, is no more than a spark in the bonfire of war around which the savages are dancing at this moment. Some estimates put the cost of the Iraq war to date at $1-trillion, not a $150-billion. What's more, an estimated 100,000 innocent Iraqi civillians to date have been killed as well as 30,000 Iraqi soldiers, and 1500 Coalition troops.

These developments would not be unfolding if the prevailing American mindset was different. I saw first-hand the popularity of President Bush in many parts of South Florida. I talked with people who fled the tyranny of Castro's Cuba praise President Bush, not recognizing he is the greatest threat in years to the liberties of the American people. Recall that Hitler, too, was elected to power by enthusiastic supporters. It is also noteworthy that prior to Hitler's election, the Nazi Party ran down the contributions of German Jews to the military in World War One, just as Republicans decry liberals. The denigration of Senator Kerry's military record by the Republicans had an ugly precedent. Hitler warned the world in "Mein Kampf" about his plans to extinguish world Jewry, and President Bush's nominee for Attorney General has written a paper rationalizing the torture of prisoners. President Bush is the first president in history who claims to be a Christian but who is turning back the clock to the Spanish Inquisition. We should not be surprised to see more of this ugliness because we've been told by the Administration what they have in mind. And what they have in mind is tyranny at home and conquest abroad.

We now have a dangerous but popular demagogue in the White House who has surrounded himself with a tight circle of like-minded advisors of the most reactionary stripe ever assembled by any President. The Republicans jeered the mention of the phrase "United Nations" at their Convention and the Bush Administration rejects all international treaties, including attempts to hold his military accountable to the laws of war. We see the philosophy emerging that Americans are better than people in other countries, can wage preventive wars as they like, and that it is the other fellow who is a terrorist even as our own bombs and "daisy cutters" pulverize defenseless villages and cities. This is the emergence of a new "Master Race" philosophy, nothing less, and the disturbing parallels with Germany in the late 1920s and early 1930s need to be taken seriously.

Unfortunately, some of my fellow Democrats are saying, "Well, we tried to win, and failed," and will do no more. They plan to sit back for four years and wait for the next election, if there is one. The victory of the Republicans, however, means the Iraq war will be perpetuated, not brought to an end. It means innocent people as well as our own children will go on dying every day as our blood and treasure sinks into the sands of Iraq. We know where we are tending, as Lincoln might have said. The question is What are we going to do about it?

As the President does not listen to the Pope, the Secretary-General of the United Nations, millions of anti-war demonstrators, and his Democratic critics, it does not appear that protests and demonstrations will influence him. What might get to him, and I stress the word "might," is a boycott of American goods and services that could impact the military- industrial cronies who surround him. For my part, I am writing people around the world to consider boycotting American-made automobiles and appliances, etc., which is tough for me as a person who believes in free market capitalism and free trade and who would like to see our own economy strengthened. I am taking this step because the Bush Administration needs to know it cannot lay waste to another nation without consequences -- and a nonviolent boycott is one honorable method of opposing warmongering.

During the Sixties, I served in the civil rights movement in an executive capacity. I got to know some of its leaders, including the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King. There is no question in my mind he would have opposed the war in Iraq as he did the war in Vietnam. He and I discussed anti-war strategies just a short time before his assassination. Not spending a dime on Inauguration Day is one way to show your protest. But please consider buying foreign-made automobiles instead of American cars, and foreign-made appliances, etc., even though it may hurt the American economy. President Bush and his corporate backers need to know tthere are penalties for turning a small nation half way around the globe that never threatened us into a killing ground. The United Nations inspectors had it right. Iraq had no WMD, as the President now admits. That's why the GOP convention denounced the UN. They mean to rule the world, nothing less. In 2008, a Democratic Party dedicated to peace and prosperity must depose them from power. Start working to achieve that victory now. Lives are at stake. So is America's honor.

Sherwood Ross (electronic mail, January 20, 2005)