Dear George,

In regards to the thrilling capture of Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, I noticed one article credited him with waging two wars against the U.S..

As I recall, back in the Spring of this year, we did all the waging - we picked the fight - didn't we? I seem to remember the United Nations not voting for an invasion of Iraq but we went ahead and invaded anyway. Come to think of it, I don't remember him ever attacking America actually. Most recently he seemed to be defending himself from America. We're the attackers, aren't we?

Because I've spent so many years looking through liberal-rose colored glasses, I am very confused. Saddam Hussein's effort to take over all of the oil reserves in the middle east by attacking Kuwait in the early 90's seems very similar to Kenneth Lay's desire and effort to take over energy companies here in the U.S. They are just business men doing business, trying to dominate their respective markets.

Come to think of it, with the recent contracts awarded to Haliburton and the snubbing of the French and German companies, why not give Dick Cheney an equal pardon for using the American political system as a way to promote financial gain for his interests. Pardon's not necessary of course, we're not even accusing him of wrong doing.

Now, I know, Hussein is a murderer and Cheney is not responsible for the deaths of innocent men and women, nor of course , is Kenneth Lay. Mr. Cheney has not even been accused of criminal behavior. He is supporting our President..

As I said, because I have lived in the "spider-hole" of liberal thought, I see America as an aggressor in this situation, having conquered another country and people so that they will be more cooperative with what we want them to do. Actually, they even cooperated. I'm still unclear why we invaded Iraq. I keep getting promises of weapons of mass destruction. Perhaps, now that he is captured, Mr. Hussein will explain that he was lying all along, that Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair were absolutely correct about his plans to build WMD's, that he was near to completion and that their intervention stopped him at the last second. Perhaps Mr. Hussein will admit that American government in Iraq is probably better for the people of Iraq and the people of America.

I imagine his testimonials might even make it into campaign commercials for Mr. Bush as he touts what an impressive leader Bush is.

Like everyone else, I'm glad we got him. He seems to be responsible for so many bad things and now that we have him I'm sure many of those bad things will stop happening. Perhaps he is the reason for everything bad that has occurred.

But then what will we do with Mr. Lay? Did we get him? Is he in custody? Come to think of it, who from ENRON still is? Come to think of it, why are they still allowed to do business? I mean, what exactly is the penalty they will bear? It's unclear to me.

How about Mr. Cheney? Can he continue to secure good business deals for good old H without any fear of political fall out?

I grew up reading comic books as a young man and it's difficult for me understand the whole situation.

This seems to be our motto:"We're smarter, more decent and more responsible than you. We have more bombs than everybody, so everybody should do what we say and if they don't we're going to have to spank them."

Is this how capitalism works on a global level?

Apologizing for my naive liberal minded ignorance,

Joe Clancy (electronic mail, December 13, 2003)