To the editor:

After many months of listening to the justification(s) for invading and occupying Iraq, hunting down Saddam and his family members, the pros/cons on how well we, as a nation, were informed about the possibilities of attack by al-Qaida on New York and the Pentagon, I have finally reached my limit. I can take in not one more word of speculation/analysis/opinion regarding the above. It’s a waste of our intellectual energy and time.

I would like, instead, to suggest that the entire responsibility for this problem rests with the sitting president: George W. Bush. Ultimately, it is he who has had the last word on all of the “war” activities. I imagine him as a little boy, hiding from the lightning and thunder of a rainstorm under his bed, waiting for his mother to come and comfort him.

This little boy, in a man’s suit of clothing, has governed this nation for the last four years. He has created a climate of fear among his citizens that, to this unschooled writer, can only be compared to that present during the “Red Scare” of the Cold War.

Shame on George Bush for leading this country into this place of extreme distrust and paranoia — born of his own, very personal prejudices and fears.

Shame on us for allowing him to do so.

Marilyn Roy,

Lawrence