Mom? Dad?

A few questions for Moms and Dads living in the heartland - and elsewhere.

Does the Iraq War make you and your little Dick and Jane feel safer from terrorists? Have you abandoned the cloth coat conservatism of your own parents? As you drive young Dick and Jane around, are you aware that much of your gasoline is refined from crude oil from Saudi Arabia and other sources that may not be secure or guaranteed? If California, New York and Massachusetts seceded – without bloodshed, of course – would America be a better country?

Are you aware that many blue states, including the three named above, have a net transfer of tax dollars to red states? Are you and your neighbors dependent on dollars from the Left or Right Coasts? Those good old conservative values - do they include imposing U.S. national will on a worldwide economic empire? Are you aware that you live in a country with five or six percent of the world's people? That we gobble up about 30% of the resources that are consumed on the planet's each year? That our consumption is underwritten by economic competitors, some of whom really don't like our policies?

Are you aware that every day American men and women are dying in Iraq to protect you from terrorists? Are you aware that the reasons given before attacking that country had no basis in fact? Are you aware that tens of thousands of innocent Iraqis have died because of the deception the drove us into their midst? You know that Saddam gassed 5,000 of his own people, but what multiplier of that number have been killed by our forces in your name?

Did your own Moms and Dads want America to be an aggressor nation? Did they believe in collective security based on strong international alliances? Do you remember when America was the last best hope for democracy? Do you remember when America was both respected and loved by the vast majority of the world’s peoples and nations? Is it possible that even young Dick and Jane remember when the answer to that question was `yes'?

Are you aware that many of the nations that our leaders admonish for failure to support us in Iraq are fighting with us in Afghanistan where the national government actually supported those who attacked us on September 11?

After reading these questions, are you still convinced that you’re doing right by young Dick and Jane? Are you really conservative? Sen. Chuck Hagel from Nebraska is a conservative who voted to support the Iraq War; why is he questioning our strategy? Does he know something you don't?

Are we really going in the right direction in the world? Should you be writing your representatives in Washington?

Wild Bill