Jack L. Ingram III makes a classic liberal mistake in his January 24th article “Bush: tyrant, president or idiot.” Even though he refers to Bush as the Commander in Chief, he fails to remember that we are at war. This is not a policing matter; America is a war with a corrupted ideology of hate and terror.
Name-calling and half-truths will not convince anybody that the president is a tyrant like Castro, Kim Jong Il or Saddam. Domestic spying is a warped way of referring to intercepting international calls to terrorists, and even John McCain admits that his anti-torture bill has obvious exceptions in times of war.
Mr. Ingram should also remember that Congress authorized the use of force against “nations, organizations, or persons responsible for 9/11.” It also jointly supported a resolution against Iraq to defend national security and enforce UN resolutions. The Constitution and the United States Congress give the president expanded powers at times of war and President Bush understands that we are at war. Here’s something else to think about Jack. Every American president in our history has overstepped his peacetime boundaries to lead our country in times of war. Abraham Lincoln even suspended Habeas Corpus during the Civil War where he jailed around 13,000 peace protesters who advocated calling a truce with the South and redrafting the Constitution to allow for slavery.
That is far more tyrannical than anything that Bush has ever done, yet he is revered by many as the best American president ever.
Matt Bushman
Civil engineering senior