To Rush Limbaugh:
 
     Why does Rush continue to say that there was a "smoking gun" in Iraq when none has been found? George W. Bush admitted that there were no ties with al Qaeda. It has been discovered that documents saying that Saddam was trying to buy uranium from Africa were forged and that the aluminum tubes (that were stopped before they were even shipped or ordered) were in fact anodized, making them unfit for use in a gas centrifuge. The lack of a gas centrifuge and other materials necessary to enrich uranium (which he didn't have) would have made it vary difficult to produce a nuclear device. This by itself should make the reasoning behind the war false, certainly highly suspect.
 
     But that is not by far all that was lied about. On October 7, 2002, President Bush made this comment, "We are concerned that Iraq is exploring ways of using these UAV's for missions targeting the United States." Now, while it is plausible to use a UAV in a WMD attack, it is not very plausible for one to fly from Iraq to the United States, and even if it could, it would not be able to remain undetected. It would be shot down easily. Besides the aforementioned facts, there's no evidence that Iraq was building this fleet of UAV's.
 
     Then there's the issue of chemical/biological weapons. Now this is interesting since we supplied Iraq with the chemical weapons during the Iran-Iraq war, back when we were friends with anybody who had it in for Iran. There is however a little quirk about chem/bio weapons that many people don't often think about, and that is that they all have different shelf lives. As it turns out, the chemical weapons that we supplied Saddam Hussein only had a shelf life of about five years. After that they lose potency as a weapon. The chemical weapons we supplied to Iraq included mostly saran and HD (mustard gas). Now, I am not saying that there was not anything to worry about in Iraq, but it really didn't pose a direct threat to anybody beyond the range of the Middle East. Why this meant that Iraq posed a "clear and present danger" I don't know.
 
     I do know that since Saddam Hussein has been removed from power in Iraq it has become a haven of terrorists that are free to come into the country now that the country is not ruled by the kind of power-hungry, paranoid, and ruthless guy that saddam was. I want to make it clear that I don't attempt to defend the evils that he has committed, but merely to suggest that when somebody as greedy for power as Saddam is he will try his best to keep out or kill people who threaten his control. That would include rogue terrorist organizations. You can't say the same thing about the United States, which I found out, actually funded and trained Osama Bin Laden during the Russian-Afghanistan campaign. But then again hindsight is twenty-twenty, and it was done in the name of another open-ended conflict, the war on communism.
 
     Now I know what your thinking: this is just yet another "America-hating liberal." who should get out of your country, right? To that I only want to say and point out a few things before being labeled a Democrat, liberal, or traitor, which probably to a lot of Rush's listeners are all the same group. On September 11th, 2001, I was the only one in my entire high school class who cried when I witnessed the destruction wrought on my beloved nation by the terrorists. I even heard one student (who later would be apathetic about the war in Afghanistan and yet supportive of the war in Iraq) say "wooohhh cooool," as the second plane hit. This made me angry and disgusted. I turned to him and said, "Do you realize how many people just died in that building?" He said "I don't care, it looks cool, and I don't know those people." I simply lost it and was shaking mad, but being a pacifist I only said, "How can you be such a jerk? Put yourself in someone else's shoes for once you "asshole!" The teacher then scolded me for my language.
 
     The school director came out after the attacks. The scenes of the tragedy were being shown over and over again, and she turned the TV off. We were told to go to our classes. I however was in shock and told my teacher that there was no way that I could do my work and ended up taking a walk with the counselor. I was sent home early that day not because I asked to be, but because the director could see how upset I was. My dad picked me up and I went home and called my friends and family to make sure that they were ok. Do I seem like a traitor to you? If so, I feel sorry that you can't accept a story of someone mourning along with his country on the most tragic day in its history. Maybe now your thinking, "Well feeling bad is great but you're still a pacifist coward." To you I have this to say. First off, Rush, you are no one to make that accusation. I think yours is one of the most pathetic examples of selfish "draft dodging" I have ever heard of. You are, after all, no conscientious objector.
 
     In October, 2001, no more than three weeks after the attacks, I went to Maryland on a plane. Anybody using air travel at that time had to be nervous, and if they said they were not, they were lying. I went anyway and was up there (in the DC area) for two weeks. This was during the anthrax scare. I saw the damage to the pentagon and prayed for those lost. This was also the time that the war on Afghanistan started and everybody was terrified of terrorist reprisals. Granted it isn't the same as being shot at, but then again you've probably never been shot at or threatened with a gun like I was on one occasion. I had the "pleasure" of talking down a 7-year old neighbor kid holding a double-barreled shot gun at my face. That's scary, in so many different ways. Not only that, but being outspokenly against the war in Iraq, I've always had to wonder whether I'm going to be the next one beaten up or jumped, or possibly even shot at or killed. But during all this, I just kept in mind the words of the late Dr. Martin Luther King, "There are many things I am willing to die for, but nothing I am willing to kill for."
 
     As far as this war goes, I think it has made the world a much more dangerous place for people of my generation and especially of my region of the United States (which is a small town between LasCruses, NM and El Paso). This is probably the ideal region from which to find soldiers to be sent into combat in desert countries. And this budget deficit (the cost of this war) is being left behind for my generation to clean up. In short, Rush, I want you and your "dittoheads" to stop it with the liberal hating and recognize that questioning the government is our way of protecting your freedom.

                                                  Sincerely,
  dabj@eartlink.net Andrew E. Jones