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--> --> Monstrous hypocrites or historically illiterate? When the president's advisors came to him after September 11 and said: Here's what we want you to do. Look earnestly puzzled and ask "Why do they hate us?" Then look noble and say "We are good and they are evil," these advisors were either monstrous hypocrites or historically illiterate. No leader of the state has ever been in doubt, whether as attacker or attacked, as to the reasons. Furthermore, no national leader (given that sovereign nationalism is an ethically challenged institution) would have the gall to announce: "We are good and they are evil." When Iraq invaded Kuwait, did the King wonder "Why do they hate us?" When the U.S.-led NATO force bombed the former Yugoslavia, no Serb leader wondered, "Why do they hate us?" Not even Ho Chi Minh, our ally in World War II and who was the primary reason that the Japanese were driven out, was puzzled when the U.S. invaded his country. Whatever the reasons there may have been, neither the bombers nor the bombed in any war were ever in doubt as to the "why." The disastrous consequences of these two Bush phrases are that we are encouraged not to look at our foreign policies and as a consequence fail to consider positive acts to rectify such events in the future. Donald A. Wells Medford Email your... Technical questions & comments to: WebMaster Daily Tidings editorial comments & questions to: Editor Visit our other Oregon Newspapers... | Albany Democrat-Herald | Ashland Daily Tidings | Corvallis Gazette-Times | | Lebanon Express | Newport News-Times | Springfield News | Cottage Grove Sentinel | Ashland Daily Tidings 1661 Siskiyou Blvd. Ashland, OR 97520 Telephone 541-482-3456 © Copyright 2001 Lee Northwest Publishing