[d-ray657]

142EBC, It appears from your avatar and your screen name that you are one of those individuals who has chosen to serve his country. For that, I thank you. You certainly deserve the consideration to have your ideas considered for their merits without being branded as a right wingnut or the perjorative of the day for those who take a different world view.

I do, however, echo the statements in some of the other replies - we do not advance the cause of liberty by using terrorism as a convenient excuse to violate laws designed to protect personal liberty.

Unfortunately many who would also excuse the violation of constitutional protections in the name of anti-terrorism also define liberty or freedom as the ability to run their businesses any way they please. Therefore any government regulation is deemed over-reaching, while in the same breath government intrusion into private lives is excused.

Another irony is that the people who have championed the necessity of invading Iraq have not been willing to pay the financial cost of the military action. The war has been charged on a credit card issued by the Bank of China, but no one wants to raise the necessary funds to pay the bills (i.e. raise taxes). Clearly the cost of the military action should not all be borne by the men and women who have volunteered for service to the country, but also those who have chosen to earn their living free of personal military obligations. Those of us on whose watch this war was prosecuted should have made the monthly payments up front rather than passing them on to later generations. Immediate financial responsibility for the cost for prosecuting a war against what was a sovereign country might have made more citizens question whether such a war actually advanced the cause of liberty.

Regards,

D-Ray