Bush administration on the offensive

To the editor;

The Bush administration, in response to the president's plummeting approval rating, has gone on the offensive. Administration officials have lashed out at critics in a vain attempt to justify the war in Iraq and restore the president's credibility. President Bush pathetically used Veterans Day to suggest that anyone wanting a timetable for troop withdrawal was hurting troop morale. The administration has accused anyone critical of the president's rush to war of being unpatriotic and a liar. Administration officials have shown a willingness to say or do anything (in the case of the CIA leak) to discredit and utterly obliterate any opposition or criticism.

The politics of the Bush administration are accurately summed up in a pamphlet given by Tom Delay to every Republican representative during the 2000 presidential election. The pamphlet, written by conservative activist David Horowitz, is titled "The Art of Political War." It states, "In political warfare you do not fight just to prevail in an argument, but to destroy the enemy's fighting ability. In political wars the aggressor usually prevails. Politics is a war of position. In a war there two sides: friends and enemies. Your task is to define yourself as the friend of as large a constituency as possible, while defining your opponent as the enemy whenever you can."

CHRIS SIEBERT, Cape Girardeau