In this Annapolis, Maryland, State House, oldest in the nation still in legislative use, General George Washington resigned his commission before the Continental Congress in December, 1783. Here on January 14, 1784, Congress ratified the Treaty of Paris to end the Revolutionary War; and on May 7, 1784, Congress appointed Thomas Jefferson minister plenipotentiary. From here, September 14, 1786, The Annapolis Convention issued the call to the states that led to the Constitutional Convention. Americans have a glorious history. We did some things wrong, but mostly we worked toward getting it right.



Today we've got another kind of problem.

REVENGE SHOULDN’T EVER BE A REASON TO START A WAR

...because he tried to kill my dad!”
--This from the president who likes to say (especially to the one-third of the nation who are characterized as “the religious right”) that he is a born-again Christian. The New Testament record of the life of Jesus leaves no doubt that he was a man of peace. Jesus had specific things to say about how we are to respond to our enemies. He encouraged his followers to love their enemies and not to seek revenge against them and not to impose suffering on them.

George Bush got his war started by convincing Congress that Saddam Hussein controlled an arsenal of weapons of mass destruction and that he was an immediate threat to the United States. Congress and the nation subsequently learned that Saddam has no weapons of mass destruction. The president, with no basis in fact, also declared that Saddam Hussein was working with Al Queda and therefore was partly responsible for the bombing of the World Trade Center towers. Later he said one of the reasons he wanted to get Saddam was that the Iraqi leader had made a plan to kill his father.

The cowboy president has unleashed a Texas-style international range war that has spread out of control. This president, who wasn’t legitimately elected to his office the first time, obviously wanted to be a war president...probably because his advisors convinced him that presidents who seek reelection are more likely to be successful if the country is at war. He got his war. The cost so far is more than 655,000 Iraqi (Washington Post, October 11) and more than 3000 American lives lost and many more destroyed.

The range war in Iraq has re-ignited the flames of centuries-old tribal feuds and religious wars. Thousands of young Muslims all over the world who are looking for purpose in their lives have joined terrorist movements and are sworn to destroy the United States. For almost a century before Mr. Bush became president, America had been the model of democracy for the world. Waging war in Iraq, and in his war against “terrorism,” he has sought to excuse himself and our country from having to adhere to international laws regarding treatment of prisoners of war. We had been known throughout the world as a nation of laws. Now many who were our friends in the world are not sure that we love and respect law as we said we did. And the president who insisted that he was making us safer has made the whole world less safe for us and for others.