What's really going on in Washington?

Editor,

Bill Frist recently returned from Afghanistan and stated that it is time to bring the Taliban into the Afghani government. Aren't these the same guys we went to war with about five years ago to kick them out of that government? The administration is also now saying that amnesty should be given to the Sunni insurgents in Iraq, some of the same people we have been fighting against for more than three and a half years?

Also, the prestigious PBS Frontline program has recently reported that about 5 billion dollars has been sent to Pakistan as military aid over the past five years. We now learn that the Pakistani government has entered into agreements with the Pakistani warlords to use some of this money to pay their debts to the Taliban and Al Qaeda on both sides of the Pakistan-Afghanistan border, again, the same people we have been fighting against? The Bush administration has not refuted this report.

With "State of Denial," "Fiasco," "Hubris," "Assassins' Gate," and other books now in print, the failed State of Iraq in reality on the ground, and both the Afghanistan and Pakistan governments on the edge of disaster and chaos, the Bush administration's (mis)adventure in the Mideast has not brought democracy and freedom as promised, but instead has brought lawlessness, insurgency, economic collapse, death and destruction.

The national debt tripled in the past six years to nearly nine trillion dollars to pay for the unilateral, pre-emptive war in Iraq. At the same time we are paying for tax cuts for the rich, with 45 percent of that debt being financed with borrowed money from China, Japan, South Korea, India, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, and others.

I also believe that I would be remiss if I did not mention the most recent scandals coming out of Washington, DC almost on a daily basis, including the congressional page scandal, and the subsequent cover-up, the Burns-Abramoff, Tom Delay, Bob Ney, Duke Cunningham. and now Curt Weldon scandals. The current political environment says much about the misuse, abuse and arrogance of power.

Wyman J. McDonald

Ronan