Is Syria next target for Bush administration?

Chapel Hill Herald; 4/21/03; Tom Munk

Someone recently told me that Bush's inaugural speech should have included the line: " Your long nightmare of peace and prosperity is over."

Under Clinton, we had eight years, filled mostly with peace and prosperity. Now we have endless recession and endless war.

The latest target of the Bush war machine seems to be Syria. The threats, the " evidence," the media war have begun. Now every Syrian passport in Iraq is considered news.

The administration took us to war to kill thousand of Afghanis, leaving the nation in the hands of warlords. Now we've " won" the war in Iraq. Bechtel got a contract, but it remains to be seen whether the intent is to build a democracy or a client state.

All I know for sure now is we succeeded in killing thousands of Iraqis, terrorized an entire nation, allowed the looting of priceless antiquities and destroyed a massive amount of infrastructure.

At the same time, the administration is taking away our civil liberties, damaging families by sending our men and women away on immoral and illegal missions of war, building a massive debt and ignoring human needs at home.

Next a war with Syria? I hope not. I hope Sen. Edwards and Rep. Price will stand up NOW and tell the president to stop his policy of violent " diplomacy." I hope Sen. Dole will also see that North Carolina doesn't want endless war. We want our families back home.

We want some of that peace and prosperity we used to have.