Many of us could have written the president’s recent speech in advance. Other justifications for attacking Iraq having failed, “war on terrorism” was the obvious card to play, despite a lack of evidence linking al Qaida with Hussein.

As columnist R.Cort Kirkwood noted Sept. 12, terrorism is a continuing plague – not like war with a specific enemy and an eventual end.

After Sept. 11, Bush strategist Karl Rove’s brilliant inspiration of war on terrorism provided the special authority of a wartime president. The plan was prepared in advance as part of Project for the New American Century, featuring transformation of the Middle East, regime change in Iraq being the opener. Drawn up by Vice President Cheney and others in the ’90s, and updated in September 2000, it was readily adopted by Bush as foreign policy.

An item in the Sept. 7, 2002, New York Times included remarks of Andrew Card Jr., the White House chief of staff, that opening this campaign must wait until after Labor Day, because “… from a marketing point of view, you don’t introduce new products in August …” From September on, all Bush’s public pronouncements argued dangers from Iraq.

We went into and out of weapons inspections, into and out of the Security Council and into Iraq alone, except for Great Britain.

Now we’re asking others to help pick up the pieces and pay the bill, but without relinquishing political control.

No amount of PR about “national defense” can hide the truth any longer.

Dorothy E. Prince, Auburn