The Bush administration has shamelessly used Sept. 11 to drag our country into a never ending war, even though no war has been declared. Only Congress may declare war. Congress did give President Bush permission to use military force to disarm Iraq if it didn’t comply with U.N. resolutions. Iraq complied with U.N. resolutions, and the U.S. attacked anyway, without provocation and in violation of international laws and treaties.

Now, we find out that the Bush administration has systematically been violating our constitutional rights. No big surprise because the Patriot Act itself is an attack on our rights. Republicans think that we have too many rights to begin with, so they had no problem writing and passing this law.

Now, two years into his second term, President Bush is seeing his approval ratings in free-fall.

So what to do? Easy: attack Iran. I believe that military action against Iran is going to happen soon. There is nothing that the American people seem to love more than a good war. Surely an attack on Iran will raise Bush’s poll numbers.

So, happy New Year, and I hope that everyone is enjoying the destruction of our democracy and our national credibility. Maybe the greeting we should have heard this holiday season is, “Enjoy the war that will never end.”

Judson Duncan, Monmouth