Dear Editor,

Consider this recollection of recent history.

When a democratic nation became the victim of a terrorist attack, the president declared a war on terrorism. Legislation was pushed through that suspended constitutional freedoms. The president also proposed a new “Homeland” security agency, consolidating the actions of previously independent police, border, and investigative agencies.

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The president accused another nation of aiding terrorists and claimed the right to strike pre-emptively in self-defense. He delivered an ultimatum to the leader of the other nation, then invaded the country, unseating its government and replacing it with new leadership. Homeland corporations began to take over the country’s resources.

Responding to international criticism of the attack and invasion, the president declared, “We come as liberators!” Since national unity was essential, those questioning the president were suggested to be aiding the enemy by failing to support their valiant men in uniform.

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President Bush?

No … it was Hitler, who used the terrorist attack on the German Parliament building as an excuse to seize Austria and became Germany’s most beloved and popular leader.

Like President Bush, he empowered corporations, stifled dissent, stripped people of constitutional rights, and created an illusion of security through ever-expanding war.

The American Heritage Dictionary’s definition of the form of government the German democracy had become under Hitler: “Fascism: A system of government that exercises a dictatorship of the extreme right, typically through the merging of state and business, together with belligerent nationalism.”

If you think it can’t happen here, you’re not paying attention.

Sue Gray

Carbondale