“America,” writes Butler Shaffer at http://lewrockwell.com, “is in terrible straits. It is no exaggeration to suggest that it is well into an irreversible state of collapse. The national government is ruled by psychopaths, with wars being fabricated out of lies, forged ‘documents,’ and other deceptions. Two nations that have not posed any kind of threat to the United States have been singled out for unprovoked attacks.”

And now that the advocates of those wars have become bored with bullying the Iraqi and Afghan people, both Republican and Democratic officials have turned “their attentions to another country that poses no threat to America: Iran.”

Do you really enjoy sharing complicity in these crimes? If not, perhaps it is time to let your voice be heard. Yes, you do share complicity in these crimes: You pay for them.

And if you have a son or daughter now taking part in the Iraq or Afghanistan occupations, do let them know that they are participating in war crime; for we have no legitimate reason to have our armed forces in either country.

The reason that many of us are evidently unwilling to openly condemn the savagery that is being perpetrated in our name, suggests Shaffer, may be that “as the current police state continues its growth,” we have become intimidated by the threat of a midnight knock at the front door. Such intimidation was, of course, the purpose of White House aide Ari Fleischer’s 2001 remark: “People need to watch what they say, watch what they do.”

Yet the truth is, it is the government that needs to watch what it does, for otherwise America is unlikely to recover its bearings in time to reverse moral and intellectual free-fall. “In the absence of a fundamental transformation in thought, and the nature of social systems,” writes Shaffer, America is headed for the same dust bin of history that has been the final destination of all other war-lusting empires.

There was a time when a sufficient number of America’s people stood shoulder to shoulder to face down a powerful well-armed government. If America is to survive, Americans may have to do that again.

Neither Barack Obama nor John McCain have a clue. Either one will just give you more of the same. Ron Paul understands the problem. In short, if you can’t vote for Paul, don’t vote at all.

Jack Dennon

Warrenton