[...] When I sit down and think about the horrors that comprised life in Iraq over the last few decades -- I mean really sit down and think about it -- I am more and more appalled and angered by the behavior of the privileged class in this country over the last few months. Bush is the terrorist? Really?? It doesn't take much effort to spout the party line, of course, and it is so much easier to simply believe what one likes, or indulge in political stereotyping, than it is to actually look for the truth. The resulting intellectual dishonesty of the Tim Robbins, Martin Sheens, Susan Sarandons and Barbra Streisands of the world is just breathtaking -- are their children in danger of being summarily executed by government thugs because they chose to speak out? Is there really anything about the consequences of speaking out in America that can possibly equate with the slaughter, the terror, the brutality this Iraqi family suffered? How do you survive for 20 years without knowing what happened to your child? How do you go about daily life when all around you are the images of the man responsible for destroying your family? How do you quiet the hatred and loathing that twists in your heart every time you see a government official or military uniform? How do you hold on to what is essentially you when you are powerless -- powerless to protect your children, powerless to bring their killers to justice?

This article brought me to tears. I cannot begin to comprehend the evil that was Saddam Hussein. Oh, I see the proof, and I see the complicity, and I see the pain, but I cannot comprehend it. And I cannot understand the hearts of people who make it the equivalent of honest political disagreement in the richest, most powerful and most generous democratic country in the world.

So I will remember -- I must remember -- what they said, what they stood for. And I will remind them -- in my own small way -- every time I don't buy a movie ticket, or watch a television program, or buy a book, or support their favorite charity. Of course these people are entitled to believe and say whatever they choose. But it matters -- it matters enormously -- what we, as a culture, choose to support. So I choose not to support people who cannot make a distinction between authoritarian regimes and the freedoms we enjoy as Americans, whether our president is Republican or Democrat. [...]