A recent letter writer complained about those ungrateful Iraqis who after all we’ve done for them prefer security over freedom. He copied an ancient quote to bolster his criticism of the proclivity of silly humans proclivity to make such choices.

Tacitus is another ancient worth quoting. He said, “The Romans make a desert and call it peace.”

The U.S. makes a desert and calls it liberation. In 1809 the George Washington of Latin America, Simon Bolivar summed it up in words he couldn’t know were not only to true

for those days but amazingly prescient for centuries: “The United States seems destined by providence to spread misery throughout the Americas in the name of liberty.”

It won’t go on forever, though. We will wake up.

Sidney Stock

Bellevue