ISLAND VOICES
Opposition to Bush's policies must be voiced

By Richard S. Miller

Serious-minded folks need to make a clear-eyed, objective appraisal of President Bush's actions and policies before it is too late. The reason is this: With regard to virtually every area he touches, from domestic policy to foreign affairs, his actions can fairly be characterized as potentially disastrous to the well-being of our citizens and to the traditions of our nation and its people.

President Bush pounds the podium as he makes a point during an address in Metairie, La., April 25, 2001. Bush stopped in the New Orleans suburb to campaign for his first tax-relief package. Associated Press library photo

• Foreign Policy: There can be little doubt that Bush's ill-considered speech unnecessarily including North Korea in the "Axis of Evil," then threatening removal and war on Saddam Hussein, caused Kim Jong Il to toss out United Nations inspectors and resume North Korea's nuclear weapons threat in order to protect itself from what he very rationally must have concluded was a threat to remove him and his regime from the world scene.

This error has begun to escalate into a major crisis.

Bush's go-it-alone approach to Iraq, reflecting the anti-U.N. views of the far, far right, has seriously undermined the international rule of law and substituted a new "might makes right" policy that can be cited by any other nation with sufficient power to justify its warlike actions.

The Australian prime minister's threat to use force against its neighbors for "preventive" purposes is just one frightening example. The fact that Bush backed down and submitted the Iraq case to the U.N. Security Council, no doubt because of Secretary of State Colin Powell's insistence, does not erase the example and the words Bush used — or their effect.

Does anyone have an idea of how Bush intends to deal with the massive problems in Iraq and more widely in the Middle East even if the war in Iraq is successful? Recall that it was concern about these problems that led his father to end the Gulf War without ousting Saddam Hussein. Has the younger Bush fully considered the boost anti-American and anti-Israeli terrorism will get if massive bombings of Iraq's civilian population are required?

Bush's unilateral refusal to sign the Kyoto treaty on global warming and the anti-ballistic missile treaty; his refusal to allow the United States to be included in an International Criminal Court (or even to negotiate modifications that might satisfy U.S. concerns, in the case of Kyoto and the court); his imposition of extreme anti-abortion limitations on U.N. institutions dealing with women's health and population; and his actions and words in the Iraq and North Korea situations, have managed to alienate and anger the people of most of the nations we consider our friends and who we will need as allies if we engage in a war against Saddam Hussein.

• Domestic Economic Policy: Bush's tax policies, particularly the elimination of the estate tax and taxation of dividends, can easily be characterized as a revolution against the gains for democracy and governance achieved by the United States in the Revolutionary War!

They are a sure road to an aristocracy of wealth and power that would have horrified our Founding Fathers. For example, just imagine the extremely wealthy citizen whose sole income is dividends from stocks acquiring tax-free millions of dollars every year (paying no income taxes) and then passing the great wealth on to his heirs without being diminished by any estate tax (even one with a high deductible to allow small-business owners to pass on their businesses intact to their heirs).

Because wealth equals power, especially at the ballot box and in our legislatures, it will not be long before we and our offspring are governed entirely and exclusively by the very rich.

Eliminating the income tax on dividends will also seriously undermine the ability of companies to finance their operations with debt rather than equity, and, worse, will virtually eliminate the ability of cities that rely on money from tax-exempt municipal bonds to pay for capital improvements and other important projects.

Furthermore, his proposals for tax relief, particularly if we go to war with Iraq, will recreate a monstrous budget deficit that will eventually weaken all governmental programs.

• Environment: Bush's environmental policies, reflected in his withdrawal from the Kyoto treaty, his push for drilling for oil in fragile areas of Alaska, his extremely weak policy on fuel-guzzling vehicles, and his administration's consistent disdain for scientific evidence of global warming — puts the nation and world at great risk of environmental disaster, threatens public health, and alienates millions of people in the United States and abroad who are rightly and deeply concerned.

Perhaps equally disturbing, his failure to seriously promote the development of alternative energy sources will serve to keep our economy tightly in the grip of those not-so-friendly nations that control the Middle East's oil.

• Constitutional rights and open government: John Ashcroft, our attorney general, appears to be an extremist who has demonstrated a willingness, under the broad cover of national security, to sacrifice important due-process rights, even holding suspects who are U.S. citizens secretly without providing legal counsel.

The president and vice president have shown disdain for the idea of open government, and refuse even to divulge whom they consult in the making of national policy. The president seems committed to appointing jurists who will support the right wing's religious agenda, particularly in reversing a woman's right to choose, and are committed to breaching the wall between church and state, most recently by providing government financial support to religious institutions which serve charitable purposes.

There are, of course, many other examples of serious problems with the Bush administration and its policies. For example, I personally entertain serious doubt whether Social Security and Medicare, as vital social and health programs, will survive the Bush presidency.

And patients' rights may go further down the tube, particularly because Bush's pal, Sen. Bill Frist, the new majority leader, owes most of his fortune to his holdings in Columbia/HCA, a rapacious hospital-acquiring organization founded by his father and run by his brother, that has recently (and with curious timing) agreed to pay $880 million in a settlement with the Justice Department of a massive healthcare-fraud case.

It is understandable that since 9/11, President Bush's actions have usually only been subject to muted criticism in the mainline media. In time of national crisis, the usual partisan bickering that better times permits should perhaps be muted in the interest of national security.

But in most, if not all, of the areas I have just described, serious questions have arisen concerning the nation's most important and/or fundamental values. True patriotism, not the jingoistic kind, requires that thinking citizens stand up and express their views on issues such as these, even in the face of the war on terrorism.

We must speak up in order to ensure that the nation and its most important values emerge safely from the present crises of terrorism and security.

Law Professor Emeritus Richard S. Miller is the vice chairman and former chairman of the Honolulu Community-Media Council.