Published in Home News & Tribune - Central Jersey on 07/25/05

With the media frenzy going on right now about Karl Rove's ""Leakgate" scandal, the American public needs to make sure they don't lose sight of the big-picture issue involved here.

When Karl Rove went after Ambassador Wilson and his wife, his intent was to discredit the evidence that would indicate that Saddam Hussein did not have weapons of mass destruction. Keeping the public in a constant state of fear about this issue was necessary for Bush's re-election.

Why else would President Bush's chief political adviser, the man whose job it was to re-elect the President, risk breaking the law to eliminate the main obstacle to the war?

With no WMD found, more and more Americans are coming to realize that the enormous sacrifice our heroic soldiers are being asked to make was for nothing more than to re-elect George Bush.

If Americans believed in the righteousness of the cause, they would support it with their whole heart and the administration would not see enlistments plummeting.

The falling support for this war will continue its downward spiral as Americans are exposed to more of the details of the manipulation of public opinion by President Bush.

President Bush's raw political maneuvering to win re-election has led to the death and maiming of thousands of idealistic and honorable Americans. He needs to be held accountable for what he had done.