BY KAREN WEBB

Dear Mr. President,

Do you believe in the rule of law or not? Do you believe some should obey and others don’t have to? I recall you being very critical of George W. Bush locking people up indefinitely without charges, but you are leaving them locked up without charges and I see no difference.

To say you are different because you aren’t doing it as an exercise of your inherent right as commander-in-chief, as Bush did, then you must say what right you are using. You were a professor of constitutional law and you have no answer. The prisoners are still in the same cells and being treated in the same way.

Refusing to define what basis you are using, and claiming when-you-see-it-you-will-know is worse than George W. Bush. No matter how stupid his definitions and justifications, he at least made an effort.

You were very critical of Bush when he did it and now you are doing exactly the same thing. Is it that we are supposed to just trust you on this, because I don’t. I will not accept the idea that you claim the same rights as Bush, but for a different reason than Bush, while you refuse to give the reason. That is much worse than Bush.

At least Bush never actually claimed to give a crap about civil rights, but what you did makes you much worse and much more dangerous in many ways.

I didn’t trust Bush and right now, on this issue, I don’t trust you because there is no difference in treatment. Saying they are no longer enemy combatants is purely an effort in semantics.

Do you have your own version of John Yoo or will you be writing it yourself?

Doing it and defining it later, depending on how well it is taken by the country, is way too Bush-like.

We must wait for civil rights while you fight the war on the economy is no different than Bush passing the Patriot Act while at war.

– Karen Webb lives in Moore, OK and is a regular contributor to The Oklahoma Observer