PRESIDENTIAL DEBATE

Bush Deserves Re-Election

p

resident
George W.
Bush is a good
wartime leader who
understands our
nation's great chal-
lenges and is imple-
menting strong and
ERIC J.
appropriate measures
ROSENBERG to advance the war on
Special to the terror.
Jewish News
This election is
about American
national security, the
war on terror (and the states that sup-
port terror) and effective and positive
wartime leadership. It is in our interest
as Americans and as Jews to re-elect
President Bush on Nov. 2.
The world changed Sept. 11, 2001.
No longer could we treat as ordinary
crimes acts of terror against American
citizens. Under the president's leader-
ship, and with the help of an able for-
eign policy team, we embarked on a war

Eric J. Rosenberg is a Farmington

Hills-based mortgage industry executive.
He and his wife live in Farmington
Hills. He is a periodic contributor to the
Jewish News and other publications on
matters of political interest.

on terror that has begun to show divi-
dends.
President Bush, in his Sept. 20, 2001
speech to a joint session of Congress,
made clear that this would be a long,
painful, multi-stage war. He said that it
would prove critical to the survival of
our way of life. He was correct and has
pursued a path that is advancing the
cause of freedom. When American secu-
rity, safety and tikkun olam (improving
the world) merge together, the mission is
just.
Afghanistan no longer has the Taliban
in power and soon will hold its first
meaningful elections. Its women are free
of mandatory burkas (Muslim religious
garb), its girls are free to go to school
and its boys no longer must attend the
madrassas (Wahhabi Muslim schools) of
the Taliban era.
My heart breaks when I think of the
approximately 1,000 American dead in
the Iraq action, as well as the dead
British, Iraqis and others. Nevertheless, I
am grateful that former Iraqi dictator
Saddam Hussein has been toppled. We
must never forget that he killed hun-
dreds of thousands of people during his
reign of terror; this does not include
those who were maimed, mutilated and
or raped by agents of his regime. No

longer must our pilots be at risk from
being shot down while patrolling no-
fly zones.
It is widely recognized that
President Bush showed a steely
resilience, sorely needed in a wartime
commander in chief, in refusing to
buckle to international pressure not to
remove Hussein from power. More
subtly, the president's conduct of for-
eign affairs has yielded a peace divi-
dend: Libya peacefully abandoned its
weapons of mass destruction program.
The Liberian ex-president, Charles
Taylor, left the country under
American pressure. Syria, while still a
hostile nation, recently has capitulated
President Bush
to American pressure to move to seal
its porous (with respect to weapons and
John Kerry's "nuanced" and pro-United
terrorists) border with Iraq.
Nations policy would never have per-
mitted him to lead in this direction,
even if one assumes that he shares
Marginalizing Arafat
President Bush's support for Israel.
President Bush, in conjunction with
Had Sen. Kerry been president, it is
the Israeli government, has ostracized
safe to assume, based on his numerous
and marginalized Palestinian Authority
and sometimes contradictory policy pro-
President Yasser Arafat. In doing so, he
nouncements, that our world would
has stood up to the United Nations, the
include the following scenarios:
European Union, Jordan, Egypt and
• Hussein still would be dictator of
Saudi Arabia — and even to British
Iraq, with U.N. sanctions increasingly
Prime Minister Tony Blair, a close friend
disregarded by most nations.
of the United States. Massachusetts Sen.

Kerry: The Better Choice

I

know George W.
Bush. I know his
record and I
know the next four
years of a Bush
administration would
bring more of the
same.
More of the same in
GERALD H.
Iraq: young men and
ACKER
Special to the women dying without
Jewish News a plan or understand-
ing of how to get out.
More excuses on why
we're fighting the war in Iraq instead of
finding Osama bin Laden and those
really responsible for 9-11. More of the
same on the economy. More deficits,
more people without health insurance
and prescription coverage.

:IN

10/8

2004

48

Gerald H. Acker is a partner in the
Southfield law firm of Goodman Acker
PC and lives in Huntington Woods with
his wife and two children. He recently
completed 16 years as a board member
and officer of Hebrew Free Loan and is
a member of Congregation Beth Shalom
in Oak Park.

Four more years of George Bush will
bring more children being left behind in
school without adequate funding. Four
more years of the worst job creation
record since the Great Depression. Four
more years of Bush will bring more
assaults on a woman's right to choose,
more attacks on the separation of
church and state. Four more years will
bring three new Supreme Court justices
who vote just the same as Antonin
Scalia and Clarence Thomas. Four more
years will bring us more increases in
Medicare costs for seniors and more
attacks on Social Security. Four more
years will bring more assaults on the
environment and more reliance on for-
eign oil.
I'm voting for a change in the direc-
tion of our country. More than ever, we
need to change the course of America:
John Kerry is the right man with the
righ t experience to make that change.
If Israel is your issue, Kerry should be
your choice. Know that AIPAC gives
him a 100 percent rating. Know that
Sen. Joseph Lieberman says that John
Kerry has a "flawless pro-Israel voting
record in his two decades of public serv-
ice; that John Kerry comes to this job

with more experience in foreign poli-
cy than any other president in recent
memory, and his detailed familiarity
with Israel's struggle for safety and
security will serve to protect Israel at
every juncture." -
If your issue is the-war in Iraq and
on terror, Kerry should be your
choice. He understands that America,
working alone, taking 90 percent of
the casualties and paying 90 percent
of the costs, does not provide a strate-
gy for securing Iraq. He understands
that new leadership in America, con-
vening a summit with our allies, tak-
ing the American face off this occupa-
tion, securing the borders, spending
Senator Kerry
the money necessary for rebuildin g
security, training adequate numbers of
Bush has presided over an economy that
Iraq's for military and police will lead to
has lost 1.5 million jobs and has gone
a safer, more secure Iraq and allow our
from trillion-dollar surpluses to the
soldiers to come home. He understands
largest deficits in our country's history.
that Osama bin Laden was the one who
The last four years, 5 million people
attacked us on Sept. 11.
have descended into poverty; now, 45
million people are without health insur-
ance.
Record Deficits
Kerry knows how to fix these prob-
Know that a Kerry administration will
lems. He will cut taxes for businesses
clean up the mess that Bush and his
that create jobs here in America. He will
policies have created. The last four years,