Bob Squaglia of Seattle in a Seattle Times Letter to the Editors November 24 laid it on the line regarding the tragic silence of religious leaders concerning the Iraq War:

"Joe Colgan's `The Silence of the Shepherds: Religious leaders Must Speak Up' Times guest commentary (November 21) regarding the silence of Archbishop Alexander J. Burnett of Seattle on the `Misbegotten War' in Iraq reminded me again of the image I believe the world sees when it thinks of America.  It is a picture of a large man in an ill fitting suit with a red, white and blue top hat holding an atomic detonator in one hand and a fistful of dollars in the other."

Joining Bob Squaglia in wondering why religious leaders are not speaking out against the Iraq War is David Kannas of Seattle in the same November 24 Seattle Times Letters to the Editors.  Kannas made some relevant and cogent points:

"We have been bogged in the Iraq quagmire for far too long, with few voices from the pulpit speaking out against it.  There are various reasons for this: I maintain the primary reason is fear.

Apparently many people in the United States think the U.S. Bush Republican regime did no wrong invading Iraq.

However, the polls prove the majority of citizens in the U.S.A. believe Bush and his Republican-led Congress are doing the wrong thing in Iraq and want the killing to end.

Over 3,800 U.S. service personnel came home in flag-draped coffins seldom shown on TV.

55,000 combatants and non-combatants are wounded.

The reason why the U.S. is in such a quagmire in Iraq is simply because neither Bush nor his frightful Republican Administration have ever had the common decency to admit that going to Iraq was a horrifying mistake, just like going into Vietnam.

The Republicans must acknowledge what the entire world knows.  The American public was tragically misled by the tainted media blitz.  We were told with Bush's dramatic State of the Union propaganda pitch that the United States was under threat from "weapons of mass destruction."  Saddam was threatening us and Condoleezza Rice was conjuring up the grave tragedy of a "giant mushroom cloud" enveloping America.

If a child in school tells a lie, some teachers insist that the child write the truth a hundred times on a blackboard to impress upon the child as well as the rest of the class the importance of telling the truth.  

Not once has George Bush or the misleading Bush Administration acknowledged the terrible consequences of blatant misrepresentations followed by a bloody trail.  This trail now consists of 22,000 U.S. service personnel injured along with the deaths of 3,014 U.S. service personnel.

George Bush, how desperate you, Karl Rove, and Dick Cheney are as this bitter and divisive 2006 campaign season draws to a close.  

When all else fails, as your mentor Rove knows, following lessons from his political patron saint Richard Nixon, when all else fails hurl all the mud possible at your opponents and hope enough sticks to achieve some slimy political victories.

Now John Kerry is the convenient target after making a comment relating to getting a good education or getting stuck in Ira    q.  Immediately you used words like "sickening" and "disgusting" pertaining to a comment you claimed denigrated the educational levels of fighting men and women in Iraq.

This is just the latest in a series of lies that you and your Republican partners in crime and destruction have unearthed.  The first thing one does in evaluating any comment is to place it in its most reasonable context.  Kerry has been supporting America's troops while lamenting the policies that put them in harm's way, attributing them to poor judgment, i.e., demonstrating a need for additional education.