Recent "Letter to the Editor(s)": Atchison Daily Globe, Leavenworth Times, Oskaloosa Independent, Valley Falls Vindicator, Lawrence Journal World

It was always a law enforcement issue no matter what our elected leaders called it immediately after September 11, 2001.

The dubious and inaccurately titled "War on Terrorism" in the last five years has not produced the culprits or cultivated the necessary international support to infiltrate the organizations and bring them to justice in the United States. Retired Colonel Lawrence B. Wilkerson, who served for over three years as the chief of staff to former Secretary of State Colin Powell has repeatedly described the inept masterminds behind the disasterous policy as a secretive "cabal."

He wrote in an October 25, 2005 Los Angeles Times op-ed:

"Today, we have a president whose approval rating is 38% and a vice president who speaks only to Rush Limbaugh and assembled military forces. We have a Secretary of Defense presiding over the death-by-a-thousand-cuts of our overstretched armed forces (no surprise to ignored dissenters such as former Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric Shinseki or former Army Secretary Thomas White)."

Veteran CIA analysts, international geologists, scientists and some of the most senior retired officers of the U.S. armed forces have repeatedly warned that the next strategic step of the cabal is the bombing of Iran and the catastrophic worldwide economic and geopolitical consequences the air attack will unleash.

It took over four years and at least $400 billion for President Bush to publicly hint that oil was the primary motivation of this military strategy. The nation was "addicted to oil" he said during his 2006 State of the Union address, provoking the anger of denial of tens of millions of Americans who don't like being addicted to anything.

His admission is too little and too late with historic record breaking profits for the transnational energy corporations and without a massive nationwide World War Two push toward true energy independence programs in this country. Now the empire is at stake.

9/11 was a challenge for law enforcement not more and more endless wars for world oil reserves.

Michael Caddell