I could understand former Congressman Bob Barr’s thinking when he wrote the following recently:

Voting for president used to be so easy, at least for a conservative. There was the Republican candidate. You knew he generally stood for lower taxes, less government spending, giving fewer powers to the government, lower deficits and a zealous regard for individual privacy.

Then, there was the Democrat. You knew he generally stood for higher taxes, more government and deficit spending, and a zealous regard for civil liberties.

Throughout my own presidential voting history, the choices have rarely, if ever, been agonizing. Nixon vs. McGovern? Carter vs. Reagan? Reagan-Mondale? Dukakis, a Massachusetts liberal? Clinton? Al Gore? Ah, the good ol’ days. Each of those races presented clear choices, easily resolved.

Now we have the election of 2004. For the first time in my voting life, the choice in the race for president isn’t so clear And, among true conservatives, I’m not alone.

No, Bob, you’re not alone. Plenty of us are going through the same struggles right now.

Last night, Al Jazeera aired a video tape of Osama Bin Laden making a few comments about life, war, elections, etc. Transcript. What amazes me is how stupid my former conservative allies have become over this whole “war on terrorism”. World Magazine’s Blog links to an article in the New York Times (how’s that for strange bedfellows) saying that the key to war is a president who understands “Which candidate fundamentally gets the evil represented by [Bin Laden]?”

No one denies that Bin Laden is evil. I believe he’s evil. I believe the attacks on 9/11 were evil. I believe that God probably has special place in hell reserved for Bin Laden. However, that doesn’t change the fact that our response to evil shouldn’t be blind rage… rage, yes… but not blind rage. Listening to the words of the enemy does not validate their position, but it is necessary in order to discern whether we’re using the right tactics to deal with the enemy.

It’s not a “liberal” position to actually listen to the Bin Laden tapes and question whether he hates America because, as Bush claims, “American stands for freedom.” Bin Laden asks the question I asked years ago! If Bin Laden hates freedom, why didn’t he attack Sweden, or Switzerland? He didn’t attack us because we have freedom… he attacked us because we blindly support Israel!

“But after it became unbearable and we witnessed the oppression and tyranny of the America/Israeli coalition against our people in Palestine and Lebanon, it came to my mind.” – Bin Laden

Whether or not you agree with out support of Israel, at no time during the public discourse regarding terrorism has Israel even been mentioned. The Arab world has been at war with Israel for years… we’re an ally with Israel. Therefore, it stands to reason that we’ve been at war with the Arab world long before 9/11. Bush doesn’t understand this… or maybe he does, but doesn’t think that American’s really need to know.

One other quick comment. My guess is the reason why Bin Laden says that it doesn’t matter who is elected, but how America changes their policy is because there is no reason to think that Kerry will not continue the blind support of Israel. I don’t see our foreign policy changing anytime in the near future, unless America realizes the true cause of Arab terrorism, and we start to make changes.