"Freedom" and "liberty" mean unbridled capitalism.

Editor,

The self-appointed totalitarians of whom George Bush spoke today are himself, his associates, and his constituency -- the "have mores" in his words, the 400 or so families and the 1,000 or so multinational corporations who own 90% of the wealth on this planet, control the destinies of 6 billion people, and decide where and when the next economic and military catastrophe will occur.

The Islamic crazies of whom George Bush spoke are, like the vast majority of humanity -- including those well-paid American workers fortunate enough to have a seat in the lifeboat but who are adrift on a polluted and desolate sea -- victims of the liberal capitalist world order. These particular victims unfortunately are constituted emotionally, culturally, and intellectually to struggle against it using the most primitive, destructive, negative, and crazy thought processes and means.

Caught in the cross-fire between the multinational ruling class and hot-headed maniacs who like to blow things up are ordinary people. "Freedom" and "liberty" don't mean the same thing to us as they do to George Bush. He is right when he says the bombers are fighting against freedom and liberty. They are. They're fighting against the freedom and liberty he means, namely the military and economic domination of this planet by a small number of extremely rich, extremely powerful, and utterly ruthless capitalists.

If sane, ordinary working people were to educate ourselves to the truth of the capitalist world order, we could conceivably change it, using constructive means, incidentally saving the bombers from the domination that they fear and saving ourselves from being blown up by bombers on top of everything else we must endure. It's a long road from liberal capitalist authorianism to social justice. Americans don't even know what capitalism is. The truth is "well hid". But it is essential to understand that the "war on terror" does not reduce to a choice between bombers with strap-on vests versus bombers in F-16's.