On Sept. 24, a group of Napans will march in Washington D.C., urging our government to begin steps now to stop the war in Iraq. Although our banner will read "Make Wine, not War," make no mistake. We are firmly committed to the war against terrorism. We are just tired of being misled by a president who insists that the war he has mounted in Iraq is a response to Osama bin Laden and the terrorist cells he has fueled throughout the world. In fact, our president has weakened our defenses and strengthened the terrorist network by diverting the attention and military power needed to fight the real enemy, choosing instead to mislead this country into following his command into one of the greatest and most costly fiascoes of all time. This at a time when this country's own infrastructure, schools, health care for its citizens and federal and state emergency responses, as witnessed by the recent tragic events in New Orleans, are at a dangerous low.

A few weeks ago the president likened himself to Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his perseverance in World War II. It was an unfortunate comparison. Roosevelt had a single-minded response and went after the attacker, Japan, with a vengeance. He didn't make the mistake of attacking another country, allowing the Japanese to regroup and strengthen their military "cells" for deadlier use in another day.

In addition, President Bush's linkage to World War II battles for the fate of democracy, is, like so many of his comparisons, another stretch. Only after his reasons for attacking Iraq fell short, when it was proved that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, did his theme change. Now, he reasoned, we were there to promote democracy. I wonder how many people in this country would have supported a full-fledged invasion of Iraq for the reasons of "establishing democracy." And most annoying is his ongoing slippery insinuation that the war in Iraq and the war on terrorism are somehow linked.

When I think of all the inept invasion tactics that this bumbling administration has effected (They couldn't establish order and take charge; they didn't guard the ammunition dumps nor the art treasures.), they let Hussein's army disband, they failed to seal the borders allowing al-Qaida terrorists to stream into the country, I could sit down and cry for the seemingly insolvable carnage and mess we have created for the people of Iraq. Sure, Hussein was a very bad man. But this?

The Republican party, once the party of common sense and fiscal responsibility, has allowed itself to be hijacked by a group called "neo-conservatives." Their name implies that they are different from everyday conservatives and I believe it to be so. The march in Washington, in addition to its anti-Iraq war theme, will be a march against the abuse of our constitutional government by this group of militaristic, expansionist planners who occupy the oval office with President Bush and who do not subscribe to commonly accepted civilized laws of the Geneva Convention, as witnessed by the atrocious acts that have gone unsupervised under their command.

In addition, the public is often left in the dark about the neoconservative intended use and abuse of American power. No one in the administration will discuss how many military bases this group has planned for the Middle East and Iraq. And frequently a hint is made that we may be contemplating invading other countries in the area, such as Iran. These people have turned our democracy into one that is hated and feared throughout the world, even by those who once looked to us for inspiration and guidance.

We will be marching in Washington to begin an end to the illegal war in Iraq, as envisioned by the neo-conservatives; to restart a full-fledged war on terrorism that has been woefully abandoned by the current administration; and to bring back this country's model of democracy and the rule of law that were for many golden years the envy of the world.

(Hinkle lives in Napa.)