Perhaps the most important question on the minds of "undecided" American voters these days is: who should I entrust the security of the United States to in the coming years, liberals or conservatives? Although I must admit that conservatives have made their fair share of mistakes when it comes to combating terrorism, I think it's also fair to point out that liberals at every level of government have been totally out to lunch in that regard.

In fact, most liberals seem to feel that conservatives are a bigger threat to America than terrorists or the dictatorships that support them, and have exhibited an astounding lack of seriousness where the issue of defeating terrorists is concerned, generally ignoring the true menace we face in order to focus their attentions on the demonization of the Bush administration.

In my opinion, it is crucial that every citizen of this country take a good, hard look at what exactly the two ideological camps have accomplished since the vicious and unprovoked attacks of September 11. 2001, and it is for this reason that I have created the following lists. While they are in no way complete, it is my contention that both are accurately illustrative of the manner in which these groups have chosen to deal with the war on terror over the past four years.

Conservatives
1.) Increased defense and intelligence funding by hundreds of billions of dollars.

2.) Passed the Patriot Act into law.

3.) Created the Department of Homeland Security.

4.) Launched INS 'Operation Tarmac' to investigate businesses and workers in secure areas of U.S. airports, auditing thousands of businesses, investigating hundreds of thousands of employee records, and indicting or arresting thousands of individuals.

5.) Convinced Pakistan to support U.S. military operations in the Middle East.

6.) Invaded Afghanistan, freeing 25 million people from tyranny.

7.) Killed or captured over two thirds of Al—Qaeda's leaders.

8.) Invaded Iraq, freeing another 25 million people from tyranny.

9.) Captured Saddam Hussein, a major supporter of international terrorist organizations.

10.) Frightened Libya into giving up it's weapons of mass destruction programs.

11.) Intimidated Syria into pulling out of Lebanon.

12.) Captured or killed tens of thousands of terrorists across the Middle East.

13.) Prevented further terrorist attacks on U.S. soil since September 11, 2001.

14.) Shut down the nuclear smuggling network of rogue Pakistani scientist Abdul Qadeer Khan.

15.) Cut off hundreds of millions of dollars in global terrorist funding.

16.) Convinced over 60 countries to support the Proliferation Security Initiative, intended to halt the development and smuggling of weapons of mass destruction by rogue nations.

Liberals
1.) Blamed American arrogance and imperialism for the terrorist atrocities of 9/11.

2.) Protested the liberation of Afghanistan and Iraq.

3.) Condemned President Bush as a liar and a warmonger, even though the intelligence he used to justify the invasion of Iraq was the very same intelligence used by liberals to justify calling for Hussein's overthrow in 1998.

4.) Sided with corrupt, anti—American members of the U.N. who had made illegal arms and oil deals with Iraq, and actively blocked support for the U.S.—led war effort.

5.) Condemned American servicemen and women as Nazis.

6.) Voted against necessary U.S. military funding. Note: at least one of them voted for the funding, before he voted against it.

7.) Actively sought to afford unlawful enemy combatants the unprecedented right to sue our government in federal court over their internment.

8.) Referred to the Iraq conflict as "Bush's Vietnam" and a "quagmire", calling for the immediate retreat of our forces, even though doing so would negate everything our military has accomplished thus far, and leave millions of innocent Iraqis at the mercy of mass murderers.

9.) Accepted massive contributions from organizations such as Move—on.org and International Answer, which have been used almost exclusively to undermine U.S. war efforts.

10.) Excused the theft and destruction by former Clinton national security adviser Sandy Berger, of highly classified documents which should have been made available to the 9/11 Commission during it's investigation into U.S. intelligence failures.

11.) Voted to elect an admitted war criminal to the position of Commander in Chief of our armed forces, while simultaneously condemning the imagined war crimes of the current administration.

12.) Insisted that Saddam Hussein was not a threat to the United States, even though his regime attempted to assassinate former President George H. W. Bush, gave safe harbor and training to Al—Qaeda operatives, offered monetary incentives to the families of potential Palestinian suicide bombers, and had definitive connections to many other terrorist organizations throughout the Middle East, including Hamas and Hezbollah.

13.) Actively sought to afford unlawful enemy combatants the same protections under the Geneva Conventions that legitimate soldiers enjoy, even though those conventions expressly exclude such individuals from those protections. (see combatant status, Geneva Conventions)

14.) Called for the United States to relinquish control of its armed forces, and the anti—terror war effort as a whole, to the U.N., which oversaw the Oil—For—Food Program, the single largest international monetary scandal on record.

15.) Hailed Michael Moore as a hero for producing the movie 'Fahrenheit 9/11', which will go down in history as one of the most deceitful, Hitler—esque propaganda films ever made.

16.) Proposed building the "International Freedom Center" at Ground Zero in Manhattan, which would have included a multi—cultural, high—tech media presentation about such issues as Native American genocide, and the lynching of blacks and cross—burnings in the southern United States.

Now, I know what a lot of you "moderates" out there are thinking. How come this guy hasn't mentioned any of the positive things the left has done to help fight terrorism? Well, the answer to that question is fairly simple really... there are none! Aside from initially going along with several conservative anti—terror proposals, which they turned their backs on as soon as a few opinion polls suggested that the general outrage over 9/11 was beginning to wear off, left—wingers have proposed nothing in the way of realistic anti—terror plans since the twin towers collapsed.

Sure, liberals have been more than willing to spotlight every bump in the road we've encountered in the war so far, but the terms 'constructive criticism' and 'viable alternatives' have been removed from their vocabulary by people like Howard Dean, George Soros, and Al Franken, and no one on the left side of the aisle is in any hurry to reincorporate them into the leftist lexicon.

No matter what you think about individuals like myself, who embrace a staunchly conservative ideology, there is no doubt that folks like me are taking the terrorist threat to our way of life far more seriously than any Air America fan ever has, and there isn't a single right—winger who would advocate the retreat of our armed forces in the face of tyranny.

Are conservatives imperfect? You bet we are. Are Liberals imperfect? Hell yeah, but when was the last time one of them admitted it without some sort of qualification? I submit to you that left—wingers almost always make excuses for their bad behavior, just as they almost always rationalize the acts of violent criminals and terrorists, justifying the wicked deeds of society's most despicable creatures at the expense of their victims.

Can you remember a time when a conservative did that? I can't.

Edward L. Daley is the owner of the Daley Times—Post