I shudder to think about Mary Burau's version of the "American dream" (Feb. 26 T.O. Acorn letters, "Conservatives have nothing to offer the country.")

She cites the Bush administration as the worst ever because of the "unnecessary war" after terrorists destroyed the trade center towers.

Previously, Clinton did nothing after terrorists tried to destroy the towers with a truck bomb. Clinton did nothing after terrorists attacked the USS Cole, blowing a hole in the side of the ship and killing dozens of sailors.

Several months before the Cole incident, the USS Sullivan was being refueled in the same harbor when terrorists failed to sink it. A rubber boat was overloaded with explosives and sank as it approached the Sullivan. And Clinton did nothing.

The "housing fiasco" was caused by Clinton when his administration pushed Fannie Mae CEO Franklin Rains to grade "subprime" housing loans as "prime," thereby causing the destruction of the nation's credibility.

Rains was appointed by Clinton to be CEO of Fannie Mae. He previously served in both the Carter and Clinton administrations. Under Rains' leadership, it was less expensive for minorities to have a home mortgage backed by the faith of the government than it was to pay rent.

The "out-of-control greed" cited in Burau'sletter extends far and wide. We've witnessed this greed in the Democratic leaders of Congress and of those asked to serve in the Obama administration. We see "sweetheart loans," years of "unpaid income taxes" and campaign contributions from the same organizations Congress is supposed to control.

This isn't a "Democratic thing" or a "Republican thing." This is a government bureaucracy thing. It can only be solved by congressional term limits. With term limits, the need for campaign contributions would be secondary to doing work for the people.

My "American dream" is different from Mary Burau's.

My father came to this country to be an American. He served with the U.S. Army in WW I in France. He worked his whole life to better himself and his family—all of this as a Greek living the "American dream" without governmental assistance. Gus Smyrnos Newbury Park