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I love my country and our soldiers, and I want the best for the US. Having made that declaration, the cold truth is that the US is fighting the wrong war in Iraq now and it is a quagmire solely because Bush ignored the advice of Democrats in Congress as well as the UN!
As Gephardt said, “This president is a miserable failure” and as Kerry said, “It is time for regime change in the US”. Graham had this to say, “I voted against the resolution to go to war in Iraq. I’ll tell you why: I’ve looked at all of the evils in the Middle East and in central Asia and I concluded that the greatest evil in terms of capability of killing Americans was not Saddam Hussein but al Qaeda and the other international terrorists. We moved intelligence and military resources out of Afghanistan to begin the war in Iraq. We’ve allowed al Qaeda to regroup, regenerate, and now conduct a series of very sophisticated terrorist attacks”.
None of these comments are treasonous, as GOP operatives would have us believe, since they are factual! The fact that bin laden released a tape on 9/10 2003, proves the fact that Bush diverted us down the wrong path. If we had continued trying to get him, he’d be unable to be a threat.
Bush is adopting the policy that the Democrats had prior to this war. He accused them of being traitors! My philosophy 101 course would argue that if you follow this hypothesis to its logical conclusion then he has to accuse himself of the same.
It is not just Democratic Presidential candidates who have terrible remarks to make about Bush. From the article, “Foreign Views of U.S. Darken Since Sept. 11”, “The US once hoped to develop closer relations with Indonesia, the most populous predominantly Muslim country, but respect for the United States among Indonesians has plummeted. Protesters gathered last month with signs saying, "America go to hell" and "Don't mess with Islam." Every Islamic has experienced an increase in hatred for the US, and the Iraq travesty is a principal factor in developing this hatred.
How about other countries, including our former allies revised opinion of the US? In a further quote, ”To some degree, the resentment is centered on the person of President Bush, who is seen by many of those interviewed, at best, as an ineffective spokesman for American interests and, at worst, as a gun-slinging cowboy knocking over international treaties and bent on controlling the world's oil, if not the entire world.”
"I think the turnaround was last summer, when American policy moved ever more decisively toward war against Iraq," said Josef Joffe, co-editor of the German weekly Die Zeit. "That's what triggered the counter-alliance of France and Germany and the enormous wave of hatred against the United States."“
What happened? We were tracking bin laden down, remember “our Crusade” to get him “dead or alive” and all of sudden all of our resources left Afghanistan for Iraq. Prior to Junior’s detour into stupidity, all he said was “bin laden” and abruptly it changed to “Hussein”. WHY?
We have all heard about how Pakistan’s ISI would never capture bin laden. Why then did the Bush team cooperate with them? The Bush Administration consciously took the decision in “the post September 11 consultations” with Lt. General Mahmoud Ahmad, Pakistan’s chief spy, to directly “cooperate” with Pakistan’s military intelligence (ISI) despite its links to Osama bin Laden and the Taliban. The Pakistanis feared that to capture or kill Bin Laden so soon after a deeply unpopular war in Afghanistan would incite civil unrest in Pakistan. So, we weren’t actually going to get him “dead or alive”, but Bush never told us.
In a Times of India/Guardian department article of August 23rd, 2003, “Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has struck a deal with the US not to capture Osama Bin Laden, fearing this could lead to unrest in Pakistan, according to a special investigation by The Guardian. The paper reported that Bin Laden was being protected by three elaborate security rings manned by tribesmen stretching 192 kms in diameter in northern Pakistan”. It is believed an agreement was reached between Musharraf and US authorities shortly after Bin Laden’s flight from his stronghold Tora Bora in Afghanistan in December 2001.
Bush, if he was a decent human, would have to make reparations to the Democrats in Congress also, after he debases himself to the UN get their help in his plainly foolish Iraq War. The stance he is taking now is the stance he attacked the Democrats with, particularly Max Cleland, in the 2002 election. Bludgeoning a war hero, Max Cleland, with his baseless claim that he was against the security of the US and in league with bin Laden, was disgusting, but in keeping with this hypocritical operative’s pledge to “be a uniter not a divider.”
Now Bush is pushing Congress for more money for Iraq and Afghanistan. Members of Congress said that President Bush would get the $87 billion he requested, but that he would have to walk through a bit of fire first. Lawmakers said they expected sharp questioning of the request and a renewed debate about the effect on federal spending, taxes and the record-setting deficit.
Many members predicted that pressure would build immediately on nonmilitary programs, including the proposal to add a drug benefit to Medicare. Lawmakers noted that the amount requested in this single bill represented a fifth of all money to be spent next year on nonmilitary programs like education, housing and veterans affairs, many of which are already being squeezed by a deficit that will reach $480 billion.
Democrats, aware of the growing pressure on their own spending priorities, said staying in Iraq should not require domestic sacrifices, and promised an intense debate on the administration's agenda. Nearly 75 Democrats in the House are co-sponsoring a bill written by Representative Rahm Emanuel of Illinois that would require the administration to spend the same amount on rebuilding schools and hospitals in the United States as it spends in Iraq. Democrats have earlier begged the administration to cut the tax cut and spend more money on education as well as Homeland Security, but Bush refused to as he has to give every last cent he can to his “Ranger” and “Pioneer” buddies. These earlier attempts, as well as this one, have been ignored by the US media.
Two senior Democrats said the spending bill required holding back the president's tax cuts for wealthy taxpayers. Representative Steny H. Hoyer of Maryland, the Democratic Whip, said the cuts had left the nation ill prepared to fight against terrorism. Representative John M. Spratt Jr. of South Carolina, the ranking Democrat on the Budget Committee, said the cuts for upper-income Americans should be suspended as an example of the sacrifice called for by the president.
If there is no money for nonmilitary programs, which the Democrats have always provided for our citizens, then what can they campaign on? Rove knows that if a Democrat says we need more money for social welfare programs, then every GOP thug will holler, “typical tax and spend Democrat”. Rove depends on the ignorance of the red state voters, and he has little reason not to do so.
A little recent history would be relevant. In an October 25, 2002 article, “Dead Parrot Society”, Paul Krugman noted that, “Right now the administration is playing the war card, inventing facts as necessary, and trying to use the remnants of Bush’s post-Sept. 11 popularity to gain control of all three branches of government”.
In that same article, further noted that, “For the Bush administration is an extremely elitist clique trying to maintain a populist facade. Its domestic policies are designed to benefit a very small number of people — basically those who earn at least $300,000 a year, and really don't care about either the environment or their less fortunate compatriots.”
This is a typical GOP approach, first demonstrated by Nixon’s ”domino theory” and its associated technique of sucking in all tax revenue for military purposes. It is aimed at scaring the country in order that the warmongering party, the GOP, could keep power. Reagan copied it with his catchy two words “Evil Empire” and he managed record deficits. Now GOP functionaries, many who were in office in the Reagan era, conveniently pretend that the books were never in the red.
43 will surpass his teachers. In the recent 2002 mid-term election 43, didn’t follow the example of J.F.K. who didn’t campaign during the Bay of Pigs Crisis, or even his father, who also didn’t campaign and put off his Iraq war until after the 1990 mid-term election. Both presidents were careful as they did not want to use a war to influence political campaigns. 43 had no such moral problem, as he possesses little discernible ethics. What he did to McCain in the 2000 primaries was a precursor to what he did to Max Cleland in this 2002 mid-term election. When Rove saw how unaware the red state voters were in the primary, all ethical restraints were released.
Who has benefited from the huge buildup of the US military? Bush’s military-industrial buddies, the Carlyle Group, but not the undermanned soldiers. We don’t have enough of them to provide adequate security for the defenseless citizens, and themselves, in Iraq. Yet Bush has been seen going to hospitals commiserating with them. How transparently evil this is for the man “who would return honor and dignity to the White House”.
What is the one feature in common with Iraq and Afghanistan? It is the opinion mentioned earlier, oil.
Maybe we had another reason for attacking Afghanistan other than the stated one. Did it have any relation to Iraq? American petroleum giant Unocal had proposed a pipeline project, which sought to bring oil and natural gas from Turkmenistan through Afghanistan. The Bush administration just shortly after assuming office slowed down FBI investigations of al Qaeda and terrorism in Afghanistan in order to do a deal with the Taliban on oil—an oil pipeline across Afghanistan. Part of the Bush administration’s bargaining tactics involved threats of war if their conditions for the legitimization of Afghanistan were not met. The Unocal pipeline project is running smoothly now that Bush has his man Hamid Kharzai, in charge of Afghanistan. In addition to being the head of the post-Taliban Afghan interim government, Kharzai also acted as a consultant for the American oil company Unocal.
The Bush/Cheney administration has moved quickly to ensure US corporate control over Iraqi resources at least through the year 2007. The first part of the plan, created by the UN under US pressure is the Development Fund for Iraq which is being controlled by the US. The second is a recent Bush executive order, 13303, that provides absolute legal protection for U.S. interests in Iraqi oil.
Things are awful in the “everlasting war against terrorism”, and likely to get worse, precisely because of the last segment, the Iraq travesty! In an article, “British Leader Was Told Terrorists Could Gain Arms”, by Glenn Frankel, this quote, “Britain's intelligence chiefs warned Prime Minister Tony Blair a month before the invasion of Iraq that military action would increase the risk of terrorists obtaining weapons of mass destruction, according to a parliamentary report released today.” By the way the US CIA and State Department issued the same warning to Bush.
So, the Democrats wanted us to continue after bin laden, but Bush pushed us from doing the right thing and to top things off, his oil buddies made a huge profit! During the 2002 mid-term election, Bush had the audacity to campaign against Democrats in Congress, going so far to claim that Max Cleland was in league with bin laden, and now has the unmitigated audacity to pump the Congress for more money.
This president has an advantage no other GOP regime had. The right-wing clones, such as Limbaugh and Hammity, with Clear Channel radio stations, and FOX and FOX wannabes Cable TV, tells the red state voters what to think! Enough of them in Georgia bought the garbage from laggard boy to vote against Cleland. It is just like the “Outer Limits” in which “they control the TV, they control what we are shown and therefore what we can conceivably understand. The media would not be pushing this swill though, if there was not a market. I can’t comprehend the self esteem that this smirking chump has, for he has done absolutely nothing to recommend such an attitude. It is as if he actually believes what the media regurgitates about him, following Rove’s script verbatim. Is he so dense, or emotionally ill that he believes this drivel?
This failed, lazy, privileged, preppy man-child has no morality. He is willingly destroying our country, and daily the death tolls mount in Iraq. As far as Rove and his puppet are concerned, both of these developments are perfectly acceptable. As long as they push more money into their “Pioneer” and “Ranger” buddies’ pockets, then all is fine in the world, for the top 1% are all that matter. Until enough red state voters realize that they have lost everything since Dubya hoodwinked them, we are in trouble. Lost soul by lost soul they will eventually come to the realization that, as with card sharks, the house, in this case Rove and his puppet Junior‘s crew, always wins at their bluffs. Unlike cards though these stratagems cost lives, but as long as the lives are not his cronies, what does Bush care? Mini-me, will fall, as our disinterested public isn’t as lethargic as their self-proclaimed “leader of the free world who doesn’t do nuances”.
b. connors
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