Impeach Bush.
Those two ordinary words form a glorious sentence, but turning the "dream" into reality is another story. Despite ample evidence of impeachable offenses the movement to impeach Bush remains relatively small. In TomPaine today, Norman Solomon discusses the need to get serious about it. The pivotal evidence, as described by Democrat Conyers, is
"First, the memo appears to directly contradict the administration's assertions to Congress and the American people that it would exhaust all options before going to war. According to the minutes, in July 2002, the administration had already decided to go to war against Iraq."
"Second, a debate has raged in the United States over the last year and one half about whether the obviously flawed intelligence that falsely stated that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction was a mere 'failure' or the result of intentional manipulation to reach foreordained conclusions supporting the case for war. The memo appears to close the case on that issue stating that in the United States the intelligence and facts were being 'fixed' around the decision to go to war."
But do not get your hopes up. War crimes have virtually no impact on the American consciousness. In 1974 when the Judiciary committee voted 27-11 to impeach Nixon, only 12 members included Nixon's illegal bombing of Cambodia and subsequent lying about it as a reason for impeachment. Likewise, Reagan's dirty wars in Central America resulted in one lone Texan, Henry Gonzalez, calling for Reagan and Bush to be impeached.
It is disgusting that Republicans would get in a holy rage over Clinton's affair, yet they remain silent when Bush's lies have gotten us into a war where 1700 US soldiers and 100,000 Iraqi civilians have died. It goes to show you that the Republicans really did not care about the pecadilloes of Clinton, they wanted to crucify him at any cost and that was just a convenient method. The defense of Bush's war is usually stated along the lines of, "it is transforming the Middle East." If Nixon had been allowed to use nuclear bombs on Vietnam (and Cambodia and Laos), that would have transformed the region as well. The point is that Bush did not offer that reason to the world, instead, he assured us Hussein had nuclear and chemical weapons that could be launched against Britain and Israel within 45 minutes.
Monday, May 30, 2005
Memorial Day
The Twin Towers Memorial site, Republican shamelessness/opportunism/hypocrisy, and the way Americans are turning their attention away from Iraq and Afghanistan, are all discussed with lacerating clarity by Frank Rich, in today's New York Times. For many, it's simply disgusting that Bush has the nerve to lay a wreath on the Tomb Of The Unknown Soldier, as if this display of false piety to the sacrifices our soldiers make for the blunders of politics, is enough balm for those families of the 1700 Americans who died in Iraq. And that does not mention the nearly 10,000 soldiers invalided out of the war with missing eyes and legs and arms or worse. And no one, certainly, seems to be giving a second thought to the 100,000 dead Iraqi civilians (as in, they weren't soldiers) who died as a result of our ham-handed tactics. Frank Rich, as usual, is scathing in his criticisms, withering in his attacks, and totally focused and on topic like a laser beam of truth.
From the article: Tom Ridge, now retired as homeland security czar, recently went on "The Daily Show" and joined in the yuks about the color-coded alerts. (He also told USA Today this month that orange alerts were sometimes ordered by the administration - as election year approached, anyway - on flimsy grounds and over his objections.) In February, the Office of Management and Budget found that "only four of the 33 homeland security programs it examined were 'effective,' " according to The Washington Post.
The Twin Towers Memorial site, Republican shamelessness/opportunism/hypocrisy, and the way Americans are turning their attention away from Iraq and Afghanistan, are all discussed with lacerating clarity by Frank Rich, in today's New York Times. For many, it's simply disgusting that Bush has the nerve to lay a wreath on the Tomb Of The Unknown Soldier, as if this display of false piety to the sacrifices our soldiers make for the blunders of politics, is enough balm for those families of the 1700 Americans who died in Iraq. And that does not mention the nearly 10,000 soldiers invalided out of the war with missing eyes and legs and arms or worse. And no one, certainly, seems to be giving a second thought to the 100,000 dead Iraqi civilians (as in, they weren't soldiers) who died as a result of our ham-handed tactics. Frank Rich, as usual, is scathing in his criticisms, withering in his attacks, and totally focused and on topic like a laser beam of truth.
From the article: Tom Ridge, now retired as homeland security czar, recently went on "The Daily Show" and joined in the yuks about the color-coded alerts. (He also told USA Today this month that orange alerts were sometimes ordered by the administration - as election year approached, anyway - on flimsy grounds and over his objections.) In February, the Office of Management and Budget found that "only four of the 33 homeland security programs it examined were 'effective,' " according to The Washington Post.
