by Norla Antinoro,
Ph.D.
January 16, 2007
The first shoe has
dropped with a resounding thud as Bush made his historically stupid
pronouncement that in spite of the advice of the nation's military
leaders, in spite of the opinions of congress and the majority
of America's citizens, in spite of humane and compassionate considerations,
in spite of economic concerns, he is going to continue to pour
good money, and good lives after the ones already poured into
the pit that is Iraq at War. His speech has no news in it, he
told us far in advance what he was going to say, and then he read
the speech crafted for him by his speech writers and said exactly
what he had told us in advance he was going to say. He's sending
more troops to Iraq, with or without the approval of anybody else
in the world and he may just keep on marching into Iran and Syria
as well. You see, as Dictator of the Earth, he is The Decider,
and nobody else's opinions matter but his.
The BBC predicts that
the Democrats will do very little to prevent his escalation of
the war because they do not want the Democratic Party to be associated
with the Iraq policy. According to the BBC, the Democrats do not
want to be seen by the voters as having any responsibility for
the utter and escalating fiasco that the Iraq War has become.
They further suggest that Pelosi and the Democrats will concentrate
on winning as many of the urgent and winnable battles as possible
while distancing themselves from the unwinnable. That they will
avoid impeachment, they will avoid the war, and concentrate on
the minimum wage, Medicare prescription benefits and other issues
that will have a clear and immediate impact on the citizens of
this country.
Now we wait for the
other shoe to drop. The President has made his proposal and he
shows no sign of being open to any kind of negotiation. He moved
fast enough that the various investigations have not had time
to gather enough ammunition to use as a counter threat. By the
time the investigations gather such ammunition, the escalation
will have taken place and we will be dealing with another situation
where the only way out is from the roof tops as the country bursts
into flame around our fleeing boots.
The mainstream media
is playing footsie with the entire issue as well. On the front
page of my local paper there were two front page stories, basically
taking half a page each. Above the fold is the story of Bush asking
for tens of thousands more troops. Below the fold is the story
of a local soldier convicted of having murdered Iraqi detainees.
For the crime of cold blooded murder of an unarmed and injured
prisoner, the soldier has been sentenced to one year in a military
prison and six months without pay. They may reduce his sentence
to six months in prison if he fulfills certain other tasks related
to the trial.
The young soldier went
straight from his high school graduation to the Army, serving
in Iraq. This one time honors student now says he knew he was
in the wrong when he shot the detainee. He takes full blame on
himself for this act. You see, his commanding officer said that
"someone" should put the injured detainee "out
of his misery" as he lay on the floor. The young soldier
shot the man in the head. And now he takes a shot of his own,
claiming full responsibility for an act that he was clearly ordered
to do by his commander. While the instigators of the Iraq War
remain untouchable, the pawns and cannon fodder fall on their
swords for their emperor and his consort Dick.
The comedy of terrors
plays itself out on history's stage while we watch in horror and
helpless rage. There must be something that the people of this
country can do short of revolution to stop the illegal and destructive
actions of this mad president. We have made our voices heard.
We have overwhelmingly come out against this mad escalation. We
have made it clear that we want the war ended and the troops returned
to home soil. We have spoken, marched, written, sung songs, and
we have voted, and still the Mad Fool in the White House dances
toward the cliff's edge dragging the nation behind him.
Congress has been presented
with a choice. They can roll over and give the president the monetary
support he demands for the escalation or they can withhold the
moneys for the military budget. They could shut the government
down in their battle of wills, it was done before under Gerald
Ford when he vetoed the congress's budget and they fought back
and overrode his veto. A reverse of that could be enacted here.
The congress could refuse to appropriate or approve the money
the president demands. That would leave them taking the blame
for our troops being in the field without Kevlar vests and enough
ammunition to defend themselves. It would not prevent Bush from
ordering the increased troops into the area.
If the congress goes
to the mat over this escalation, they will be unable to carry
out all their other 100 day plans, all of which are important
to the country. And still they would not be able to stop his actions.
As Commander in Chief of the US military he can send them anywhere
he chooses and all the Congress can do is bring them home or leave
them there to starve and die along with the Iraqis.
It's time to face this
president with the crimes he has committed, he and his vice presidick.
A rather corny line from a movie comes to mind at this point:
"No, Shame on you Mr. President." A pronouncement made
just before the president was arrested for multiple felonies committed
while in office. In that movie and a few similar ones of the last
two decades, the president was guilty of murder, treason, and
various felonious conspiracies. He was not impeached for his crimes,
he was arrested, like any other criminal would have been.
Perhaps we need to
give careful consideration to whether impeachment is enough. Is
it, instead, time to show this country and this president that
he does not and cannot stand above the laws? Time to bring him
to account for the many illegal acts he has committed? Impeachment
may simply not be enough.
It has been made amply
clear that Bush does not intend to slow down in his attempts to
put the oil of the Middle East into the hands of his base as long
as he holds the throne. So if we want the war ended, he needs
to be removed from the throne.
We cannot leave that
to Madame Speaker Pelosi. For her to pursue impeachment or the
arrest of the president would be a clear conflict of interests,
as she would stand next in line for the presidency.
It's time for others
to step up and take this out of her hands. The Democratic Party
cannot officially push for impeachment either. It must be done
in as non-partisan a manner as possible. It must be seen as the
people of this nation bringing the man in the white house to account
for his crimes.
First they have to
take care of Cheney. Then once Cheney is nullified, they can take
out Bush. Arrest, indict, impeach.
In the meantime, they
must use every stalling and misdirecting tactic available to them
to slow down the damage Bush is pushing to accomplish before they
can get their guns in place to nail him down. We are going to
be faced with an escalation in Iraq. How long it will last and
where it will go from there is up to the newly elected lawmakers
of this country. The Iraq War drove this election. The new congress
and governors across the country are in office because the majority
of Americans want this war to end. They elected these Democrats
to end it.
And so again we wait,
for the other shoe to drop……the Congressional shoe.
Move and counter move in a dance of death.
