We! The People Webzine: Freedom Fries by Larry Sakin

Freedom Fries

by Larry Sakin
January 23, 2007

According to Newsweek reporters Richard Wolffe, Holly Bailey and Eleanor Clift, key Senate Republicans are close to demanding that President Bush end American military action in Iraq. It seems to be true. This morning, the White House asked GOP skeptics to the White House, where they tried to allay the concerns of Republican lawmakers including Senators John Warner of Virginia, Sam Brownback of Kansas, Norm Coleman of Minnesota and Susan Collins of Maine.

Does this mean these Republican senators are "with the terrorists?"

It's hard to say. However, it's pretty obvious that Republican concerns about the President's new Iraq strategy has little to do with the thousands killed, maimed and tortured, or the complete decimation of Iraqi society. The war isn't playing well in the polls, and God forbid, might cause the American electorate to (gulp!) vote out more Republicans in 2008.

So the Republican leadership has chosen the right course for the wrong reasons, but what the hell-at least they're doing something. As wonderful as this turn of events may be, it would be nice if Republicans also trained their scrutiny on the Presidents domestic spying apparatus. A recent New York Times article brought to light Pentagon and CIA efforts to obtain financial records on Americans through the use of national security letters. Of course, federal law prohibits both agencies from engaging in this activity but, what are a few Constitutional violations between so-called intelligence agencies. But so far, Republicans have been more than happy to allow Bush all the room he needs to further imperil the privacy rights of citizens.

Perhaps our dissenting Republican brood will be more willing to address this issue when they discover their own bank accounts and credit records are being snooped into. I'd be willing to bet all those guys have a lot of transactions they'd like to hide from the long arm of the law. And believe me, Bush and his pal Bob Gates won't hesitate investigating the monetary wheeling and dealing of their same party adversaries, especially if they can blackmail those dissenters into compliance.

When it comes to Iraq, Bush believes he can continue justifying bloated defense budgets and outrageously expensive military contracts for war profiteers until the very last day of his term, and then hand off the whole damned mess to whoever is foolish enough to replace him. Bush can use his incompetent handling of the war to point out how inefficient government is, touting the privatization of government services as a whole.

After all, that's been the wiggy Republican neo-con agenda all along, an agenda that all those Republican idiot leaders went along with for so long. Trying to turn away from that policy now will only gain them a load of trouble and a powerful enemy in Godfather George and his enforcers Karl and Dick. These guys don't do compromise-it's their way or the highway. Standing in their way will only get you a free trip to the political graveyard.

While I hope their message pierces Bush's thick skull, I have a feeling they're in for a great surprise. Because while they were running the country in the early days of the Iraq War, the new 'opposition Republicans' never imagined they might end up choking on their freedom fries.