The Congress is nearing its August recess. Your local Representative and your Senators will be home to hear from you.
It is essential that they hear informed opinion regarding the failure of the Bush Administration to effectively conduct the Global War on Terror.
Once the Administration’s credibility as the protector of America is rightfully destroyed political support for the Iraq Occupation and the Administration’s other failed initiatives will collapse.
The result of the Bush Administration's poor judgment is failure in six key areas of the war against terror:
the Administration has failed in pacifying Afghanistan,
it has failed in stabilizing a pro-Western government in Pakistan,
it has failed in neutralizing or weakening the Islamist terror organizations,
it has failed utterly in all efforts to mediate between Israel and the Palestinians,
it has failed in Iraq and
the Bush Administration has failed to achieve any measure that lessens rather than worsens the conditions that breed terrorism.
Unlike previous wars. the GWOT has not produced any moments of heroic accomplishment, only failures and disgraces, like Abu Gharib.
The Administration’s failure in Afghanistan has become particularly poignant in the wake of the news regarding Pat Tillman’s death in a friendly fire incident and the subsequent cover-up by the Army.
In September 2001, a lightning strike to capture codebooks, cadre rosters and other key information from al Qaada was called for.
Instead of launching such a strike, the Bush Administration hesitated for three weeks to build up to a conventional ground war that is still dragging on in Afghanistan.
The Taliban has actually become stronger militarily and politically in the face of Bush Administration’s so-called War on Terror.
The living conditions of the Afghani people are still as desperate and dire as they were before the Bush Administration intervened to bring justice to the terrorists.
Osama bin Laden and other al Qaada leaders still have safe haven in the failed state of Afghanistan and now in Pakistan as well.
The Bush Administration has pushed Pakistani leader Pervez Mushariff to ally himself with the Coalition in the GWOT.
Instead of strengthening the forces of law in that region we now find Pakistan on the brink of a civil war and poised for a substantial shift toward policies very unfavorable to America.
The Bush Administration’s heavy handedness and lack of judgment, have pushed Pakistan away.
The consequences for this failure is the loss of the goodwill and support of a nation of 165,000,000. A nation with vast prestige in South Western Asia.
The Administration has produced no policy offsetting this diplomatic disaster.
As the recent attempts to attack airports in the UK clearly demonstrate, the Bush led Coalition has failed to stem the growth of new terrorist organizations.
Such organizations cannot be thwarted by the repressive laws passed in the UK and here in response to the 9/11 attacks.
The Administration and the GOP must own up to the fact that their efforts to stem recruitment of new terrorists have failed and that they have no new ideas to take the place of the policies of failure.
Meanwhile al Qaada and its copycat organizations continue to increase in effectiveness and support throughout the Islamic World.
The Road Map to Peace is now only a bitter memory, but it embodied the Bush Administration’s best thinking on the approach to Peace between Israel and the Palestinians.
As in so many other areas, the Administration’s best thinking was deeply flawed, naïve, ideological and ineffective.
The failures of the Administration in Iraq have been documented repeatedly, but I will add a comment.
It is clear that the Insurgents are dealing effectively with the surge in US combat forces.
Rather than being driven from the field, the Insurgents have shown the resiliency to fight back effectively.
The Insurgents have not only been able to increase the number of US casualties, they also show an increasing ability to dictate the tempo and terms of combat.
This means that the Insurgents are increasingly engaging US forces in tactical conditions favorable to them.
Only a military seeking more men, more money and more time would tell its public and political leaders that such conditions represented progress.
The Coalition’s inability to intervene effectively in Dafur and relieve the genocide there is emblematic of the limitations of squandering our resources on futile action in Iraq.
While a race of innocent people are being wiped off the face of the earth, the GOP leadership claim that disaster will follow a Coalition withdrawal from Iraq.
We need to tell Congress that there are more effective uses for US forces and power than shoring up George W. Bush’s ego as we are doing in Iraq.
To correct this situation, we should begin with these four things:
begin a phased withdrawal from Iraq;
strengthen the international efforts in Afghanistan to improve living standards there,
enhance the government's authority and to stabilize the border with Pakistan;
negotiate new international treaties to toughen statutes against terrorism and
strengthen enforcement;initiate a broad based diplomatic, economic and cultural effort to strengthen democracy, living standards of the poor and middle classes, womens' and minority rights, and a favorable image of the US in the developing world.
Let your Senators and representatives know that you consider the GWOT an important issue.
Let them know that you feel the Administration and GOP have been ineffective in prosecuting it.
Let them know you want a change that emphasizes the strengths of America, rather than the fears of America.
Be persistent, they will try to blow you off, but keep the pressure on.
