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To Bush’s Blood-Stained Hands,
The Answer Must Be No.
by Anthony Wade
www.OpEdNews.com
- The answer is NO.
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- This Tuesday night the President will address the nation from
Fort Bragg. It is fitting for this braggart to choose that venue,
but that aside, we should be prepared for the inevitable. Faced
with plummeting poll numbers Bush sees that we are beginning to
realize that our children’s blood has been spilt not for a worthy
cause, but rather for a deliberate lie. Bush has loathed any
public forums during his presidency so this step is a calculated
one, designed to do one thing, LIE to us in the hopes that we ease
up on the pressures which are mounting. The answer to that must be
a resounding, NO.
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- With the release of the Downing Street Memos we now have
confirmed that our President lied to Congress, and thus to the
American people, in order to pimp the war he wanted from the day
he walked into office. He played upon our most fundamental fears
in linking terrorism to Iraq, when there was no real connection.
The right has tried their level best to muddy the issue,
vacillating between parsing the meaning of the word “fixed” to
pretending the memo is fake. The latter blather is completely
ridiculous since both Bush and Blair have already addressed the
memo as being real, but disagreeing with it. The notion that the
British have a different meaning for the word “fix” is equally
silly and is not deserving of a response. No, the memos are quite
real, and quite clear.
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- The primary issue from the Downing Street Memos has been the
admittance that Bush was going to fix the intelligence around his
policy decision to invade Iraq, SIX MONTHS BEFORE, he actually
invaded. It was at this time that Bush was coming to the American
people and swearing that he was going to use all avenues of
diplomacy before committing America’s children to die in the
desert sands. These memos reveal that was a horrible, horrible lie
and anyone who has lost a child in this war, or has one over there
now, should be irate about these revelations. More importantly for
the country, and the democracy we embrace, George Bush lied to
Congress to justify his war. I call it his war, because more than
one former administration official has gone on record as saying
that from day one of the first Bush administration, George Bush
wanted to go to war against Saddam Hussein. The tragic events of
September 11, 2001 merely provided Bush with his excuse.
-
- So, George Bush got his war. He created a secret cell in the
Pentagon, called the Office of Special Plans, headed up by Douglas
Feith. The OSP had one function and that was to cook the
intelligence needed for Bush to force his war upon the American
people and the world. Bush was fond of saying in the run-up to the
second election that Kerry had looked at the same intelligence as
him and reached the same conclusion. Well, yes. However, what Bush
conveniently leaves out is that Kerry thought it was REAL
intelligence, while Bush knew damn well that Feith and the OSP had
relied upon the faultiest of intelligence and compromised sources,
in searching for a way to “fix the intelligence around the
policy”, of going to war. One does not need to be an intelligence
agent to realize that is backwards. In the real world, you base
your policy on your intelligence. In the world of George Bush,
where the blood of the innocents matter naught, you choose your
policy, and then fix your intelligence around it. That is the
primary thing proven by the Downing Street Memos.
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- The secondary item from the Downing Street Memos is that it
appears that George W. Bush started the war six months prior to
asking Congress for the power to do so. Bush often has joked about
it being easier for him if this was a dictatorship, but waging war
is NOT a presidential power. Waging war without Congressional
approval, is also a crime and impeachable. This is the part of the
memos which speaks to Bush increasing the “spikes of activity to
put pressure on the regime (Iraq)”. This translates into bombing
runs which were made on Iraq in the hopes that Saddam would
retaliate. Unconvinced? How about the line from the memos where
Britain realizes that they would need to “wrong foot Saddam” to
give them a justification for war.
-
- So the Downing Street Memos not only prove that Bush fixed the
intelligence and lied to Congress to go to war, but it also
reveals that he was purposefully trying to get Saddam to retaliate
in order to justify the war he wanted, all along. Despicable.
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- What has the butcher’s bill been so far? Officially the death
tally stands at over 1,700 American soldiers and close to if not
more than 100,000 Iraqi’s. Recently however, some are even
questioning the validity of those numbers. This website (http://www.tbrnews.org/Archives/a1648.htm)
seems to believe they have discovered that the true number of dead
Americans could exceed 7,000. Considering the mendacity with which
this administration operates, who would be surprised if this turns
out to be true as well?
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- The impeachment drumbeats have started. People are onto this
administration and the lies it must live with. The death it has
spread. Faced with declining poll numbers the Bushies tried
desperately to laugh off the Downing Street Memos. It did not
work. They sent out Karl Rove to make absurd comments about the
Democrats, hoping to draw the attention away. It did not. They
placed a call to their media machine and we saw wall to wall
coverage of the runaway bride, followed by the Jackson trial, and
most recently, the missing girl in Aruba. THIS time the American
people did not lose their focus. The drums keep beating. The
American people are waking up from their media-induced coma and
asking the logical question, “How did we get here”. The answer is
becoming clearer. We got here because the President lied to
Congress and the people by fixing his intelligence around his
pre-set policy of war. We got here because the President actually
started the war, before even getting approval.
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- The American people have short memories. Allow me to remind
you what this President said the night he committed our kids to
die for his war.
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- “The United States and other nations have pursued patient
and honorable efforts to disarm the Iraqi regime without war”
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- “Peaceful efforts to disarm the Iraqi regime have failed
again and again -- because we are not dealing with peaceful men”
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- “Intelligence gathered by this and other governments leaves
no doubt that the Iraq regime continues to possess and conceal
some of the most lethal weapons ever devised”
- “It (Iraq) has a deep hatred of America and our friends.
And it has aided, trained and harbored terrorists, including
operatives of al Qaeda”
-
- “Today, no nation can possibly claim that Iraq has
disarmed”
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- “Many Iraqis can hear me tonight in a translated radio
broadcast, and I have a message for them. If we must begin a
military campaign, it will be directed against the lawless men who
rule your country and not against you”
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- These were the words of George W. Bush when he came before us
to wage his war. They were all lies. This Tuesday he comes back to
us, to seek a continuance of his war. What lies of Bush will I
write years from now, looking back that the American people fell
for this time? I pray it is none. George Bush does not deserve
another chance to commit your children to die. He just does not
deserve it. An international effort through the United Nations can
ensure the continued rebuilding that is necessary after the
onslaught we have led. Maybe they will be more concerned about
restoring water and electricity then rebuilding oil wells. Bush
will do his level best to speak in glowing terms of freedom, a
concept he knows frighteningly little about. He will look you in
the eye and say that we cannot set a deadline for the troops to
come home because that will allow the terrorists to know when we
are leaving. Nonsense. That defense means we are never leaving
Iraq, and quite frankly, that is closer to the truth than Bush
wants you to know. We are not leaving Iraq. We are actually
building military bases in Iraq now so we can have a permanent
presence in the country. Try that democracy on for size.
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- President Bush comes back to us this Tuesday and he will paint
as rosy a picture as he can muster. He will sell us on how much
progress has been made. He will speak about sacrifice, a word he
has abused and has no right to utter. He will speak to your
patriotism, using it like he used your fears two years ago. To the
yellow ribbon crowd, if you really supported the troops, you would
want them home and not dying for a war conceived in 2001, packaged
in 2002, and sold to us in 2003. War is not glorious; it results
in only one thing, death. There have been times that war has been
wholly justified and those deaths have been honorable to protect
the world from the evils of our times. This is not one of those
times however. A tinpot dictator who posed no threat to anyone is
not worth one life, let alone 1,700, or 7,000. I will leave you
with one last quote from the last time Bush came to us to
propagate his war. This quote may hit closer to home as to why
your kids have died:
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- “And all Iraqi military and civilian personnel should
listen carefully to this warning. In any conflict, your fate will
depend on your action. Do not destroy oil wells…”
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- The answer George, is no. No to your wars George. No to your
death. The blood that has been spilled is on your hands George. It
is on your head. You are fond of saying you often talk to God
George. I pray that just once, you stop talking, and start
listening.
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Anthony Wade, a
contributing writer to
opednews.com, is dedicated to educating the populace to the lies
and abuses of the government. He is a 37-year-old independent writer
from New York with political commentary articles seen on multiple
websites. A Christian progressive and professional Rehabilitation
Counselor working with the poor and disabled, Mr. Wade believes that
you can have faith and hold elected officials accountable for lies
and excess.
Anthony Wade’s
Archive:
http://www.opednews.com/archiveswadeanthony.htm
Email
Anthony:
takebacktheus@gmail.com
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