By Anthony Wade
June 18, 2005
"You can't just say the President is lying." That was the opinion of New York Times reporter, Elizabeth Bumiller recently when discussing honesty in today's press. It also highlights a serious flaw in the current logic with today's press that has led to the erosion of any possible faith people have in media anymore. I would proffer that you most certainly can say the President has lied, if you meet one condition, that being he lied. It is a disservice to this country to have a media that either is protecting the President, or too scared to tell the truth.
While we are at it, you can also call the President a criminal, if that is what he is. It brings me no joy to say that it is fairly obvious at this point, that George W. Bush is exactly that. In the late 1990's the republicans harangued this nation about the importance of the rule of law. We were lectured to about the sanctity of the rule of law and how because of the lies that Bill Clinton offered up, in defense of a personal sexual indiscretion, he had to be impeached. It was the vilification of Bill Clinton and the abuse of the rules of impeachment that dragged this country through the most partisan attack we will ever see, all for political retribution.
Fast forward five years and apparently the republicans no longer are concerned about the rule of law when it applies to their boy. That hypocrisy has become crystallized with the unveiling of the Downing Street Memo. Due to the corporate media blackout, many have not even heard of this memo, which are actually meeting minutes from Britain. These minutes, taken from a meeting held six months before the Iraq invasion, clearly spell out that George W. Bush is indeed a war criminal who lied this country into a war we did not need to be involved in. The resulting 1,700 + deaths of American soldiers can be laid at the feet of Bush. The 100,000 + deaths of Iraqi citizens can also be laid at his feet. In the run up to the war George Bush promised us that war was his last option. That was a lie. He promised us that Iraq was an imminent threat. That was a lie. He promised us that Saddam Hussein possessed the most lethal weapons known to man. That was a lie.
Bush has done a masterful job of employing the Sergeant Schultz defense from Hogan's Heroes. His cries of "I know nothing" however are starting to unravel around him as more and more proof emerges that implicates him directly. You must understand that lying is not necessarily illegal. Lying to Congress however is. Lying to Congress to start a war is even more so. There is a word for that. It is called treason.
Black's Law Dictionary defines treason as, "A breach of allegiance to one's government, usually committed through levying war against such government or by giving aid or comfort to the enemy." George Bush breached his allegiance to this country when he chose to lie to Congress. This action has essentially levied war against this country by forcing a war upon us, on false pretenses.
The only issue then, is if it is provable that George W. Bush knew he was lying when he convinced Congress to abdicate their responsibilities to wage war. That is where the Downing Street Memo seals the fate of President Bush. Richard Dearlove, the head of Britain's intelligence agency reported in the meeting minutes that after he met with the Bush administration:
"Bush wanted to remove Saddam, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy."
It seemed clear that Bush had made up his mind to take military action, even if the timing was not yet decided. But the case was thin. Saddam was not threatening his neighbours, and his WMD capability was less than that of Libya, North Korea or Iran.
The first quote proves that Bush had decided on the policy, war, and chose to fit the intelligence and facts around it. This was primarily done by cooking the intelligence through the Office of Special Plans, headed by fellow Neocon, Douglas Feith. Despite what Elizabeth Bumiller may think, there is a word for this. It is called lying. It matters not that the President is the one doing the lying. The second quote proves some other lies being spun by Bush at the time. Remember, this is six months before the invasion when Bush was swearing to us all that he was going to try diplomacy first and war as only the last option. This quote states that at that exact time he was saying diplomacy in public, he had "made up his mind" to go to war. It further admits that Bush knew the WMD angle was "thin", and that it was less than the three other countries which represented potential threats at the time.
So, despite corporate media whores such as Dana Milbank, who will sell you the cover up and try to dismiss this story, it not only has legs, it has handcuffs. Despite Scott McClellan's attempts to pretend that the President has answered the Downing Street questions, he has done nothing but obfuscate, distort and use his corporate media machine to ignore the realities of the crimes he has committed.
These crimes have stolen much from us. They have stolen the lives of over 1,700 American soldiers who only ask that you not send them into harm's way unless it is absolutely necessary. They have stolen our democracy by assuming a Machiavellian attitude that allows a President to decide the rationale for a war, after the fact. That Saddam was a bad guy has absolutely no relevance to this war because that is NOT the reason we went to war. We went to war based on the lies sold to us by George W. Bush about WMD. Our democracy requires checks and balances. It requires that the powers to wage war reside in the Congress, not the President. Three years ago, George Bush stole our democracy and the principles upon which it was founded and it is time to take it and our country back again.
Our collective soul has been stolen as well by the lies that have led us into this war. Our fears were used against us to propagate bloodshed in our name. It was illegitimate, as the Downing Street Memo now proves. Our soul continues to be raped by a party that no longer cares about you or me. In response to this memo proving the crimes that led our country to war, the Ranking Member of the Judiciary Committee for the Democrats wanted to hold hearings to investigate the charges discussed in this article. The response from the Republicans was to not allow those hearings to take place in an official room. Undeterred, John Conyers held his hearings in a room the size of a closet. This is what has happened to our democracy. Last week the Republican leader of the Judiciary Committee actually walked out of a hearing on Patriot Act abuses. He shut down the committee, shut off the microphones of the minority party, bullied witnesses, and walked out with his gavel because he did not like what he was hearing.
Your country has been stolen from you by an administration that lies with impunity and has a complicit press that tells you it is far more important what is happening to the runaway bride than in the Iraq War. Your democracy has been stolen by a party that thinks nothing of changing 200 year old filibuster rules and are so rife with corruption that the people, who manage ethics, will not investigate the least ethical man in DC, because they have all contributed to his Political Action Committee. This corruption knows no ends. For example, Robert F. Kennedy has just released an expose detailing how this administration tried to cover up for the pharmaceutical lobby after it was revealed that an ingredient in vaccines had contributed to high rates of autism in children. Here is the frightening part. Senator Bill Frist attached a rider to the bill that created the Department of Homeland Security, called the Eli-Lilly Protection Act. Essentially, this eliminated the rights of parents to sue vaccine makers for the autism they created. Bill Frist received over $800,000 from the pharmaceutical lobby. Conflict of interest anyone? This is how it works now in your democracy. It is sold every day to the highest bidder. It was yours. It has been stolen.
America, our soul has also been stolen. We used to be the light for the world. We used to be respected in the world, now we are hated. We used to lead the world, now we invade it. We were told five years ago that the rule of law was crucial to uphold our democracy. We were told that the lies of William Jefferson Clinton would destroy the fabric of this country and the only remedy was impeachment. Those lies were personal in nature, involving a sexual indiscretion. Today we are faced with the prospect of a President whose lies have led this country to war, killed over 1,700 American soldiers, and countless innocent civilians. Suddenly the rule of law seems to not matter anymore. Instead of impeachment hearings, the same republicans will not even allow judiciary hearings to address the facts discussed here today. They look you in the face, preach family values and then kill your kids. They sermonize about the rule of law, but only when it does not implicate their own. They moralize about a culture of life, when all they embrace are the politics of death. When faced with the realities however, they abandon all pretense. They bully the minority party. They take their gavel and go home. They profit off the blood they spill and steal our democracy. They profit off damaging the health of our children, and steal our country. They profit off of the death of our kids and steal our collective soul.
If the President lies, we should say the President lies. If those lies were designed to deceive Congress into a war, we should say that is impeachable. We should say it is treasonous. We should honor our dead and tell the truth. As God says, the truth shall set you free.
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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