House Rebukes Bush and his Surge Plan
How Significant Is the Anti-Surge Resolution?
by James Buchanan
The House of Representatives has voted by an overwhelming majority (246 to 182) to disapprove Bush’s troop surge plan for Iraq. Seventeen Republicans jumped ship and voted against the troop escalation. Six months ago, there was no chance of any such vote. It didn’t matter if 3,000 US soldiers died or whether 30,0000 died, Bush and the neocons want us in Iraq forever. Anyone who needs proof of this only needs to tune into C-SPAN and listen to the Kool-Aid drinkers who are comparing Iraq to World War Two, the Civil War and one addle-headed Republican neocon, who compared Iraq to the Alamo. I guess that particular neocon thinks we should ride out the Iraq War –even if it winds up like the Alamo. Hopefully, someone will dig into video archives that date back to the Vietnam War and find Congressmen making nearly identical statements to those of the neocon chickenhawks, who would rather lose another 3,000 US soldiers than admit that the Iraq War was wrong from the start.
One war critic writes “In a significant defeat for President George W. Bush, the House of Representatives Friday voted… to ‘disapprove’ his plan to add an estimated 30,000 U.S. troops…The vote, which capped 48 hours of debate over the past four days, constituted the first Congressional denunciation of Bush’s Iraq policy and set the stage for a major battle next month over his request that the legislature approve nearly 100 billion dollars more to finance U.S. military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan this year. Backed by polls that show almost two out of three U.S. voters oppose Bush’s plan, often referred to as ‘the surge,’ Democrats are already preparing conditions and restrictions they plan to attach to Bush’s request. If approved, they will make it far more difficult for Bush to add the troops…”
A number of political pundits have said that a “non-binding” resolution is a waste of time. We are losing soldiers almost every day and our politicians are unwilling to admit a mistake. Given the extremely slippery, slimy nature of the neocons, it’s not too surprising that the Democrats are proceeding cautiously. Bush, Karl Rove and a gaggle of neocon talk show hosts have been screaming “traitor” whenever any sane person suggested that we cut our losses and get out. Somehow, the neocons have convinced millions of people that “supporting the troops” means leaving them in the center of a Middle East shooting gallery forever. The American public must realize that supporting the troops means bringing them home.
The original invasion of Iraq was NEVER approved by the UN. The invasion was based entirely on assertions by George Bush and his administration that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction. Among the key “evidence” against Iraq was: (1).the claim that Iraq was seeking uranium from Niger, (2).the claim that aluminum tubes purchased by Iraq were to be used in high speed centrifuges for an A-bomb project, (3).the claim that certain trucks photographed by satellites were mobile weapons labs and (4).the claim that the Iraqis were hiding things and not cooperating with weapons inspectors.
It turned out that all of these claims were thinly veiled lies by the Bush administration. Claim (1) was disproved by Ambassador Joe Wilson. The neocons retaliated against Wilson by exposing the identity of his wife, who was a CIA agent, creating the Valerie Plame Scandal, which has -so far- sent Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, Scooter Libby to prison. Ex-CIA Chief George Bush Senior called the exposure of a CIA agent’s identity, the most “insidious” form of treason.
Claim (2) was proven false when it was discovered that the aluminum tubes were anodized, making them useless for uranium enrichment. Claim (3) was proven false when it was discovered that the trucks were British-made weather balloon trucks, and Claim (4) was contradicted by the weapons inspectors themselves, who reported that the Iraqis were cooperating reasonably well.
All of these claims by the Bush administration were easily proven wrong with just a little effort. Given the resources at Bush’s command, it’s impossible for any impartial mind to conclude that Bush was not lying. The retaliation against Joe Wilson’s family for contradicting one of their biggest lies exposes the fact that they knew they were lying and were resorting to pressure and intimidation against any key individual, who went public with the truth.
We illegally invaded Iraq because of George Bush and the neocons. Over 3,100 American soldiers and an estimated 655,000 Iraqis have died thanks to Bush’s illegal war. Before the war, Iraq was complying with UN resolutions and Saddam Hussein was keeping al Qaeda out of Iraq. Thanks to Bush’s war, al Qaeda now has the opportunity to recruit in Iraq. George Bush has not only waged an illegal war; he has made us LESS safe from terrorism.
We should be impeaching George Bush for treason, but the Republican Party keeps marching in lock step no matter what. In recent months, Bush has been making new claims that Iran is supplying the Iraqi rebels with bombs. Bush is trying to justify a brand new war against Iran, based on alleged incidents in a war that we should never have gotten into.
The Democrats need to begin public investigations into all the lies that led up to the Iraq War. They need to made George Bush’s dishonesty so obvious that no one, but a lunatic will still support him. And they need to begin impeachment proceedings against Bush and Cheney as soon as possible. Nothing less will stop the neocons from further abuses of power.