by Timothy Gatto
I want to address this article to all of our Democratic legislators,
federal, state and local, to all of the speech writers and fund
raisers, and to all of the analysts, especially the political analysts
who advise our elected officials. I would pay attention to what this
article is about and at least think about it, whether or not you take
what I say to heart or not. Just understand this; if you take what I
say and keep it in the back of your minds, some of what you see and
what you hear will become more clear, unless you are so wrapped up in
personal and corporate agendas that you just disregard my words as
those of a know nothing radical.
I’m a former career Army man that retired in 1995. I am originally
from NY but retired here to South Carolina after spending ten years in
Florida. I have two Senators and a congressman that are so right wing
that I might as well have no representation in Congress. That might
bother me except for this nagging thought that most of us have no real
representation in Congress. Why do I say that? I will get to that
subject soon. Please stay with me here.
We are embroiled in a pre-emptive war. This is a war that was started
by us against a nation that had not done anything to warrant an
invasion from the United States. Some say it was to obtain oil, others
say it was to stop the oil from flowing so that American oil
corporations could reap more profits (read “Armed Madhouse by Gregg
Palast, Plume Books). Some say it is to put an American presence in
the Middle East, some say it was to install a US friendly democracy
there. Whatever the reason, the war was wrong. Everyone in this nation
except for the rightist of the right, and extreme neo-cons, all
believe that this war was immoral and there is a running debate as to
whether it is even legal.
Whatever the facts are, this war does not benefit the American people.
It might benefit certain politicians and certain corporations, but as
far as it having any real benefits to the American people, it has
none. There should have never been an authorization for the use of
force, but hindsight is 20-20. What is disturbing is that now, after
everything that has been discovered about WMD’s and the plans of
Saddam Hussien, we are still occupying Iraq. You may counter this
charge with something like we are not “occupying Iraq, but that is
semantics, we are in reality, occupying a nation that is in the middle
of a civil war that our actions have brought about. As a former
soldier, I will tell you that we have no chance of winning this war
with the assets that we have on the ground in Iraq. The American
people know this too.
The 2006 elections were in reality a referendum against this war. You
have held a circus on Capitol Hill with your non-binding “timetable
for pullout of American Forces from Iraq that you all knew would be
vetoed by this administration, yet you did it anyway. This was a
political stunt and does nothing to change the facts of where we are
at today. You can water down the spending bill and bring it to the
White house again and if it is not what this President wants, it will
be vetoed again. Eventually, Americans will tire of you not
“supporting the troops, as the Republican controlled mainstream media
will cast you as “unpatriotic and you will eventually give this
President what he wants. You will then have another “talking point
for your 2008 election campaigns. The American people know this too.
We realize that you are playing politics with this war.
We also realize that we have lost many of our constitutional rights
during this phoney “War on Terror. This war is nothing more than a
way to limit the rights of American citizens. So far we have seen
Posse Comitatus severely weakened with a rider to the Insurrection
Act. We have seen the President allow suspect treatment of prisoner of
war. Some equate this torture with the Military Commissions Act of
2006, which by the way, also threw out the Writ of Habeas Corpus to
any “enemy combatant tried on non-US territory. We now have a
concentration camp built at Guantanamo, Cuba. We have seen this
President let the NSA use Wiretaps and electronic surveillance against
US citizens in violation of the FISA court that allows this by letting
the government get a warrant 72 hours after the act. We have seen the
Patriot Act allow Federal Investigators to search our homes without
our knowledge if as long as we are designated “terrorists agents. We
have also seen this President use “signing statements continuously
since he took office that allows him to abridge laws he doesn’t feel
that he should observe in the name of a wartime “Unitary Presidency.
We saw the lies leading up to the invasion of Iraq and we see these
same lies being used in regard to Iran. In a few days we will see
Three Aircraft Carrier Battle Groups off the coast of Iran while
Congress does nothing. This is the largest concentration of sea power
in the history of the world and this raises no concerns in Congress?
For all of the issues I have described, the US Congress does nothing
concrete to stop the abuse of power or to restore the rights that
American citizens have lost during the last six years. The 9/11
attacks have not been throughly investigated as to just who was
responsible for these attacks and why there were so many odd
circumstances surrounding the attacks. Even if Osama Bin Laden was
totally responsible for these attacks, we should still have a criminal
investigation to put this matter to rest. Also, someone in the
administration outed Valerie Plame, putting her and her colleagues in
danger and destroying her use as a covert agent. If this investigation
lands at the President’s or Vice-President’s door, they should be
impeached and prosecuted.
The American People are well aware of what needs to be done. The
American People are well aware of who needs to do it. This President
and his Vice President need to be impeached. You might believe that it
is only the far left that wants this, and this could well be the
mistake of judgement that destroys the Democratic Party once and for
all. We realize that you are letting American soldiers continue to be
used as target practice so that Democrats can still have the Iraq war
for a campaign issue next year. The American People know this also and
they are not happy about it. You authorized this war and as Senator
Gravel has said, Congress can Un-authorize this war. You can impeach,
do whatever it takes to stop the killing that has taken over 600,000
Iraqi lives and over 3,300 American ones, not counting those that die
in the air on the way to Ramstien or the ones that die Stateside. We
have estimates of 35,000 severely wounded, I suspect more. We are in
an immoral war and we have an almost dictatorial President and
Congress plays political theater.
I said at the beginning of this article not to discount what I will
say. I say that again. I haven’t touched on half of the issues that
American citizen’s are furious about. I am not a seer, nor do I make
empty threats. I am just letting you know that for all of your bluster
and political circus, we see the Kucinich bill ignored by Congress and
we see Congress continue to fund this war time and time again. We are
starting to realize that there isn’t a dime’s worth of difference
between the Democrats and Republicans. We know that your campaigns are
financed by corporate interests and special interest groups, yet
everyone snickered when Sen Gravel said that our government is
controlled by the Military Industrial Complex. The American people
know who you owe favors too and who is responsible for putting most of
you in office, and it isn’t the American people. We know for example
that The Lady Speaker had 66% of her campaign paid for by corporations
and special interest groups. Harry Reid only had 29.9% from PAC’s.
Rep. Steny Hoyer, The Majority leader in Congress had over 72% paid by
Pac’s for his campaign.(opensecrets.org, The Center for Responsive
Politics) These numbers are scandalous. In fact, what has happened to
the Federal government for the last six years is scandalous. Just
remember this, the American people want results and we want then soon.
Consider this a wake-up call. Go back to business as usual, and you
might find in 2008 you have no business.
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