http://www.capitolhillblue.com/artman/publish/article_8730.shtml

The coward-in-chief dishonors those who served

By DOUG THOMPSON

May 30, 2006


I wish I could say that only George W. Bush had the gall to stand up
on a day set aside to honor those who died in service to their country
and use that day as a propaganda backdrop to promote an illegal and
immoral war.

But Bush is just the leader of a gang of opportunists who use war to
promote political agendas, fatten wallets and profit from mercenary
greed.

From those in Congress, Republican and Democrat, who blindly voted to
give Bush the power to wage war to his fat cat friends at Halliburton
who profit daily from no-bid contracts to the many contractors,
mercenaries and profiteers who get rich on the death and suffering of
others, the brutal realities of the Iraq invasion dishonored those who
died to serve their country.

Yet another American soldier died in Iraq on Memorial Day, along with
two members of a CBS news crews and dozens of Iraqi civilians as
suicide bombers and car bombs decimated the streets and roads of the
country.

Bush callously stood before the families of Americans who have died in
war and used the day to promote his failed Iraq agenda, talking
cruelly of "completing missions" and staying the course.

It is a dishonor to those who died for Bush to even set foot in
Arlington Cemetery.

He hid like a coward during the Vietnam War, seeking refuge in the
Texas Air Guard and then compounding the insult by not even completing
his assigned duties in that non-combat unit.

And it is a sad, cruel irony that this coward, who used the National
Guard to hide from war now, more than any other President, sends
members of the Guard and Reserves into Iraq to die for his war based
on lies and a pre-determined political agenda.

The evidence says Bush planned a war with Iraq even before taking the
Presidency in the disputed 2000 election.

He talked about the need to "eliminate Saddam Hussein" during the
campaign, hinted at it during his inaugural speech and then ordered
the Pentagon to prepare plans for an invasion as one of his first
actions as President.

When the nation reeled from the shock and horror of the 9/11 attacks,
Bush showed no surprise or shock.

He finished reading a children's story to a group of elementary school
kids, then climbed into Air Force One and calmly told his assembled
group of staff and advisors that "OK, we're at war."

Within hours, targets were identified, plans readied and invasion
orders prepared.

In retrospect, it was all too convenient, too prepared, too scripted.

A President who wanted desperately to go to war had his excuse and the
backing of a shell-shocked Congress and numbed American population.

Over the last four-and-a-half years, however, realization has replaced
shock and we see more clearly how manipulation of events led to a war
that was always part of the plan.

As I watched Bush deliver his Memorial Day speech at Arlington
Cemetery Monday, I saw a man without an ounce of grief or remorse.

Bush delivered his speech in a cold, calculated way, using a day of
honor for dishonorable purposes, exploiting a time of memoriam to
further his political agenda.

The debacle of Iraq will forever define the Presidency of George W.
Bush as a monumental failure.

But that is a political failure.

Bush's loyalty lies not with the American people but with special
interests that have long owned him.

Those interests - the Halliburtons, the vast corporate defense
industrial cabal and the mercenaries who always profit from war - got
what they wanted.

They won, but America lost, and that loss will haunt this nation for
many, many years.

_______________________________________________________________

2,468 American troops are dead, 18,184 have been wounded, tens of
thousands of innocent Iraqis are dead and wounded in deranged Bush's
insane war.

Harry