The Final Act of Submission
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_final_act_of_submission/
Posted on Apr 13, 2007

By Scott Ritter

In the months leading up to President Bush’s ill-fated invasion of Iraq,
I traveled around the world speaking to various international groups,
including many parliamentary assemblies. I spoke about democracy and
the need of any nation or group of nations espousing democracy as a
standard to embrace the ideals and values of justice and due process in
accordance with the rule of law. I spoke of international law,
especially as it was manifested in the charter of the United Nations (a
document signed and adopted by all of the countries I visited).

Invariably, my presentation focused on the nation in question, whether
it was Italy, Denmark, the Netherlands, Japan or Great Britain, and the
status of its relationship with the United States. As an American, I
said, I appreciated each nation’s embrace of the United States as a
friend and ally. However, as a strong believer in the rule of law, I
deplored the trend among America’s so-called friends to facilitate a
needless confrontation which would severely harm the U.S. in the long
run. These nations were hesitant to stand up to the United States even
though they knew the course of action planned for Iraq was wrong.

Such permissive submission was deplorable, and invariably led to a
comment from me about the status of genuine sovereignty in the face of
American imperial power. If a nation was incapable of defending its
sovereign values and interests, then it should simply acknowledge its
status as a colony of the United States, pull down its disgraced
national flag and raise the Stars and Stripes.

Now the tables have turned. Americans, through the will of the people
as expressed in the November 2006 election, voiced their dissatisfaction
with the conduct of the American war in Iraq, and empowered a new
Democratic-controlled Congress to reassert itself as a separate but
equal branch of government—especially when it came to matters pertaining
to war and the threat of war.

This new Democratic leadership has failed egregiously. Not only has the
speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, been unable to orchestrate any
meaningful legislation to bring the war in Iraq to an end, but in
mid-March she carelessly greased the tracks for a whole new conflict. By
excising language from a defense appropriations bill which would have
required President Bush to seek the approval of Congress prior to
initiating any military attack on Iran, Pelosi terminated any hope of
slowing down the Bush administration’s mad rush to war.

Despite the fact that Congress was only stating through this language a
simple reflection of constitutional mandate, Speaker Pelosi and others
felt that the inclusion of such verbiage put the security of the state
of Israel at risk by eliminating important “policy options” for the
president of the United States. In short, Israeli national security
interests trumped the Constitution of the United States.

I consider myself to be a friend of Israel, a status which has been
demonstrated repeatedly through words and deeds from January-February
1991, when I was involved in the effort to stop Iraq Scud missiles from
striking Israel during the 1991 Gulf War, to the period between October
1994 and June 1998 when I served as the lead liaison between the United
Nations weapons inspectors and Israeli intelligence, working to find a
final accounting of Iraq’s proscribed weapons of mass destruction. I
know only too well the precarious reality of Israel’s security
situation, and am sympathetic to its need to proactively deal with
threats before they manifest themselves in a manner which threatens
Israel’s ability to survive as a nation-state.

However, as an American who served on active duty in time of war as an
officer of Marines, I also remember the oath I took to “uphold and
defend the Constitution of the United States of America against all
enemies, foreign and domestic.” As such, I am troubled by the recent
actions of Speaker Pelosi and other members of Congress who have not
only abrogated their collective responsibility to uphold and defend the
Constitution but have taken actions which, under normal circumstances
and involving any other nation, would border on treasonous. Our
collective duty as Americans must center on defending the very document,
the Constitution, which defines who we are and what we are as a people
and a nation. To have our elected representatives flagrantly push aside
their constitutional responsibilities in the name of the security
interests of another nation is unthinkable. And yet it has just
happened, apparently without consequence.

Sadly, the new Democratic Congress has cemented its status as yet
another iteration of a system which long ago sold its soul to special
interests. Democrats can cackle about Republican scandals, including
the Jack Abramoff affair, which brought down Rep. Tom DeLay among
others. But history will show that the Pelosi-led sellout to Israeli
special interests endangered the viability and security of America as a
sovereign state governed by the rule of law more than Jack Abramoff ever
could.

In this time of constitutional crisis, the American people need to wake
up and demand that the basic tenets of the Constitution be adhered to.
Congress is solely empowered by the Constitution to declare war.
Demanding that the president of the United States adhere to this
prerequisite is a logical and patriotic stance. Allowing any
non-American interest, even one possessing such highly charged political
and emotional sensitivities as Israel, to dictate otherwise represents
nothing more than a capitulation of sovereignty. We the people need to
rally around this defense of sovereignty. We must demand not only that
Congress reassert its constitutional responsibilities and authority by
demanding the president obey the letter of the law when it comes to war,
whether against Iran or any other nation, but also to place in check the
anti-American activities of one of the most powerful lobbies in
Washington, D.C., the American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee.

For decades AIPAC has operated in the shadows of American foreign policy
decision-making, exerting its influence on elected officials away from
the public scrutiny of the very constituents who elected those officials
to begin with. It is impossible to hold someone accountable for actions
that are kept secret, and as such AIPAC’s ability to secretly influence
American foreign and national security policies represents a flagrant
insult and threat to the very essence of American democracy. I am not
advocating the dissolution of AIPAC. However, I am demanding that AIPAC
be treated as any other representative of a foreign nation is treated.
It should have to register as an agent of a foreign power so that the
totality of its interactions with American officials can become a part
of the public record. We require this of all other nations, including
our good friends the British.

To state that AIPAC, and by extension Israel, is above the law in this
regard is to acknowledge the reality that American national sovereignty
no longer matters when it comes to the state of Israel. So be it. But
then we are, collectively, no better than those nations I mocked prior
to the invasion of Iraq in 2003 as “colonies” of the United States. So
if we are to continue to permit AIPAC to operate as an undeclared agent
of a foreign nation, and to influence American foreign and national
security policymaking at the expense of our Constitution, then we should
acknowledge our true status as nothing more than a colony of Israel,
pull down the Stars and Stripes and raise the Star of David over our
nation’s capitol. While representing the final act of submission, it
would also be the first truly honest act that occurred in Washington,
D.C., in many years.

The Final Act of Submission
http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/the_final_act_of_submission/
Posted on Apr 13, 2007

By Scott Ritter