Well ... the truth of the matter is finally seeping through! I was, of course, premature in thinking about two years ago that Bush might be impeached and you were right in warning me that there was no possibility -- then. But it's looking more possible now, it seems, unless Bush comes up with something fairly soon.
Keith
At 08:14 05/07/2005 -0700, you wrote:
Heres a little something to kick off the work week after the Fourth of July, when editorial pages from Alabama to Dallas and Seattle are beginning to write that while a timetable for withdrawal may be ill advised, a realistic exit strategy is long overdue. In the second half of this, reflect on the recent Zogby Poll (see below) that indicated 42% of the public would support articles of impeachment ifit is proven Bush lied. That 42% included Republicans and independents. - KwC
The Alternative Speech
By Robert Parry, Consortiumnews.com, June 28, 2005
It is hard to even imagine what George W. Bush would have to say if he were serious about leveling with the American peopleover the Iraq War. Here is a draft that would surely not get past the White House speechwriters:
My fellow Americans, let me explain to you what really went wrong with the Iraq policy and why so many young Americans have died in what looks like a futile war without end.
First, you must know that I have long obsessed about getting rid of Saddam Hussein, taking care of some unfinished business from my dads presidency. Theres also a lot of oil there and my neoconservative advisers wanted to project American power into the Middle East.
So when the Sept. 11 attacks occurred, I saw my chance. Vice President Dick Cheney and I began merging references to al-Qaeda and Iraq. That way, the casual listener would start associating Iraq with Sept. 11 subliminally, even if there was no real evidence to support that connection.
We also decided to exaggerate the shaky intelligence we had about Iraqs WMD because we knew that would scare the American people into supporting a war against a country that wasnt threatening us.
Next, I got rid of officials, like Treasury Secretary Paul ONeill and Gen. Eric Shinseki, who had doubts about the Iraq War plans. To keep British Prime Minister Tony Blair on board, we agreed to go to the United Nations, but only because we hoped that Saddam would reject a demand for U.N. inspections and give us a better pretext for war.
When Saddam crossed us up by letting the inspectors in, we started a war hysteria inside the United States. When the French wanted more time for the inspections to work, we turned Franceinto a dirty word, even renaming French toast and French fries into freedom toastand freedom fries.
Before it sank into the American people that the U.N. inspectors werent finding any WMD, I forced the inspectors to leave. Later, after the war was over, when your memories were getting a little fuzzy, I pretended that Hussein had never let the inspectors in and had shown defiance,leaving me no choice but to invade as a last resort.For details on how I pulled off that sleight of hand, see Consortiumnews.coms President Bush, With the Candlestick&
In the first days of the Iraq War, when we realized shock and awedidnt have quite the effect we hoped, I had the U.S. military bomb civilian targets, such as a residential restaurant which we obliterated because of some sketchy information that Saddam might be eating there. We did this even though we knew that civilians would be killed. We were right about the civilians getting killed, but Saddam turned out not to be there.
All these acts that Ive described to you tonight might well be considered war crimes, but I really dont care much about international law. Remember when I reacted to one question about international law by joking, International law? I better call my lawyer.Thats just the way I feel about treaties and other things that try to tie me down.
Some of my critics might say that Ive been a dissembler, which means someone who doesnt tell the truth. But thats just politics.
Well, so now that Ive leveled with you about how we got into this mess, Im sure you feel you can trust me to continue protecting the American people and leading our great nation to victory in Iraq.
As I actually did say in my radio address on June 18, Ill continue to act to keep our people safe from harm and our future bright. Together we will do what Americans have always done: build a better and more peaceful world for our children and grandchildren.
Robert Parry broke many of the Iran-Contra stories in the 1980s for the Associated Press and Newsweek.
Article found at http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0629-27.htm
Original at http://www.consortiumnews.com/2005/062805a.html
Part 2 of War or Impeachment by Robert Parry, Consortiumnews.com, June 29, 2005
Two Choices The second hard truth is that the American people have only two choices on what to do next: they can continue to send their young soldiers into the Iraqi death trap for at least the next several years and hope for the best, or they can build a movement for impeaching George W. Bush and other administration officials and then try to make the best of a bad situation in Iraq.
Although the realistic prospects for electing a Congress in 2006 that would act against Bush may appear slim, an impeachment movement would create at least a focus for a national political campaign, much like the Republicans used the Contract with America to gain their congressional majorities in 1994.
An impeachment strategy would have two other benefits: it would create the framework for an official investigation into the deceptions that led the nation to war in 2002-2003 (as well as into the incompetence with which the war was fought) and it would offer a legal structure for achieving some accountability. No accountability means that a precedent has been set for future presidents misleading the nation into other aggressive wars of choice and paying no price.
While many liberals and Democrats reject an impeachment strategy fearing that it would be too confrontational and carry too many political risks there are dangers, too, in again trying to finesse the Iraq War, as Democrats did in the disastrous elections of 2002 and 2004.
&these two hard truthsthe recognition that the Iraq War fails any reasonable cost-benefit analysis and the realization that only extraordinary political courage can force a change of course are sure not to be part of Bushs new PR push on Iraq, even as the politicians and the pundits say theyre finally levelingwith the American people.
http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0629-27.htm
Zogby: No Bounce from Speech; 42% favor Impeachment if Bush Lied about the War; Americans are tired of partisan bickering. http://www.zogby.com/news/ReadNews.dbm?ID=1007
Note: this poll was taken before OConnors announcement and we began to see articles titled Court Fight May cost $100 Million and Church Groups Set to Launch Massive Campaigns&
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Keith Hudson, Bath, England, <www.evolutionary-economics.org>
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