Dubious Democracy
The American people should be watching. They should want to know if members of the Republican party are capable of dealing with the truth even though it may go against their partisan inclinations. The Downing Street memo raises serious question about a sitting President LYING to the American people about his intentions for war. The Downing memo also raises questions of this President LYING to the United States Congress. If the President can be shown to have lied and had the lie been discovered prior to our engagement in Iraq than this President should have only faced censure. Sadly, this lie has directly led to the deaths of thousands of people. Congress might not have voted to authorize the use of force in Iraq had they been aware that this President already had made up his mind to take this country to war.
Some have chalked up the President's intentions to a simple matter of politics i.e. planning for political contingencies. An objective and non-partisan analysis should reveal that if these allegations are in fact true they would be the most deplorable actions a President could ever take and would be no less than depraved, grotesque and disloyal to the values and laws of this country in using our Congress and our troops in an endeavor which has destoyed thousands of lives based upon false pretenses.
Logic dictates that if this President had already made up his mind to go to war and willing to lie to our nation to do so, the facts used to justify the war were of no importance. It just had to be marketable to the American people. If we can assume that the President knew that Iraq possessed no WMD and had no connections to Al-Queda, like the experts were claiming before the invasion, then the question that we may never find an answer to is what is the real reason or reasons that we went to war? Was it oil? Strategic positioning for a future war against Iran? Payback to campaign contributors? Familial retribution? We may never know but the Downing Street memo raises the issue that this President did not care about the facts so long as the end result was war.
That leaves our soldiers in a incredibly difficult situation. The problem is with the oath that every soldier must make,
"I,____________, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same; and that I will obey the orders of the President of the United States and the orders of the officers appointed over me, according to the regulations and the Uniform Code of Military Justice. So help me God"
According to the Uniform Code of Military Justice every soldier must obey LAWFUL orders of their superiors including the Commander-in-Chief. The internal conflict within the soldier that the Downing Street memo could raise is if President George W. Bush did in fact lie us into war violating the constitution and international law. If that did in fact occur our soldiers would be under no obligation to follow his illegal orders. Imagine 150,000 armed troops realizing that not only do they not have to follow the illegal orders of this Commander-in-Chief but that over 1700 of their brothers and sisters have died for a lie.
Is the memo in and of itself reason for impeachment? Absolutely not but it does leave us asking some very serious questions that MUST be resolved. Depending upon the answers to these questions the President of the United States may be impeached. That point is well off. First, questions must be asked of the principals in hearings by the Congress. Questions to Sir Richard Dearlove, Jack Straw and Matthew Rycroft who are responsible for the content of the memo. Questions like do you dispute the minutes contained within the memo? Who did you meet with in the U.S.? When did you meet? What was discussed? Were you told that this President wanted to go to war with Iraq? Was an ultimatum issued to Iraq so that war could be legally justified? Was any other nation brought into the discussions about Iraq prior to the U.N. resolution? Who ordered the escalation of the bombing of Iraq prior to the start of the war and the U.N. resolution, to the point of dropping twice as many bombs as the previous year in a matter of months? How was this legally justified? Was intelligence being presented to the American people, the United Nations and Congress knowingly false or inflated to justify war? Is it known whether or not this administration was intent upon war despite the reality of the situation?
These questions must be asked of the highest members of our government. Failure to ask them goes way beyond partisan control and goes directly the heart of our democracy. If the Republicans cannot rise above what's good for their party for the greater good of the United States of America this experiment known as democracy is frankly headed towards failure.
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