It's time, America. If you have to ask "Time for what?", you're not paying attention.First, we had 9/11. Warnings from the out-going Clinton administration were ignored beacuse they were from the Clinton administration. So we had more than 3000 people killed that day. Bush said no one could have foreseen that anyone would do something like fly a jetliner into a skyscraper. And yet Hollywood foresaw it! They featured that very scenario in the pilot episode of "The Lone Gunman", a spin-off of the popular "X-Files".
But Bush and his cronies profitted greatly from 9/11 in more ways than one. Bush now had the "spark" he needed to launch his long-planned revenge against Saddam Hussein. But first, he'd have to go after bin Laden. He announced a "war on terrorism"— a war he said it may take a very long time to fight (which also incidentally put it in the subconscious thought of all Americans that this would be expensive, both monetarily and in terms of American lives lost.) But Americans were scared and they didn't have time to think. They did what people who are scared instinctually do: they look to their leader for guidance and to tell them what to do.
Suddenly, less than six weeks after 9/11, a seven-hundred page piece of legislation called the PATRIOT Act was enacted by Congress. (Did you ever wonder how they put together such a far-reaching and long piece of legislation in just six weeks while they were spending all that time and all those resources on discovering the identities of the hijackers and how they were able to thwart US intelligence?) Parts of that act were introduced less than a week after 9/11. The Electronic Privacy and Information Center (EPIC) notes that, "Though the Act made significant amendments to over 15 important statutes, it was introduced with great haste and passed with little debate, and without a House, Senate, or conference report....Senator Thomas Daschle, the majority leader, sought unanimous consent to pass the proposal without debate or amendment; Senator Russ Feingold was the only member to object."1 [Emphasis mine.] This one single act undermines virtually every right guaranteed in the US Constitution. But I digress. This isn't about the unconstitutionality of the PATRIOT Act.
To date, the war in Afghanistan has cost 235 American soldiers their lives with the yearly deaths increasing every year. This year already so far, 77 Americans have been killed, which, if this pace continues through the end of the year, will almost double the total deaths from 2004. The number of civilian dead in Afghanistan will never be known. As of July, 2004 (the latest figures I could find), more than 3400 civilians had already lost their lives and another 6200 had been seriously injured.2 And there is no end in sight.
Just over 18 months after 9/11, on March 19, 2003, Bush illegally invaded the sovereign nation of Iraq in what has been called a "pre-emptive strike". It has since come to light not only that the "intelligence" upon which both the US and Great Britain based their infomration was a thesis paper that was ten years old, but the Downing Street Memos3 clearly show that the US had already decided to invade Iraq and that the intelligence was fixed in order to justify that invasion. Just about six weeks later, May, 2003, Bush stood aboard an aircraft carrier and declared "Mission accomplished!" That was after 139 US soldiers had lost their lives. Two years, 4 months and 17564 additional US deaths later, we're still embroiled in Iraq with no exit strategy. No weapons of mass destruction were ever found. No terrorist links between Hussein and bin Laden ever existed (although now Iraq has become a prime training ground for terrorists who are working with the Iraqis who want the US out). No democracy has been installed in Iraq and the new "constitution" they are developing leaves the women in Iraq in a much worse position than they were before the invasion. Additionally, there are, by very conservative estimates, more than 24,000 Iraqi civilians dead. That doesn't include the more than 44,000 who have been seriously injured.
Neither the deaths of Afghani or Iraqi citizens as the result of their inability to get to hospitals, their inability to buy food or lack of clean water, etc. are included in these totals. Nor are the potentially tens of thousands who will die as a result of long-term exposure to the depleted uranium bombs the US is dropping on both nations. But the DU bombs don't only claim civilians in far of lands as their victims. There is a growing feeling among doctors treating military vets and their families that the cause of many of the ailments (ie, Gulf War Syndrome, increased cancer rates, etc) are caused by the exposure to the radiation these bombs contain.5 Nor does it include the mental health issues that many soldiers must deal with once they get back to the US. Such problems usually don't even show up for four to five months after their return.6 Nor do those figures touch on the problems that have been caused for the families of those members of the National Guard who aren't used to having their loved one gone for months on end and divorce and foreclosures on homes and cars for the families of the Guard members are on the rise.
As if two wars aren't enough, Bush has been posturing lately about Iran7, once again threatening that we're going to leave all our options open— even the nuclear one. And this time, the "nuclear option" isn't just ending the minority party in Congress' ability to filibuster. In a story that appeared in the Washington Post on the fourth anniversary of 9/118, it details the revised options for the use of pre-emptive nuclear attacks under certain conditions, like the "intent" to use weapons of mass destruction against the US or her allies. Had such a policy been in effect before we invaded Iraq, it would have allowed Bush to justify the use of nuclear bombs. Of course, there's no doubt he'd not have used that option: it would have rendered the oil there pretty useless. The question begs asking where Bush thinks he's going to get the troops for this possible war when military recruiters can't even keep the quotas they require for peacetime.
While all the loss of life, environmental destruction, loss of liberty, cronyism and class warfare engaged in by this misadministration are more than enough to warrant an immediate change of command, it all pales when compared to the disaster they created in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast in the wake of hurricane Katrina. The absuridy of his claims that "no one could have anticipated" the breach of the levees simply boggles the mind, especially in light of a FEMA conference that discussed that very possibility in August, 2001!9 The man didn't even end his vacation to return to Washington until three days after the storm! Condeleeza Rice was, at that same time, shopping in New York and buying $1500 shoes! Cheney was on vacation in Wyoming and shopping for a new multi-million dollar home! The man Bush put in charge of FEMA padded his resume10 and was fired from running an association for Arabian horses because of his poor management skills! Even Newt Gingrich has realized that the federal government's response to Katrina is indicative that Bush's policies have done nothing to make this country safer.11 In fact, it could argue that those same policies have decreased the level of readiness to handle a disaster: our troops are spread far to thin, the military is demoralized fighting a war based on lies with equipment that their families have to supplement because the DOD doesn't seem to be able to provide them with what they need, the top levels of government are filled with Bush cronies who, out of fear of losing their jobs, simply agree with the president and now, after seeing just how inefficient and unprepared our department of "homeland security" is (the very name makes me cringe), the terrorists who would harm innocent Americans have seen the folly of Bush's policies and know them for what they are: worthless. I could go on for pages about the utter negligence of this administration when it comes to Katrina, but Jon Stewart of the Daily Show has summed it up so nicely in a way that provides a much-needed laugh in these dark days. You can view the video here.
What absolutely boggles my mind is how Bush can still have an approval rating as high as he does. What kind of fear must these people live with in their daily lives to be willing to follow such an incompetent leader so blindly and so zealously? To the rest of Americans, it's time. If you still have to ask for what, this nation is in more trouble than I thought.
For a more detailed look at the agenda of the radical religious right, who pulls the strings of this puppet government, you can click here.
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