According to the memo, Bush created an elaborate plot to invade Iraq as early as 2002. Therefore, all that talk about aluminum tubes, portable biological labs and weapons of mass destruction was nothing more than verbal theatrics. Bush's endlessly reiterated phrase that war was to be used 'only as a last resort' was deceptive, as were the threats to Saddam to 'turn over' weapons of mass destruction. Feeding concocted 'evidence' to an angry, gullible America, Bush utilized the unstable political climate after Sept. 11 to drive America into war.This Downing Street Memo, and other revelations, should gives us pause as we reflect on the meaning of our duty to our country. This war in Iraq is taking patriotism too far by deliberately abusing and exploiting it mercilessly.
...This massive scandal will not go away. The president's apparently soiled hands are dyed with the blood of more than 1,700 American soldiers and 100,000 Iraqi citizens. The potential crimes of George Bush reduce Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton's misdeeds into subjects for a comedy act.
But this is no time for laughter.
America's credibility, its conscience and soul, stand at a crossroad. George Bush should be thoroughly investigated by a congressional committee or independent counsel. And, if these allegations hold true, Bush should be impeached and then imprisoned for war crimes against humanity.
We the people need not feel responsible for some weakling President (elected or not) who can't control his emotions. He has let his obviously troubled relationship with his father cause him to blindly and willfully take us to war. Knowing he could bring enough of the gullible, the fearful and the weak along with him (and knowing HOW to do that), he engaged in a thoroughly deceitful campaign that succeeded just enough to ensure us falling into this "no-win" situation in which we now find ourselves. Make no mistake, he waged this foolish war more for reasons of his own personal failings as much as any issues of national security or global significance.
Those of our leaders who participated in and supported this campaign, and those who continue to support them, are the villains here. So now we have ourselves in another quagmire, just as we've known them in the past. Don't be surprised when, soon, we start seeing pictures of Iraq in the dictionary entry for 'quagmire', right along side the aging, dusty images of Vietnam that have lived in that entry these many years.
The headline above links you to Spero's article in The Desert Sun, Palm Springs, CA.
