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| The War is Over! Sept. 9, 2006 President Bush and his Republican cohorts want to leave the impression that we must support the “War” in Iraq! With rare exception, the American people support the efforts of our troops who are now acting as “policemen” as we have become the occupation forces in the nation we “conquered”. The “war is over” - President Bush said it was over three years ago! As long as we remain in Iraq as an occupying army, our young men and women will continue to put their lives on the line, be injured and die. We changed the regime, failed to find weapons of mass destruction, helped establish an Iraqi Constitution, police, military and political system. The people of Iraq have voted and now have their own government. Our continued presence with any more than a training and advisory contingent, will encourage more resistance by the religious groups and their never-ending confrontations. To think otherwise is to deny the history of that region and its fanatical religious supporters. Should Americans continue to be placed at risk and die to perpetuate this? War, by definition, is an activity undertaken against a political or social entity, while the terrorist network is a coalition of individuals. Law enforcement, by definition, is an activity undertaken against just such individuals or networks. Law enforcement is the use of force against individuals who violate the law. It targets individual suspects and accomplices. If a crime syndicate takes root in a state or city, law enforcement doesn’t bomb the city’s infrastructure and terrorize entire neighborhoods with tanks, helicopters, grenades, house-to-house raids, mass arrests, torture, and other intended and “unintended” consequences. True, we must “do something” about terrorism. International law enforcement; not war. Initiating an illegal war to carry out a police action creates more enemies for U.S. citizens and places this country in further jeopardy. Republicans are arguing that we need to “win the war in Iraq” and that Democrats stand for ending the war. Democrats should be saying: ”We are not calling for an end to the war - The war is over! We’re calling for an end to the occupation of Iraq.” Conservatives Today are Fascists of 60 Years Ago! | Sept. 9, 2006 By J.Jay Evenson Guest Commentary Once upon a time, I was a Conservative! Barry Goldwater introduced me as a “real conservative” and the head of the Arizona John Birth Society (of which I was NOT a member) stated publicly that I was more Conservative than the JBS! I resigned from the Republican party when Nixon repeatedly lied to the American people, but I stayed close enough to support Ronald Reagan for the Presidency. I was a charter member of his Presidential Transition Foundation and a guest at some White House social functions. At the outset I disapproved of Reagan’s choice for VP (George H.W. Bush) but I thought my political hero would solve all problems, despite people like Bush. By the time President Reagan ran for his second term, I was totally disenchanted with him and the GOP. Eventually I realized that the President (Reagan) really didn’t have as much power as most believe. He is at the mercy of those around him. Conservatives today are not the conservatives of 30 or 40 years ago! While old-time conservatives were often somewhat religious, they kept religion out of politics and law. They respected the Constitution, the Rights of others and the First Amendment. Back in the 60s, a conservative believed in strict adherence to the Constitution, keeping government out of the private affairs of the people, and government providing only those services that the individual or local government was not reasonably able to provide. Most candidates for public office, today, who classify themselves as Conservatives or reformists, are really advocating various degrees of fascism! They are religious to the core and want their religious beliefs adopted as laws for everyone to obey. Instead of upholding and defending the Constitution, they look for ways to justify circumventing the provisions of that document and the Rights of individuals. Most of the political spectrum has shifted dramatically to the right - so far to the right that old time Conservatives are now ultra-right wing religious Fascists - and the socialist left wing is now closer to the conservative positions from 50 years ago. It is interesting that George W. Bush is now claiming that anyone who opposes his views or his occupation of Iraq must be a fascist. This from the man who circumvented the Constitution by having his friend and oil-company cohort, Dick Cheney, change residence so he could be the VP; this from the man who ignores judges and Congress to violate the Constitutional Rights of the people; this from the man who lied to the world about WMDs in Iraq, to justify invading that country. And the reasons for all this circumvention of the U.S. Constitution - not to take possession of the Iraqi oil fields, but to have control so that Saddam Hussein could not undercut OPEC oil prices by selling his oil to France, Germany and others on the black market. A law passed by Congress in 1974 allows Cheney-Bush and companies to charge the same price for oil as is charged on the international market. When Saddam sold oil cheaper than OPEC, the cost of oil went down. Now that the Iraqi oil is no longer available, the price of oil goes up and so do the profits of Cheney and Bush supporters! The old saying “Too soon we get old, too late we get smart” certainly applies in some areas of politics. |