Political Cortex: Brain Food for the Body Politic

What you ardent Bushies don't want to talk about and hope we have forgotten is why we went to Iraq.  Have you ever heard of the term used frequently in legal circles, causal relationship, Congressman Boehner?  

Perhaps Karl Rove or Dick Cheney during this period in which Bush, according to Newsweek, holds a 30 percent approval rating, which is somewhat less than glossy, did not have time to inform you, but the causal relationship factor is critical to what is happening.

The reason that those all too gullible folks at the Capitol voted initial authorization concerning an Iraq action involved an anticipated "mushroom cloud" delivered by Sadddam Hussein.  This is what we kept hearing in those frantic speeches from Bush, Cheney, Rice and Powell.

Shame on those members of the Senate and House who signed on for not demanding more evidence!  To many of us the request smacked of the kind of blank check so reminiscent of Vietnam and the Gulf of Tonkin resolution of President Lyndon B. Johnson.  Many of us remember how it was used to launch all out war in Vietnam.  

The frantic warnings and your fallacious linking of the Iraq War to the American Revolution and sustaining liberty throughout the world are so reminiscent of Vietnam, Congressman Boehner.  

We recall the domino theory and the oft stated fears that if we did not stop this onrushing Communist tide in Southeast Asia that we would be forced to fight off an invasion in San Francisco Harbor.  Then again, the "Great Communicator" Ronald Reagan warned us that if we did not finish off the "dangerous" Sandinista regime of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua that we were vulnerable to invasion by his forces via Harlingen, Texas.  

Neither one of those invasions occurred, Congressman, and that's right, Grenada also posed a threat to liberty!  You Republicans have used that tired line more often than the little boy who cried wolf.  

So now you vigilant Republicans turn again toward preserving liberty.  How touching in your case, Congressman Boehner.

You supported that towering liberty advocate in your state, Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, who managed to steal Ohio for Bush in 2004 and with it the election.  Four years earlier Jeb Bush and Katherine Harris accomplished the same result in Florida, with prominent assistance from the Federalist Society wing of the Supreme Court, namely Antonin Scalia and Clarence Thomas.

Democracy, Congressman Boehner?  What, pray tell, do you Bush-Cheney Republicans know about that subject?  To you democracy means more billions in tax cuts for the bloated lobbyists and corporate gluttons while more Americans drop below the poverty line.  

Sell your Republican democracy idea to the increasing numbers of Americans sleeping in alleyways and under bridges, Congressman Boehner, along with those without any health care.  

You didn't get Vietnam so naturally you don't get Iraq, either, which is anything but surprising.  Maybe we can help you out.  

In Vietnam, Congressman, there was that poll taken by the CIA way back in 1955 that revealed that, if a national election were held, that enemy the Republican right so badly feared, Ho Chi Minh, would win 90 percent of the vote.

In short, Congressman, we were really not wanted over there.  We were only deluded by twisted rhetoric into thinking we were.  We sought to "save" people who were actually saying "no thanks" and so the whole episode ended with death, horrific bloodshed, and ultimate disaster.

So now we have your exalted Mr. Bush thrusting his fist in the air and exclaiming "Feels good!" as the first bombs fall on Baghdad in Rumsfeld's first wave of shock and awe, which we have been told is so sophisticated that the bombs will discriminate and kill only the deserving, meaning Saddam's legions, and not civilians.  

Well, it didn't quite turn out that way.

You are missing a fundamental equation, Congressman Boehner.  The Iraqi people did not like having 655,000 of their citizens die as widespread civil war erupted in their nation.  

Arabs throughout the Middle East feared that this was only Act One of an unfolding drama in which the neocon game plan, the Project for the New American Century, was finally being put into action.

The fight against terrorism?  You have it all backwards, Congressman.  

While test after test reveal that we are more vulnerable than ever to attacks on our own shores we have solidified the cause of the forces you fear most.  Your enemies successfully implore Arabs to advance on Iraq and thwart an American invader seeking to establish a New World Order on their oil rich terrain.

Polls in Iraq and the United States reveal a unity that you and the vigilant warriors for freedom, meaning those seeking to keep the world safe for Halliburton and Bechtel, have displayed the kind of unity that you, Bush and Cheney do not wish to think about, much less acknowledge.

The majorities of the citizenries of the U.S. and Iraq have reached the same conclusion.  They want American forces to leave Iraq.  Are you listening, Congressman?  Do you believe in democracy?  These voices are speaking loud and clear.

Let's stop the carnage, Congressman Boehner.  Let's end the tragic parade of coffins and badly wounded returnees in stretchers and on crutches.

If you are really interested in democracy, go back to Ohio and start cleaning up  corruption in your own backyard.