← Autodidact Archive · Original Dissent · Angler
Thread ID: 14360 | Posts: 1 | Started: 2004-06-29
2004-06-29 09:41 | User Profile
(The source of the following stomach-turning filth is the Chicago Sun-Times: [url]http://www.suntimes.com/output/laney/cst-edt-laney28.html[/url] -- Angler)
Time to stop playing politics with war to save our lives June 28, 2004 By Mary Laney
It's time. In fact, it's way past time to stop playing politics with the war.
While our brave servicemen and women are involved in life and death battles, on Capitol Hill lawmakers have been looking into their navels, calling for no end to investigations into who knew what when, who leaked what to what reporter, and what soldiers humiliated Iraqi prisoners. They've been doing anything and everything to distract from the fact that we, along with our allies, are at war.
Yes, we're in the final months leading up to a presidential election, but what's at stake now is beyond partisanship. We're in a war of civilizations. America has been attacked -- not just once, but twice here at home, and also in Europe, Africa, in the air, on the sea, and in American embassies, Marine and Air Force barracks. It's been going on for years while our elected officials looked the other way.
Each year the attacks have gotten bolder. Perhaps the Muslim zealots behind these attacks decided America was weak and would not retaliate.
Maybe they thought America would just try the cases in court and take no further action. That might be what they thought when they staged their boldest and most gruesome attack on Sept. 11, 2001, hijacking airliners full of innocent men, women and children and flying them into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.
On Capitol Hill now, partisan lawmakers still claim this is an unjust war. They're saying that there was no proof that Iraq was behind the deadly attacks of 9/11.
That argument should have ended this month. Russian President Vladimir Putin made a stunning admission in a news conference two Fridays ago. Putin announced that, after the 9/11 attacks -- and before President Bush ordered an attack on Iraq -- Russian intelligence officers learned that Iraq's President Saddam Hussein was planning an attack on America and warned Bush.
According to Putin, Russia's intelligence "received information that officials from Saddam's regime were preparing terrorist attacks in the United States and outside it against U.S. military and other interests."
Putin told reporters that Bush thanked the Russians for the information. Again, remember, this was before we attacked Iraq. This was information coming to us about Saddam, who had used weapons of mass destruction against his enemies and even on his own people.
The news conference should have been big news on Capitol Hill. After all, it came from the Russian president, who had voted in the United Nations against America taking action against Iraq.
But on Capitol Hill, what do we hear? Sen. Ted Kennedy (D-Mass.) still railing about a few American soldiers who humiliated Iraqi prisoners. Has he said a word about the beheadings of innocent civilians by the Islamofascist Muslims? Has he spoken out about the true torture that took place in that Baghdad prison before America's arrival -- tortures where women were raped in front of their husbands, and prisoners' fingers, hands, ears and tongues were cut off? Has he or his fellow party members spoken out about the mass graves Saddam left behind in the desert?
No.
Politics is one thing. There is a time and a place for it. But don't play politics with the lives of Americans.
And it's not just Capitol Hill that is playing games with reality. Putin's revelation about Iraq's plans should have led the national news programs. But the night of his stunning announcement only ABC covered it. CBS' Evening News ignored it, giving time instead to promoting former President Bill Clinton's book. NBC's Nightly News skipped even a mention of Putin.
If you want a reason to tie Iraq to an attack against America, this is it. But where is the discussion on Capitol Hill? Where is the investigation? Where is the news coverage?
It is time to stop beating ourselves up as a nation, time to stop attacking a president who is doing his best to protect us, time to stop playing politics with a war for our lives.
Bush didn't drag us into this war. He didn't lie to get us into this war, and it's not his war. It is our war. We were attacked, and the only way to stop from being attacked again is to show America is no longer willing to wait for a legal remedy against those who will use every opportunity to destroy us. The only thing these ruthless enemies understand is strength.
Politicians playing diversionary, self-flagellating games can only weaken that strength in the eyes of these murderous zealots. Now, more than ever, we need to be united as the United States of America.
It's time.