Current posts begin below this one.
Linkage:
Blogswarm: What it's all about.
Big Brass Alliance: Why we're doing it.
After Downing Street: The memo and info.
John Conyers' petition: Sign it.
[. . .]
Since the terrible tragedy of 9/11, when terrorists struck on American soil to devastating results, there has been an increasing sense that supporting our troops is the province of a particular political party. Our president gravely intoned, in an infamous with-us-or-against-us speech, that those who disagreed with the actions taken by a Republican administration and a Republican-led Congress were siding with the terrorists—a sentiment that came to mean, for many on the Right, that even liberal American patriots who might disagree with the president’s course of action were traitors. Dissent, an important and necessary part of any democracy, was suddenly treasonous.
Bush’s entire presidency has relied on his ostensibly unique ability to “keep America safe.” His reelection campaign exploited 9/11 and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq for every ounce they were worth, with his supporters demeaning the possibility that any other political party could oppose his actions yet still be patriotic Americans. And even many of those who oppose the Iraq War supported the Afghanistan invasion, because its purpose was to eradicate the al-Qaida terrorist network which had perpetrated the 9/11 attacks. So what would it mean if this national security president had never wanted to invade Afghanistan, had never wanted to pursue al-Qaida and its leader Osama bin Laden (who remains on the loose to this day)? What would it mean if Iraq, which contrary to administration claims had no weapons of mass destruction with which to harm America or America’s allies, had been the only target all along? And what would it mean if the case for that war had been conceived out of thin air?
It would mean that we all had all been hoodwinked, including our soldiers who had been sent to die by a president who cared not for bringing to justice those responsible for an attack on American soil, and had cared not for the truth. It would mean a national disgrace.
[. . .]
This is our best chance to begin the process of getting Bush & Co out of the White House prematurely. We have to shame our legislators into putting as much effort into this as they did investigating Clinton and Lewinsky. This is our Whitewater and Interngate, except this really matters.
Special props and kudos to Shakepeare's Sister for her exceptional work getting this diverse bunch of liberals organized. You're the best, darlin'
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