Saturday, March 19, 2005
Hold Bush Accountable
I am greatly saddened that as a patriotic citizen who has served his country in the military and civilian sectors, that there has been so little accountability in our nation’s government regarding the incompetent prosecution of the Iraq war by the Bush administration. It is clear to anyone who looks beyond the administration’s distortion and misinformation that this President, George W. Bush, and Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleezza Rice, his Vice President, Secretary of Defense and National Security Advisor cum Secretary of State respectively, have not been, and are not now competent to successfully prosecute the war in Iraq.
President Bush and his team failed in comprehending the wise and accurate counsel from our broader, bi-partisan military and civilian experts regarding the troop strength required to take down the Iraqi military, win the peace and defend the building and implementation of democratic institutions in Iraq.
President Bush and his team also failed to understand the wise and accurate counsel of our broader, bi-partisan military and civilian experts regarding the urgency and means to work effectively with the defeated Iraqi military to build an effective Iraqi security force to assist in, and then assume responsibility for Iraq’s defense and democracy building.
President Bush and his team also failed to exercise the necessary intellectual rigor and moral commitment to adequately supply our extremely capable and courageous troops to do their job without unwarranted risk. Bush and his war team were negligent in supplying our troops with body armor, vehicle add-on armor, up-armored Humvees and we now find even with tourniquets that could have saved military personnel from bleeding to death on the battlefield.
As a consequence of these colossal intellectual and moral failures by President Bush and his team, we have had each day for some time now, and will have for some time into the future, needless deaths and injuries to our wonderfully bright, highly skilled, courageous and committed service men and women and to Iraqi civilians, and to U.S. and foreign nationals serving there. These are deaths, injuries and great tragedy for the families and friends of those killed and injured, which are over and above the enormous price always paid to secure freedom through war. They would not be occurring except for the incompetence of our nation’s Commander-in-Chief, George W. Bush and his Vice President, Secretary of Defense and former National Security Advisor.
It is time for all intelligent and morally grounded members of Iowa’s Congressional delegation and similar colleagues throughout the Senate and House to have a serious, private talk with President Bush to achieve the following three outcomes. First, to explain to him the cost in lives lost and broken from his intransigence and his misinformed and immature actions regarding his conduct of the Iraq war. Secondly, to inform him of the importance of dismissing Secretary Rumsfeld as a clear acknowledgement to our forsaken troops and their families, our nation and the world of his earnest repentance and sincere endeavor to change. And finally, to charge him to graciously obtain the counsel of those extraordinarily wise and qualified bipartisan military and civilian experts that he has so far shunned, and to carefully listen to and incorporate their wisdom and advice into his prosecution of this war.
With these steps of accountability there will be a strong likelihood of our nation mitigating the effects of the Bush administration’s failures as fully and quickly as possible and achieving a turnaround toward a timely, true and honorable victory of peace and democracy in Iraq as well as greater security for the people of our nation. Without these steps, the failures of President Bush and his team will not only continue to produce unnecessary daily death, injury and tragedy for our troops and their families and for civilians in Iraq, but will further alienate and morally isolate us from the world community – and will enable the products of the massive terrorist training operation put in place in Iraq by the failed conduct of this war to spill over onto our allies’ shores and our own shores in the not so distant future.
All of us must communicate to Senators Grassley and Harkin and Representative Steve King the necessity and urgency of instilling intelligence, morality and a chance for a valid and honorable victory into this President’s conduct of the Iraq war.
President Bush and his team failed in comprehending the wise and accurate counsel from our broader, bi-partisan military and civilian experts regarding the troop strength required to take down the Iraqi military, win the peace and defend the building and implementation of democratic institutions in Iraq.
President Bush and his team also failed to understand the wise and accurate counsel of our broader, bi-partisan military and civilian experts regarding the urgency and means to work effectively with the defeated Iraqi military to build an effective Iraqi security force to assist in, and then assume responsibility for Iraq’s defense and democracy building.
President Bush and his team also failed to exercise the necessary intellectual rigor and moral commitment to adequately supply our extremely capable and courageous troops to do their job without unwarranted risk. Bush and his war team were negligent in supplying our troops with body armor, vehicle add-on armor, up-armored Humvees and we now find even with tourniquets that could have saved military personnel from bleeding to death on the battlefield.
As a consequence of these colossal intellectual and moral failures by President Bush and his team, we have had each day for some time now, and will have for some time into the future, needless deaths and injuries to our wonderfully bright, highly skilled, courageous and committed service men and women and to Iraqi civilians, and to U.S. and foreign nationals serving there. These are deaths, injuries and great tragedy for the families and friends of those killed and injured, which are over and above the enormous price always paid to secure freedom through war. They would not be occurring except for the incompetence of our nation’s Commander-in-Chief, George W. Bush and his Vice President, Secretary of Defense and former National Security Advisor.
It is time for all intelligent and morally grounded members of Iowa’s Congressional delegation and similar colleagues throughout the Senate and House to have a serious, private talk with President Bush to achieve the following three outcomes. First, to explain to him the cost in lives lost and broken from his intransigence and his misinformed and immature actions regarding his conduct of the Iraq war. Secondly, to inform him of the importance of dismissing Secretary Rumsfeld as a clear acknowledgement to our forsaken troops and their families, our nation and the world of his earnest repentance and sincere endeavor to change. And finally, to charge him to graciously obtain the counsel of those extraordinarily wise and qualified bipartisan military and civilian experts that he has so far shunned, and to carefully listen to and incorporate their wisdom and advice into his prosecution of this war.
With these steps of accountability there will be a strong likelihood of our nation mitigating the effects of the Bush administration’s failures as fully and quickly as possible and achieving a turnaround toward a timely, true and honorable victory of peace and democracy in Iraq as well as greater security for the people of our nation. Without these steps, the failures of President Bush and his team will not only continue to produce unnecessary daily death, injury and tragedy for our troops and their families and for civilians in Iraq, but will further alienate and morally isolate us from the world community – and will enable the products of the massive terrorist training operation put in place in Iraq by the failed conduct of this war to spill over onto our allies’ shores and our own shores in the not so distant future.
All of us must communicate to Senators Grassley and Harkin and Representative Steve King the necessity and urgency of instilling intelligence, morality and a chance for a valid and honorable victory into this President’s conduct of the Iraq war.
