February 3, 2007
by Steve Osborn
DIGG THIS
On December 18th, 2000, right after he was appointed by a 5-4 ruling of the Supreme Court, but before he took his oath to "Protect and defend the Constitution," which he and his cronies proceeded to trash, Mr. Bush made a statement at a big fund raising dinner which sent a chill through the minds of millions of people. That statement was considered some folksy Bushian humor by many in the audience, but considering how it has played out, it was a statement of intent.
Mr Bush said, "This would be a whole lot easier if this were a dictatorship (pause) just as long as I'm the dictator."
Mr. Bush has made few more illuminating comments since, save perhaps the retort he made to a staffer, who had counseled him that one of his "spying on the people" decisions might not be constitutional.
"Stop throwing the Constitution in my face," Bush screamed back. "It's just a Goddamned piece of paper!"
Our Constitution was written by men who knew at first hand what unbridled power could do. They had just fought a long and desperate war to free themselves from King George, who could dissolve the parliament at will, dictate the fate of anyone in his far-flung empire, and was also known to be a bit nuts.
When forming the new government, checks and balances were built into the Constitution to eliminate the possibility of one branch seizing dictatorial power. The war power was divided between the Congress and the Executive as it was recognized by our founders that the Executive, being more closely involved in war, could step over the line, if not held in check by Congress.
The founders thought they had adequately protected us from the Executive turning into a dictatorship. It might have worked, had we not stopped teaching government in our schools and exposing our children to a frequent diet of the Bill of Rights and the Constitution and how the government worked.
Sadly enough, most people today don't even recognize a quotation from the Constitution or the Bill of Rights, nor could they list the rights that have been taken away from us by the Bush regime's trashing of the Constitution and Bill of Rights, substituting the Bush version of the "Enabling Act" which Hitler used to take away the freedom of the German People in the name of "National Security." Our Enabling Act is known as the Patriot Act.
In a Constitutional Democracy or Republic, the Head of State, if he feels that there is an imminent threat to the country, goes to the Congress and asks for a declaration of war. He must present a case for that war, which must be found acceptable to the Congress. A Congress doing its job would insist on additional sources of intelligence and information and would want to utterly exhaust the efforts of diplomacy before taking such a drastic step. A war is not an open ended thing. It has objectives which are spelled out, against a nation proved to be belligerent and in imminent danger of attacking us. Even a conflict as ideological as the Cold War between us and the CCCP was not conducted on a basis of killing and invading whomever we chose. When McCarthy and HUAC decided to go after anyone who did not agree with their right wing view of how things should be, accusing them of Communism and destroying many lives, eventually he overreached himself and was put in his place by Congress.
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There is so much material available that shows Bush's desires and actions have been according to plan that it is difficult for me to understand why Congress is not presenting Articles of Impeachment. Even before he was appointed to his position, he stated often that he wanted to go to war with Iraq, that he wanted to be a wartime president. One of his first acts after being sworn in was to order his staff to find an excuse to go to war with Iraq. When no reason could be found, they were directed to invent some. His Neocon allies had their own agenda with the Project for the New American Century which, plainly put, is the idea that the United States is the strongest, so it should rule the world, for its own good of course, and the fact that that would be very profitable. One of the problems was that it is hard to start a war for no reason, so they were hoping for a new "Pearl Harbor" which would stampede the people into supporting a war.
Iraq was to be the linchpin of the Middle East portion of the plan. It is centrally located and has an enormous reservoir of oil to control. Huge, permanent military bases in Iraq would provide a fulcrum for overthrowing the rest of the oil states.
Whether we were in collusion with the 9/11 attack, or whether we just knew it was coming and stood by, Voila! The Neocons had their Pearl Harbor and we were on our way!
We had information on Al Qaeda, but also knew that Osama and Saddam were oil and water. None-the-less, Bush insisted the two were linked and demanded a war with Iraq.
The rest is history, which we are still bleeding our way through. However, the facts remain that Bush and his cronies have manipulated Congress and We the People, to rob our treasury and give the loot to his wealthy backers, promote an ever widening war in the Middle East, and now, as his power has grown, has declared that neither We the People nor Congress has the right to check him in any of his designs, whether it is to strip us of the last of our civil liberties, or wage still more war in the Middle East and anywhere else the mood strikes him.
He is fully prepared to go to war with Iran, using nuclear weapons if that is expedient, even though Iran is no direct threat to us. Every day there are articles on the war plans with Iran. I have a copy of the Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations which has the seals of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, the Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Coast Guard on the cover. According to the Document, nuclear weapons are no longer the last resort in case of a nuclear attack on our country, they are just another weapon, to be used by field commanders if they think it would be more efficient than conventional weapons. We are in danger of once again using nuclear weapons on defenseless civilians. The only difference here is that war with Iran will not be the cake-walk it was with Saddam's depleted army, which had no spare parts, no air force and a demoralized military. Iran has a first ranked military. This doesn't bother Bush as he has the power to turn that nation, and the nations downwind of Iran, into a seething cauldron of radiation, spreading radiation borne disease and cancers, rendering the land unusable for hundreds or thousands of years. Iran, Pakistan and India are already feeling the effects of the DU munitions expended in Iraq. It has been detected world wide since 2003.
The tremendous outcry in this country and around the globe, not to escalate the war in Iraq and not to attack Iran means nothing to this man. He is the "deciderer" and no people or Congress is going to tell him what to do. Halliburton's multi-million dollar no-bid contract to build concentration camps in the United States should give a pretty good idea of what is in store if we don't curb the boy emperor now, before he really runs amok.
Come on, Congress, come on people, this guy may look like a clown and act like a clown, but he and his minions are dangerous! We are running out of options, and so is the world. The United States threw off one King George. I sure don't want to be ruled by another, or be disappeared to die in one of his camps. The world has already been that route in WW-II. Nuremberg was to ensure that that sort of thing would never happen again. Let's make sure it doesn't!
NOTES: Google the first two statements and read the commentaries:
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"This would be a whole lot easier if this were a dictatorship (pause) just as long as I'm the dictator."
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"Stop throwing the Constitution in my face," Bush screamed back. "It's just a Goddamned piece of paper!"
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Doctrine for Joint Nuclear Operations. This is a 69 page PDF document that ties into USStratCom, our military plan for world hegemony.
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Stephen M. Osborn [send him email] is a freelance writer living on Camano Island in the Pacific Northwest. He is an "Atomic Vet." (Operation Redwing, Bikini Atoll 1956, ) who has been very active working and writing for nuclear disarmament and world peace. He is a retired Fire Battalion Chief, lifelong sailor, writer, poet, philosopher, historian and former newspaper columnist.
