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America is not very happy with Washington these days. According to polls from The Washington Post, President Bush's approval rating remains stuck at 33 percent, making him about as popular as President Nixon during the Watergate scandal.
Congress is fairing no better in the eye of the public, and largely for the same reason. Neither President Bush nor the new Democrat-led Congress has been able to alter the situation in Iraq.
Even following the upbeat Petraeus report and the apparent decline in American and Iraqi casualties in September, the American people remain largely unmoved. Unfortunately, the actions of the American people have yet to reflect this discontent. We may be sick of the war in Iraq, but apparently we are not sick enough. There has been enough pressure to send a withdrawal bill to the desk of Bush, but not enough to generate the quantity of votes necessary to override the president's veto.
So what is to be done? Is there anything we can do besides sit around and wait for Congress and Bush to bring the troops home? The answer is an emphatic yes. However, we have to be willing to work for it. The reason for the inadequacy of past activism has been not so much one of quality but of quantity. Calling and writing to our representatives and senators, publishing anti-war literature, protesting and engaging in civil disobedience. All of these things are good and every one of them can contribute to ending the war in Iraq.
It is largely thanks to popular pressure that twenty-two representatives have now signed onto the impeachment proceedings against Dick Cheney. To those who may be put off by such a strong move, the justifications are both simple and plentiful. Chapter One, Article Two of the U.N. Charter states that "all members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territorial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations." As a signatory, the United States is obligated by both American and international law to adhere to these principles.
In this sense, Bush, Vice President Cheney, former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and others acted in direct violation of the U.N. Charter when they chose to invade Iraq. Not only did they do so, but they also violated the American constitution, which states in Article VI, "all treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority of the United States, shall be the supreme law of the land." All leaders have not regarded our international obligations as supreme law.
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The problem is, we went into Iraq with the intention of finishing the job. In fact, even the majority of Democrats in Congress, 29-21, authorized the use of force, using the same intelligence as The White House. I understand concerns about the Iraq conflict, but it's too late. We're already there, so we should focus on how we can successfully complete the mission with success, rather than focusing on our continued presence. It's too late to be questioning our presence there.
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LK you say that we went there to finish the job. But I'm having a hard time on defining on what the job really is. First we blamed Osama, tried to catch him and failed. Then it was that Iraq somehow had weapons of mass destruction, we have no evidence in that one. Then Saddam was accused of giving money to the Afghani's money for weapons, which also was no physical evidence in finding that out. It's almost like Bush is putting on a blindfold and spinning in a circle to try and blame someone else for what happend on 9-11. He is throwing us trillions of dollars in debt, also taking even more American lives by keeping the military there. With only having 8 areas of Iraq secure in almost 7 years, this war will keep raging on for years on end.
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The war started in 2003. It's now 2007. 2007-2003=4. Four years of war, not seven.
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including afghanistan and all that other stuff is almost seven....
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