By Maya Schenwar, t r u t h o u t
The Bush administration’s $196.4 billion war supplemental spending request, released Monday, has Democrats reeling. Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Robert Byrd called the supplemental “short-sighted at best,” while House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dave Obey remarked in a statement, “It’s amazing to me that the president expects to be taken seriously.” Yet beyond the request’s mind-boggling size, its open-ended aims point to the potentially vast scope of the “war on terror” for years to come – including an undiminished presence in Iraq and the possibility of action against Iran.
In the newly revised supplemental, more money than ever has been appropriated for procurement – the production of new materials, which may take three years to actually reach the battlefield, according to Department of Defense estimates in 2006. Moreover, that battlefield may change. The 2008 supplemental’s title, the Global War on Terror Request, is appropriately broad, as the majority of the request’s appropriations do not refer exclusively to Iraq and Afghanistan. In fact, according to a report this morning in Congressional Quarterly Today, the Bush administration’s request for a “Massive Ordnance Penetrator for the B-2 aircraft in response to an Urgent Operational Need from theater commanders” could be geared toward bombing underground targets in Iran.
Policy experts say that, as it stands, the supplemental contains no provisions that would prevent its funds from being used to strike Iran.
You are right! I wrote to Ms. Pelosi to ask if she won’t impeach Bush because she really supports the expanded power of the Presidency. Her office hasn’t responded. But I do think you are correct. There really doesn’t seem to be any real differences between the two parties. Except for Ohio’s favorite son, Dennis Kuchinich. Maybe.
Pelosi, Harry Reid and the rest of what passes for Congressional leadership have perfected their criminal enterprise. Every act of treachery is followed by lame excuses for inaction. The truly spineless ones, progressives wallowing in denial, foolishly whine, asking each other what is wrong when the answer stares them in the face. The Democratic party is complicit in killing democracy.
“Civil liberties groups and antiwar groups must finally realize that they can only play a role in movement politics.”
Activists must keep protesting at her house and working for her defeat in the 2008 congressional elections. They must also cease cooperating with her. The farce must end before it is too late. Pelosi, like Bush, has no loyalty to her constitutionally based responsibilities. She must no longer be treated as though she is a friend when she has proven herself to be an enemy.
Civil liberties groups and antiwar groups must stop meeting with Pelosi or her staff. They must finally realize that they can only play a role in movement politics. It is said that insanity is defined as repeating the same action over and over yet expecting a different result. Progressives have waged many righteous battles in the last seven years, but they are about to go down in history as insane actors in a badly written play.
Activists must begin making demands. They must demand impeachment, they must demand that New Orleans be rebuilt, they must demand no further funding for occupation in Iraq or for a new war in Iran. Pelosi and her co-conspirators must be called out as the back stabbers that they are. Only then will democracy have any chance of being restored.