December 7, 2008

IMPEACH BUSH

IMPEACH CHENEY

BUSH'S BLOODY HANDS


Right-wingers are busy little revisionists. They have to be because their policies create such disasters. After Ronald Reagan left the White House the busy little revisionists were telling us that the massive deficits created by Reagan's policies weren't really his fault. In fact, they say, there were more tax revenues coming in; it was just Congress spending too much money. Now the busy little revisionists are telling us that Bush "kept us safe" from terrorism. He "liberated" the Iraqis. He brought down the guy who killed over 300,000 of his "own people." Never mind that Bush has been responsible for more death and destruction than Saddam Hussein ever was This commentary by Barry Nolan is at www.commondreams.org:

After attending a cheery little GOP Christmas party, and in the charitable spirit of the season, Wall Street Journal columnist and Republican stalwart Peggy Noonan reflected on the Bush years Friday. (You can read the full column by clicking here.) She declares that when historians look back on Bush and try to sum it all up, they will most likely say something like: "At least he kept us safe." Merry Christmas President Bush. Ms. Noonan then advises the Democrats to pay proper attention to the warnings contained in national security studies. Darn good advice.

But strangely, her column avoids any mention at all of the rather strongly worded security warning that was contained in the Presidential Daily Briefing delivered to President Bush one month before the 9-11 attacks. Titled "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US," the warning contained the rather prescient observation that: "FBI information...indicates patterns of suspicious activity in this country consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York." Sadly, that warning to Bush gained little traction with Republicans and 2,973 people died on 9-11. There was no mention of those dead in the column.

Ms. Noonan also avoids any mention of the 4,209 US service men and women who have been killed in Iraq, where the terrorists could simply walk to work. No mention of the 30,000 wounded. No mention of the 445 US contractors killed in Iraq. No acknowledgment that many of these men and women were in the National Guard and were called away from their useful civilian jobs in America as firemen, policemen, doctors and lawyers, and sent to die in a reckless and needless war in Iraq.

PEARL HARBOR AND THE DARK RIGHT-WING PSYCHE

One common trait that runs through right-wing land is paranoia. Right-wingers see conspiracies everywhere. That's why Joseph McCarthy red-baiting was so effective with right-wingers back in the 1950's. That red-baiting propelled the career of Richard M. Nixon. Right-wingers have promulgated the myth that FDR wanted the United States to get into World War II and allowed Pearl Harbor to happen because Pearl Harbor provided the excuse to enter the war. The whole idea is ludicrous. This article by Sherwood Ross is at www.commondreams.org:

The idea that FDR, a former assistant secretary of the Navy in World War One, would have deliberately concealed knowledge of an imminent attack on a U.S. base, defies everything known about the character of the man, his lifelong love of ships, (see his childhood sketches on the wall at Hyde Park), and his visionary efforts to build shipyards to mass produce warships and to modernize the fleet upon taking office in 1933. In fact, FDR sparked the largest naval buildup in U.S. history from the time he took office, doubling naval personnel between 1939 and 1941 alone. Six months after Pearl Harbor at the battle of Midway, the Japanese navy suffered a terrible reverse largely at the hands of U.S. vessels built before the war under FDR or under prior presidents. If FDR had advanced knowledge of an imminent attack to precipitate a war with Japan he would at minimum have ordered the fleet into battle readiness and sent it steaming out into open water. That FDR knew the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor was coming and allowed it to happen is one conspiracy theory that should be sunk promptly.