Every single Senator and Representative (this goes double for the Democrats who fell in, like Kerry and Clinton) who voted to give Bush the authority to invade Iraq needs to be held accountable (this means un-elected) the next time they stand for re-election.
Congress was set up by the founders to be a check against unbridled power and unfounded aggression on behalf of the executive branch. In 2002, both chambers of the legislative branch abdicated this responsibility, and as a result, 1850 mothers have lost children in an unjustified, illegal war that was predicated on lies and intelligence that was apparently fixed around the policy. Hours after the Towers fell, the current administration was looking to tie Iraq to the attacks of 9/11. No connections were found, but that didn't stop them from implying there was a connection (in so many words) as justification to start their war of aggression.
Civilian aides and advisors surrounding the president, vice-president, and secretary of state led congress, and therefore the American people, down this Primrose Path and woe be to any military professional who dared question their fantastic projections of swift, sure victory and troops greeted with flowers and Iraqi's dancing in the streets. General Eric Shinseki and General Anthony Zinni learned these lessons brutally and publicly.
Meantime, Congress sat idly by and let it all transpire. Every Senator and Representative who voted to grant the president the authority to undertake this Iraqi mis-adventure needs to be turned out and held accountable. Their first duty is supposed to be to protect the American people, but they took their first duty to be to protect the president and their own political "tough on terror" credentials. When the Democrats should have roared in outrage, they instead whimpered and cowered and meekly followed along, tails between their legs and their heads down in submission. Disgusting.
When evidence came to light of torture and mistreatment, even deaths; of detainees in the charge of undertrained and ill-prepared reservists the congress did not demand answers and investigations, instead they just kinda let it slide.
When the Pentagon decided that American units would send their troops to the desert and leave their best and safest armored vehicles (M1A1's and Cougar's come to mind) at home in shiny rows on their American bases, congress sat mute. Instead they sent our troops to war in flimsy little utility vehicles and amphibious landing craft in the desert. Congress remained silent on this idiotic move, even though many members have served and had to understand the stupidity of the actions being undertaken. This makes them complicit, and therefore contemptible.
When our troops resorted to "hillbilly armor" and creating their own "weld wagons" while they patrolled in unsafe, ineffective flak-jackets rather than the best body armor money could buy, congress remained silent. When O'Gara International refused to sell their plans for armoring Humvees citing their rights to future profits (at the expense of the lives of our troops) congress not only failed to act, they uttered not a peep of protest. (Gutless, spineless, ineffective and ineffectual.)
O'Gara is a small company, but they have big greed, and they are willing to sacrifice your sons and daughters to protect their bottom-line. When the war started, they had only 94 employees, and they armored one vehicle per day. Not much of a war effort, huh? Now they employ approximately 250 people, and turn
out a couple more, but still, not much of a war effort.O'Gara is fighting tooth and nail to keep their exclusive contract - again at the cost of our children's lives - even though they are too small to do the job alone. They have profits to consider damnit! If I question their right to make money then I must not be patriotic!
In January of 2005, the DoD tried to buy the legal rights to the armor design in an effort to step up delivery of armored humvees. O'Gara declined, saying that the efforts of the DoD amounted to a threat to it's "current and future competitive position."
This is unconscionable, and congress sat idly by, letting O'Gara's greed and lust for future profits kill our children. AM General, O'Gara, Halliburton, Kellogg Brown & Root...The list of companies profiteering from this war - many with deep and strong connections to the Republican party and this presidential administration in particular - is long and the questions raised are many.
I have been thinking that what we need is a 2005 version of the Truman Commission. An unknown Senator from Missouri was appointed to the chairmanship of a Wartime Profiteering Commission to investigate corporate malfeasance in the supply chain.
Truman proved extremely effective at whacking snouts out of the public trough. If a defense contractor gave the troops less than he thought they deserved, Harry Truman put the company out of business, and often times their owners ended up in prison. Harry Truman, we need you now!
Of course, Missouri doesn't have anyone like that now. Kit Bond and Jim Talent would both suffocate if George Bush or Dick Cheney stopped suddenly. But Nebraska does have someone qualified for such a position, and so does Iowa. Chuck Hagel and Tom Harkin should be appointed to lead a bi-partisan commission and bring to the publics' attention many of the outrages that have become "Standard Operating Procedure" for this administration and this congress.
It is time to get busy. We need to start now working to unseat every senator and representative who voted to give Bush the authority to use force in Iraq. No Democratic candidate who voted for the resolution need apply for the Democratic nomination in 2008 - Hillary, John Kerry, you're out. You fell in with this fool on the way to this bloody, tragic fiasco, and I am done with you. Many others feel the same way I do. Stay home in 2007, don't visit Iowa, don't visit New Hampshire, don't visit South Carolina. Forget it. You blew it when you gave this punk that much power.
And secondly, we need a Wartime Profiteering Commission empanelled immediately and the GAO needs to audit the war. Accountability starts now. I have to be accountable in my job. I demand the same of our elected representatives.
Updated at 8:00 p.m., with typo's, grammar and sentence structure corrected where necessary.
