Bush speaking to reporters at Brooke Army Medical Center: First of all, the NSA program is an important program in protecting America.
We're at war, and as Commander-in-Chief, I've got to use the resources at my disposal, within the law, to protect the American people. And that's what we're doing.
The NSA program is one that listens to a few numbers, called from the outside of the United States and of known al Qaeda or affiliate people. In other words, the enemy is calling somebody and we want to know who they're calling and why. And that seems to make sense to me, as the Commander-in-Chief, if my job is to protect the American people.
This program has been reviewed, constantly reviewed, by people throughout my administration. And it still is reviewed. It has got -- not only has it been reviewed by Justice Department officials, it's been reviewed by members of the United States Congress. It's a vital, necessary program.
Now, some say, well, maybe this isn't a war; maybe this is just a law enforcement operation. I strongly disagree.
We're at war with an enemy that wants to hurt us again, and the American people expect the Commander-in-Chief to protect them, and that's exactly what I intend to do.
"
We're at war with a bunch of cold-blooded killers who will kill on a moment's notice. And I have a responsibility, obviously, to act within the law, which I am doing. It's a program that's been reviewed constantly by Justice Department officials, a program to which the Congress has been briefed, and
a program that is, in my judgment, necessary to win this war and to protect the American people."
Okay, so we get it. The Chimp in Chief wants us to accept that he has the power to ignore the law because "we're at war". Here are the wherases of the legislation:
Authorization for Use of Military Force
To authorize the use of United States Armed Forces
against those responsible for the recent attacks launched against the United States.Whereas,
on September 11, 2001, acts of treacherous violence were committed against the United States and its citizens; and
Whereas, such acts render it both necessary and appropriate that the United States exercise its rights to self-defense and to protect United States citizens both at home and abroad; and
Whereas, in light of the threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States posed by these grave act of violence; and
Whereas, such acts continue to pose an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security and foreign policy of the United States; and
Whereas, the President has authority under the Constitution to take action to deter and prevent acts of international terrorism against the United States:
http://news.findlaw.com/hdocs/docs/terrorism/sjres23.enr.htmlThis is the only document from Congress that intends to give Bush
any authority for any 'war' on those responsible for the attacks of 9-11. Bush stretches the point to call his authority a "war on terror".
Here he is casually lending his war talk to his obsession with the Patriot Act when the Senate agreed to extend it for a short period:
"The Patriot Act is a vital tool for America in the war on terror. The Act has torn down the wall between law enforcement and intelligence officials to help us connect the dots and prevent attacks. The work of Congress on the Patriot Act is not finished. The Act will expire next summer, but the terrorist threat to America will not expire on that schedule."
The 'terrorist threat' Bush waves around will never expire as long as he claims he's snooping after al-Qaeda, since that's who they designated as the enemy. But now Bush sees al-Qaeda in Iraq because al-Zawahiri joined bin-Laden's fan club. In fact, there's an ongoing echo throughout the region from those opposed to our military invasion. Every bomber wants us to identify them as al-Qaeda. It's the highest symbol of defiance to the U.S. in the region. Soon Iraq will be that symbol. No matter, Bush says we're at war.
Isn't Congress the body that decides whether we're at war? Through allocation of money and through the power inherent in that body to hold the president accountable to the law, Congress is supposed to be setting the limits on this 'war on terror'. Not many would argue against giving Bush authority to use the military against "those responsible for the (9-11) attacks launched against the United States" at the time that the authority was given. But, I wonder, how much desire is there among who actually want to take on the responsibility for our security in the face of the potential for another terror attack, made greater by Bush's arrogance. So, for that cowardice, they are willing to cede the very authority that makes them relevant at all.
As quickly as they descended on the hall to revive Terry Schiavo, or as diligently as they lobbied all night for their spurned right-wing judges, Congress can come together, if they had the will, and pull the plug on Bush's military meddling. One vote to modify Public Law 107-40
, Authorization for Use of Military Force, would put an end to Bush's prattling that the authorization to use our military against the group of thugs who orchestrated the 9-11 attacks is a license for him to evade the law and launch a jingoistic campaign of suspicion and snooping against anyone he deems related to his paranoid war.
That's the dirty little secret behind the Chimp in Chief's little smirk. He knows they're hiding behind him, crying phony tears of outrage at Bush's admitted abuse of authority in his spying 'program', giving him time to 'win' in Iraq, just to keep their visage out of the portrait of failure. Meanwhile, Bush is free to pose for the cameras and threaten them, and us, with the specter of defeat in this embellished terror war he's composed. He nourishes his vanity on the lifeblood and sacrifice of Americans that Congress has so obliquely given to him to use as he wishes as he dotes on his war child, Iraq.
There can be no war without the acquiescence of Congress. Without war, Bush can't claim to be his own arbiter of the law. It's pretty amazing to live in an era where our representatives are content to allow one man to choose who our nation's military and institutions will regard as enemies. They barely blinked as Bush's friend and lawyer Gonzales interpreted the will of Congress, expressed in the Authorization for Use of Military Force, as seen through the opinion of the majority of the Supreme Court who fostered Bush's first ascendance into office. There has been no breach of these carefully constructed paper walls, despite the flailing and wailing by most of the opposition, and in spite of those willing to walk right through them but are held back by a satisfied mob of their own kind.
No one doubts that Congress would give Bush whatever he needed to retaliate against any future violence. No one up there is so stupid as to deprive Bush of anything he truly needs to prevent attacks. He's saturated with a new national security bureaucracy, but he's content to use the strength of our nation, our soldiers and our citizens in their vulnerability to attack, as a battering ram to force his rhetorical version of democracy wherever his ambition for greed and conquest motivate him.
It wasn't enough for Bush to just protect our citizens with the force of our great nation of justice behind him, humbled by bloody and devastating wars, witnessed to the power of liberty and to the freedom inherent in the constitution we wisely defend with our peaceful acts of mercy, charity, and tolerance. Our liberty and our safety have been offered up by Bush to whoever wants to step up and take a shot at the infidels. He's got our nation carrying on like the world's worst ogre, bruising for a fight. Another attack will be fine with Bush for an 'I told ya so' at his detractors and another swipe at our liberties. It would be fine for most of the Congress too, after some scurrying about to find a piece of the hem of the American flag to hold on to that Bush'll be using as a curtain for more power and more meddling.
I have a quote. I've shared it here. Many have heard it before. Quotes are sometimes apt, but usually subjective to the subject and time, but this one is chilling in its relevance to our democracy today. It's not just significant because of it's author, Abraham Lincoln, or for it's date, September 11, 1858, but it is appropriate for its message as well.
At Edwardsville, Illinois, on September 11, 1858, President Abraham Lincoln said, "What constitutes the bulwark of our own liberty and independence is not our frowning battlements, our bristling seacoast, the guns of our war steamers, or the strength of our gallant and disciplined army. These are not the reliance against the resumption of tyranny in our fair land. All of them may be turned against our liberties without making us stronger or weaker for the struggle."
"Our reliance is in the love of liberty, which God has planted in our bosoms. Our defense is the preservation of the spirit, which prizes liberty as the heritage of all men, in all lands everywhere." Destroy this spirit and you have planted the seeds of despotism at your down doors."
"Familiarize yourselves with the chains of bondage," Lincoln warned, and you prepare your own limbs to wear them. Accustomed to trample on the rights of others, you have lost the genius of your own independence and become the fit subjects of the first cunning tyrant who rises among you."
This is a message for the president, but it is an apt one for Congress as well. They are the enablers of Bush's tyranny. Their one redeeming vestige of relevance, their authority to define our enemies and authorize funds for the use of our military, is an orphan in those timid Capitol halls. Likewise orphaned is the majority's sense of allegiance to their own legislation, abandoned to the Executive, along with their souls, for a dubious shot at political longevity.
History will wonder at their cowardice and arrogance, but, for now, the country will suffer so long as they remain still, or as most are, completely silent.
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
