The current Iraq fiasco and President Bush”s reluctance to admit the reality of his great blunder is proof positive that no one man, no matter what his real motives may have been, should have so much power over life and death decisions of so many Americans and the poor people of Iraq who were victimized right from the start with an unprovoked invasion, occupation, and five years of death, destruction, and misery imposed by brute military force.
It all really comes down to a very basic and constitutional issue that “We The People” need to address and decide, preferably by a public referendum, an old custom of our democracy once actually used in days gone by. Seriously, when we elect our leaders, especially the President, are they elected to serve our will, or do they think they have carte blanche to determine it for us?
With President Bush, it has become crystal clear that he cares very little what polls, study groups, members of Congress, veteran military advisors, the CIA, the public, or his own advisers think about Iraq and he continues to let people die by the score rather than admit his mistakes. As the self-proclaimed decider of America I don”t see much difference between his rogue cowboy attitude and that of Kim Jung Il, Saddam Hussein, and other dictators. As a former Fortune 500 executive, I could just imagine what would happen if the CEO ignored the Board of Directors and claimed to be more intelligent and qualified to decide the fate of the company and ignore the voting shareholders. America belongs to “We the people” and our foreign policies cannot be dictated by a single man who himself never placed himself in harm”s way nor ever put his own family”s life on the line for our nation. He is the one of the least qualified people to determine how our problems in Iraq can now be resolved as his lack of knowledge,wisdom,and ethics put our troops there in the first place.
It”s time for Congress to step up to the plate and take back all the life-and-death authority (i.e., The War Powers Act) abused by the president over the last six years and remind us all that their $150,000 salaries are paid to ensure we have some real checks and balances in our government. Enough is enough already!
A man in denial is not fit to lead our nation and his removal is long overdue.The world and our troops deserve and need this gift
Bruce A. Gorcyca
Parma, Ohio
