An Open Letter to George W. Bush and the People of the United States

It was Tom Paine who began Common Sense with a simple proclamation that “These are the times which try mens souls.” Such could not be more true now than when Mr. Paine of blessed memory wrote them over 200 years previous. Our souls are sorely tried, sir, by the current stream of thought and action coming from your White House (the author is loathe to call the building at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC, our White House).

Sir, your administration is an utter failure. You sought revanche against a small band of religious fanatics and have instead of delivering them to the hands of justice, wrought havok upon the nation which harbored them and upon another independent republic which you and your administration used as a pretext to destroy. You and you alone played guitar and ate birthday cake while your own ministers worried about how far to roll up their sleeves or else ignored pleas while a city drowned. Any man with a sense of honor should have offered his resignation to the Congress over a year ago. You have not. Instead of the proverbial roses and candies being tossed to our troops in Baghdad, we find them cannon fodder for a warped neo-conservative worldview.

You place untold men and youths into a foreign detention center out of communication with their families, legal representation or even a mechanism for trying them for their alleged crimes. Your Department of Justice kidnapped a citizen of a close ally of the United States while en route to his home from a family vacation to a third country where he was tortured and offer no explaination for this act. In former times, this ally might consider it an act bordering upon an undeclared act of war.

Your administration is attempting to weasel its way through the Constitution, basic human rights under the UN Universal Declaration, and the common sense of decency as understood by most people in the world by finding an apology for torture — agressive interrogation — non-fatal physical discomfort — or whatever you may call it. The world thought that the last public outrage over legal torture had ended before Voltaire drew his last breath, but such is not the case.

Your Secretary of Defense, one Donald Rumsfeld, is obviously incompotent in directing a war of any magnitude. The BBC reported the following this very evening, the 24th of September, 2006 regarding the “leak” of a classified document that surmised that the invasion and occupation of Iraq was in fact, abetting the “terrorism” which you so loudly decry:

Last Updated: Sunday, 24 September 2006, 17:19 GMT 18:19 UK

The BBC’s defence correspondent Rob Watson says this is not the first time the US intelligence community has said that the war in Iraq has made the problem of Islamist extremism worse.

Indeed it had warned that might happen even before the US-led invasion in 2003.

Pakistan man waving Osama Bin Laden poster
Many have been inspired by al-Qaeda chief Osama Bin Laden
But, our correspondent says, this latest finding, known as a National Intelligence Estimate, is the most comprehensive report yet, based on the considered analysis of all 16 of the US intelligence agencies.

According to the New York Times, which has spoken to officials who have either read it, or been involved in drafting it, the report says the invasion and occupation of Iraq has spawned a new generation of Islamic radicalism that has spread across the globe.

[snip]

It reportedly concludes that, while al-Qaeda may have been weakened since the 11 September 2001 attacks, the radical Islamic movement worldwide has strengthened with the formation of new groups and cells who are inspired by Osama Bin Laden, but not under his direct control….

This is the same SecDef who has been quoted in the press as saying that the next person who brought up the “reconstruction” of Iraq to him during the hot war there “will be fired.” He is your minister, Mr. Bush. He is hand in glove with your and your collective obviously erroneous assessment of “staying the course.” The morgues in Baghdad continue to be the most popular place for impromptu get togethers in the city as the last two months saw over 2000 persons murdered in the area, many with signs of torture and still bound…

Your Vice President, Richard Cheney, is not fit to preside over a school board meeting, much less the Senate of the United States of America. His corporate ties are not hidden to anyone; one wonders where his allegiance lies: to the country or his oil corporation cronies?

Your Attorney General, is a talking perversion of our ancient Anglo-Saxon tradition within the Common Law as well as our current statutes. His inverted sense of justice is an outrage. His refusal to hold timely trials or to even establish a system of holding them in accordance of anything resembling a legitimate court of justice — of advocating the basic near-universal rights of a defendent to have access to all evidence both potentially exculpatory and incriminating under the veil of “state secret” is dispicable. He does not deserve to be a member of any bar, much less the AG of the USA.

Mr. Bush, you have ignored pleas for peace and an open administration, driven us into national penury and yet found time for vacation upon vacation. One wonders who actually governs? This writer has little faith in our present Congress, and none at all in your administration. None. For the sake of the country and what dignity we have left, please resign and take Messrs. Cheney, Rumsfeld and Gonzales with you.

In closing sir, your administration currently jangles sabres at the state of the Islamic Republic of Iran. What Iran is doing is what multiple states, even those in this hemisphere is doing, and that is enrich Uranium for the use of power reactors. The very program in which Iran is currently engaged is one begun by President Eisenhower! It lay in stasis for many years, but began again after the aftermath of the Iranian Revolution which ousted the tryant Reza Pahlavi, the soi-disant “Shah.” Those close to your administration claim that Iran is developing enrichment technology in order to produce a nuclear bomb. Reputable researchers from around the world disclaim their ability to assemble any such weapon at their current rate of development for perhaps ten years. The consequences of a war with Iran would be utter disaster for the United States, the neighbors of Iran and the country of Iran. Every analysist knows this. You know this. Why let the sabre-rattling continue? To make us live in fear? To make us into two camps, one that is “terrorist-enabling” (the current opposition party) and one of “patriots and terrorist slayers” (the other major political party)?

No, Mr. Bush, we aren’t afraid. We know your game and it disgusts us. It is time for you to return to Texas. I call upon you to resign or else for the House of Representatives to impeach and the Senate to try you for high crimes and misdomenors. I call for the same actions towards your VP and the cabinet officers identified above.

Mr. Bush and fellow citizens, the government is ours, not Mr. Bush’s and Mr. Cheney’s. The House and Senate represent us and have the power of the purse and oversight and to declare war, not the President. Allow us to close with a reflection on the words of James Madison:

“Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes…known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. . . No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.”