U.S. Senators Are the Real Cowards

[Emillereid]

by Jacob G. Hornberger, November 10, 2003

The Pentagon has gracefully decided to reduce criminal charges brought against Army Sergeant Andreas Pogany from “cowardice” to “dereliction of duty.” That’s right — cowardice is a criminal offense under U.S. military law, punishable by death or incarceration and dishonorable discharge. What did the good sergeant do to warrant such a dastardly and dangerous accusation? Upon seeing an Iraqi soldier cut into pieces by machine-gun fire, Pogany experienced a panic attack and suffered vomiting and dizzy spells, and became convinced that the same thing was going to happen to him. Seeking help from the Army, he was hit instead with criminal charges and returned to the United States to face trial.

Meanwhile, back at home, the members of the U.S. Senate are undoubtedly thanking their lucky stars that the Pentagon doesn’t have jurisdiction over them because otherwise they’d likely be facing a charge of cowardice too, on two counts: (1) the unconstitutional grant of congressional power to declare war on Iraq to President Bush in October 2002, and (2) the intentional refusal to appear for a vote on the president’s recent $87 billion appropriations bill to pay for the U.S. occupation of Iraq.

Under our Constitution, which the members of the U.S. Congress take an oath to support and defend, the president is precluded from waging war without an express declaration of war from Congress. In October 2002, the members of the U.S. Senate, along with their counterparts in the House of Representatives, voted to delegate their power to declare war to the president, thereby effectively washing their hands of any responsibility for the death and destruction that a war would bring both to the United States and to the Iraqi people. ...


http://www.fff.org/comment/com0311d.asp

Sometimes you find good stuff on libertarian websites. Some of them to hate Bush as much, if not more, than us.

[Martin Eden]

1. They fear losing re-election, but...

...I wish they really had reason to fear the voters who have the power to re-elect or dump them. Unfortunately the real power is in the propaganda wielded by those who can take a principled stand and make it look like a treasonous act.

My disgust for our government continues to grow.

Thanks for posting this article -- it was very good.