President must answer to Downing Street Memo

[Jon8503]

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On May 1, The London Times dropped an atomic bomb on the Bush administration, the Downing Street Memo.
Largely ignored by our country's corporate-owned media, the memo states that "Bush wanted to remove Saddam Hussein, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy." The memo's content, authenticity and accuracy remain unchallenged.

According to the memo, Bush created an elaborate plot to invade Iraq as early as 2002. Therefor, all that talk about aluminum tubes, portable biological labs and weapons of mass destruction was nothing more than verbal theatrics. Bush's endlessly reiterated phrase that war was to be used "only as a last resort" was deceptive, as were the threats to Saddam to "turn over" weapons of mass destruction. Feeding concocted "evidence" to an angry, gullible America, Bush utilized the unstable political climate after Sept. 11 to drive America into war.

Rep. John Conyers of Michigan has been circulating a petition to be hand-delivered to the president. It has more than 500,000 American and 100 congressional signatures on it. Rep. Mary Bono, in lockstep conformity with her Republican colleagues, having already sent Tom Delay a quick $5,000 for his legal defense fund, refuses to sign the petition. The petition requests simply that Bush respond honestly and in detail to the memo's allegations. This massive scandal will not go away. The president's apparently soiled hands are dyed with the blood of more than 1,700 American soldiers and 100,000 Iraqi citizens. The potential crimes of George Bush reduce Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton's misdeeds into subjects for a comedy act. But this is no time for laughter.

America's credibility, its conscience and soul, stand at a crossroad. George Bush should be thoroughly investigated by a congressional committee or independent counsel. And, if these allegations hold true, Bush should be impeached and then imprisoned for war crimes against humanity.

David Spero is a poet and author living in Palm Springs

http://www.thedesertsun.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050618/COLUMNS26/506180341/1215

[TwentyFive]

1. America's Credibility, Conscience and Soul? You think Bush cares?

Look at the debt, the civil liberties revoked, the enemies created, the election process ruined, etc. Bush does not care about the US in it's current state.

His desire is to turn us into the biggest bully in the world, where 99% of citizens slave away for the uppermost 1% that put Bush in office.

[Jon8503]

2. Basically he is changing the United States to the United Corporation

of America. We are just another Enron waiting to fall. Of course we will all pay the price for this guy's actions.

[TwentyFive]

4. That's right. 99.9% will lose everything + govt will go bankrupt.

Meanwhile, Bush and his ultra-ultra-wealthy clan will end up cornering the market for the world's assets.

[calimary]

3. Here's my letter to the editor about this magnificent commentary:

APPLAUSE to David Spero for his well-worded and insightful commentary "President must answer to Downing Street Memo." ABSOLUTELY true. Lying about taking this country to war trumps a "third-rate break-in" and a "stained blue dress" ANY day. It's time the truth was faced, and George Bush was held accountable, AND impeached and removed from office, for this totally reckless and unnecessary war, and the needless bloodshed that IS on his hands. This is a high crime of the most hideous magnitude.

Bush LIED. Holding him FULLY accountable for it is the only way to ensure that all the victims of this horror, including our troops, did not die in vain.

[kittenpants]

5. we should work on organizing constant, loud protests

until there is an answer. don't let them shrug this off & let everyone just forget it.

[corbett]

6. Rebutting The Naysayers

I watched the entire Conyers 6/16 meeting on C-SPAN (Thank you, C-SPAN) and was impressed. I already knew that the shrub was a traitor and a war criminal but I was curious what our odds are of overcoming obstacles like Representative Sensenbrenner, not to mention DeLay and Hastert. Those odds are not promising so long as the hard right remains in control. However, the odds of succeeding here versus on the topic of election fraud are much higher because of the number of veterans groups and widows of veterans involved.

I think that they have a fighting chance. In my humble opinion, the trick will be to minimize the spin that the Democrats are looking for an easy way to win back the Congress.