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Please pass this post on to everyone you know.I don’t often ask that, but this is absolutely urgent. A confluence of events and revelations may make it possible for the Democrats to ride a tsunami to a majority in both the House and the Senate in November. We mustn’t give up our important work for voting reform, but that work will be made much easier if there’s an overwhelming vote in favor of Democrats. We mustn’t give up our get-out-the-vote efforts, either. But we must at the same time we are working on those efforts give Americans a reason to vote for Democrats. And that reason is: Democrats will make this administration accountable for its lies, its arrogance, and its disdain for our military and for the American people. Democratic majorities in the House and the Senate will provide the check on this runaway executive branch, exactly as the founders intended. You can help make that happen by encouraging everyone you know to read this message, to pass it on to everyone THEY know, and to watch the Bob Woodward interview on 60 Minutes tomorrow night (Sunday, October 1, 2006). Woodward has extra credibility in his criticisms of the Bush administration because of his past acquiescence to, if not support of, their doings.Some of Woodward’s revelations, from Think Progress, Center for American Progress New Woodward Book Details Multiple Bush Cover-Ups Over Iraq
The Washington Post’s Bob Woodward is set to release “State of Denial,” the third in his series of books documenting the inner workings of the Bush administration. Woodward will discuss some notable revelations in the book this Sunday on 60 Minutes. Key highlights:
Bush is covering up the extent of violence against U.S. troops in Iraq…
Intelligence shows Iraq violence will worsen in 2007…
Bush will not support withdrawing from Iraq under any circumstances…
Henry Kissinger regularly advises Bush and Cheney…
Posted by Nico September 28, 2006 From BuzzFlash.com: Derelictions Of Duty: How George Bush Has Disrespected Commanders and Hurt Our Troops
by Brent Budowsky
George W. Bush has now made one of the most appalling speeches in presidential history, comparing himself to Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry Truman and making charges against his opponents that should not be dignified by repeating.
It is time to set the record straight. Those who President Bush was really attacking were his commanders, his former Secretary of State, leaders of the NATO alliance among many others who have warned him of dangers and urged him to change course.
Time and time again, itemized in detail below, George Bush has shown contempt for his commanders, disrespected their advice, demeaned them publicly and privately, and taken action after action that directly harmed the safety of our troops and caused great damage to the mission and our national security…
Congress should conduct televised public hearings, now, that would bring every member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, every commander of the Iraq mission, and a significant number of enlisted men and women who have served in Iraq, to testify publicly and fully about what they truly believe about what should be done now.
They should be put under oath, not to question their truthfulness, but to protect them from any more abusive pressure or misrepresentation from civilians in the Administration or Congress.
And if Congress and our President can agree on any one thing, they should award a special and subtantial hardship bonus to every man and woman who has served in Iraq and in the cases of those who have left us, to their families who honor them, and make us proud to be their neighbors and fellow patriots.
It high time we end this abuse of command influence, these attempts by the President and Secretary of Defense to ignore the advice of commanders, and to threaten or intimidate them into not speaking out, and then to publicly misrepresent their views.
I challenge the President and his partisans:
Is it not true that our commanders were bullied, beaten down and rudely and unprofessionally treated to force them into a war plan that they believed had far too troops for the mission?
Did our commanders not despise the shameful, unethical, and abusive treatment of General Eric Shinseki when he tried to warn us and was treated with ridicule and abuse by the neocons and our President?
Did it not do real damage for morale when General Shinseki was forced into early retirement while George Tenet and others who failed were given the Presidential Medal of Freedom?
Did not our commanders repeatedly, time and again throughout this venture, advise against inadequate troop strength, then be ordered to stop advocating what they believe is right, and read in the newspapers our President promising, falsely, that he always gives the commanders the troop levels they believe they need?...
Did not our commanders warn against the failure to provide equipment that was so extreme and so dangerous that the Marine Corps pathologist found that up to 70% of our casualties were preventable, meaning their serious injuries and deaths were not caused by their mistakes, or the enemy's success, but by derelictions of duty on a massive scale by those who sent them to war but disrespected the advice of commanders.
Is it not true that our commanders time and again sought help, which was denied, to provide body armor, fortified vehicles, helmets, bandages and other equipment that civilian officials failed to provide, despite repeated, and false, claims that they always gave the commanders what those commanders sought. Did our commanders not unanimously and aggressively oppose the use of torture which they unanimously and aggressively believe creates danger for our troops, tarnishes our reputation around the world, creates new terrorists and violates cardinal rules of war that they hold sacred?...
Is it not true that our commanders were repeatedly and aggressively subject to abusive interference, and pressure from civilians that would be grounds for court martial, if it did not come from the President, Vice President and Secretary of Defense?...
We owe a debt to every man and woman who has ever served our country, to every man and woman who serves anywhere in the world today, and to every man and woman who will ever serve as guardian of our freedom to be the best that we can be ourselves, and to be the best that we can be, for them.
We must not be remembered as a generation that fell to dereliction, we should aspire to be a generation that will pay the price to reach for greatness, to leave the young who follow us, the world that they deserve.
Brent Budowsky served as Legislative Assistant to U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen, responsible for commerce and intelligence matters, including one of the core drafters of the CIA Identities Law. Served as Legislative Director to Congressman Bill Alexander, then Chief Deputy Whip, House of Representatives. Currently a member of the International Advisory Council of the Intelligence Summit. Left government in 1990 for marketing and public affairs business including major corporate entertainment and talent management. He can be reached at brentbbi@webtv.net. Click the title of this article, above, to read the full list of derelictions. Carolyn Kay MakeThemAccountable.com
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