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Dissenter Of The House

Posted by Bob Parks On December - 14 - 2007

To the “Honorable” Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi,
Democrat, California

As a citizen of the United States of America, I find your comments today beyond insulting. Your competence to hold the hallowed office of House Speaker should be questioned.

During a press conference today, you said of Republicans…

“They like this war. They want this war to continue.”

Let me be clear: no Republican I know “likes” war. I know of no Republican that woke up this morning, happy in the knowledge that someone, somewhere in the world, was the latest casualty of a war.

It’s not anyone’s fault but your own that the current climate on Capitol Hill is as acidic as it is today. Like the cowboy you, and many in your party, have accused President Bush of being, you came into the reigns of power declaring the end of “business as usual”. What the American people have seen is exactly that, and more.

What is most reprehensible about your remarks is your continued LIE, (that’s right, I said it), LIE that the Iraq war was one you never condoned or authorized. You, and many like you, continue to assert that we were brought into this war by some sadistic figment of George W. Bush’s imagination.

You, and many like you, claim that the president got us into this war via manufactured intelligence. Some of your supporters state that Vice President Cheney was also responsible for this faulty intel. You go to those supporters and continue to LIE to them. They, in turn, repeat those lies, and your statement that Republicans “like this war” is the culmination. I contend we would have never been attacked on 9/11 in the first place if the very people you support, and have supported, did their jobs defending our country in the first place.

But to imply that Republicans created this war out of some warped sense of machismo proves that you are either a liar or delusional.

The reason we went to war with Iraq is because there were clear links between Saddam Hussein, terror, and the 9/11 attack.

Some of us will not let our nation (and the world) forget that on December 16, 1998, two years before George W. Bush became president, and while the current president William Jefferson Clinton had authorized air strikes against Iraq, you, a member of the House Intelligence Committee, issued a statement that in part read….

“As a member of the House Intelligence Committee, I am keenly aware that the proliferation of chemical and biological weapons is an issue of grave importance to all nations. Saddam Hussein has been engaged in the development of weapons of mass destruction technology which is a threat to countries in the region and he has made a mockery of the weapons inspection process.

“The responsibility of the United States in this conflict is to eliminate weapons of mass destruction, to minimize the danger to our troops and to diminish the suffering of the Iraqi people. The citizens of Iraq have suffered the most for Saddam Hussein’s activities; sadly, those same citizens now stand to suffer more. I have supported efforts to ease the humanitarian situation in Iraq and my thoughts and prayers are with the innocent Iraqi civilians, as well as with the families of U.S. troops participating in the current action.

“I believe in negotiated solutions to international conflict. This is, unfortunately, not going to be the case in this situation where Saddam Hussein has been a repeat offender, ignoring the international community’s requirement that he come clean with his weapons program. While I support the President, I hope and pray that this conflict can be resolved quickly and that the international community can find a lasting solution through diplomatic means.”

I only present your words because many of your supporters today say that President Bush concocted the whole notion of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq as a reason to go to war. Again, George W. Bush was the governor of Texas at the time. YOU were a member of the House Intelligence Committee. YOU had “intelligence” in 1998 that you seemed comfortable enough with at that time.

You never told President Clinton to “calm down”. You never said about President Clinton what you told the press about Republicans today….

“We thought that they shared the view of so many people in our country that we needed a new direction in Iraq. But the Republicans have made it very clear that this is not just George Bush’s war. This is the war of the Republicans in Congress.”

You never referred to President Clinton’s long distance, cruise missile strikes as “his” war.

Let’s not forget, as you seem to have, we did not start this war. There was a link between Iraq and 9/11. As a former member of the House Intelligence Committee, you should have known that the previously “waterboarded” Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, called the “mastermind’ of the 9/11 and other terror attacks worldwide, was actually an Iraqi intelligence agent. He could not, and would not, take action without the approval and blessing of Saddam Hussein.

Is that not a link, Madame Speaker?

Our young men and women have volunteered to go and fight this war, so the very people you deem less evil than Republicans, will not strip you of your seat of power, and condemn you to a private life in hijab hell. What they are doing takes what many of you on Capitol Hill refer to as “courage.”

You could learn something from them.