I’m commenting a bit late on President Bush’s speech from Veteran’s Day because I’ve decided that I can’t just let it go by. I found it bitterly sad that President Bush would choose that day, the day that marks the end of an incredibly bloody, completely unnecessary war started simply because people decided that having a war was better than not having a war to try to justify his own war of choice. For all the talk of bad intelligence and revisionist history, everybody who paid attention at the time knows that we invaded Iraq because the President desperately wanted to invade Iraq.
What did Senators know about Iraq before the war? Who cares. The truth is that getting authorization to invade Iraq was the President’s agenda, and many of the Senators who voted for the war did so because they feared the political repercussions of voting against it. They are to be blamed for their lack of courage, but it wasn’t they who thought that war was better than no war. And I think that’s how history will and should remember these past few years.
History teaches us that when a national leader wants his nation to go to war, there is generally very little that the citizenry and the rest of the government can do to stop them. The President chose war, we went to war, and everything else is just details.
November 14, 2005 at 1:58 pm
I think its a tad convenient to ignore the years of Iraq/US history and blame one man. Does he shoulder some responsibility? Sure. But to ascribe all blame to him and ignore the statements of support and validation by most of our national leaders?
http://txfx.net/2005/11/12/this-is-my-serious-face/
November 14, 2005 at 2:14 pm
The simple, short question is, do you feel that we went to war as a last resort? I don’t think anyone can honestly answer “no” to that question. Put me in the group of people who believe that war should only be used as a last resort.
November 14, 2005 at 3:36 pm
I think the leadership, President and otherwise, thought it was the only action left at the time given the perceived threat level. I can certainly play Monday morning quarterback with everyone else, but that doesn’t solve anything.
Cool, we’re in the same group. 🙂
November 14, 2005 at 6:56 pm
The congress shoulders just as much of the blame as the president. The reason congress has to approve a war is due to Vietnam. We the people decided that one man shouldn’t let bring us to war. I know it looks like Bush sent us to war, I know he wanted to. But, congress gave him the money and open ended writ to do so.
I wish we had more congresspersons with spines that would vote for whats good for the whole counrty and not just what lobist or thier party says it right.
November 14, 2005 at 8:21 pm
Congress has always held the power of declaring war, it is theirs by Constitutional right. This has been abdicated to the President as of late.
We were lied into this war, and anyone who was paying attention at the time knew it. As one example, there were inspectors on the ground in Iraq, when Bush said that Hussein’s refusal to accept them was a justification for the war. There were any number of others.