I'm afraid of Americans, I'm afraid of the world. I'm afraid I can't help it.
As stated in this article, the elected representatives of the citizens of the United States have begun the steps necessary to seriously call into question the actions of President Bush with regards to the war in Iraq. As a voting, tax-paying citizen of the US, I applaud the efforts of these courageous legislators in analyzing one of the worst foreign policy mistakes made by any recent administration.
The dubious reasons that the Bush administration gave us for taking us to war in one of the most volatile regions of the world need to be exposed to open and fair scrutiny, if only because such an examination was not fully supported in the months leading up to our March 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Repealing the 2002 War Authorization Act in favor of drafting a more competent piece of legislation aimed at curtailing the military’s role in Iraq and beginning the steps toward complete withdrawal is a bold message, both symbolically and practically, to the President that his bloody excursion in regime change was not helpful to this nation, both in the monetary costs and the irreversible damage it did to our international reputation. This move by the US Congress is a clear sign to our international allies that the majority of the American people now stand behind what the world knew from the beginning-that this war was simply unnecessary.
The recent nonbinding resolution criticizing the President’s call for an escalation of troop deployment to the area was certainly a start in the right direction, but a true rebuke of the President’s megalomaniacal intentions in the form of repealing the act that authorized his war in the first place is an unequivocal message that a continued conflict (one that will continue to cost thousands of American lives if not stopped) will no longer be tolerated or supported.
In my mind, Congress has made the boldest declaration in support of our armed forces possible-that they belong at home, not on some ill-fated and ill-conceived adventure in international hegemony.
Sincerely,
Michael K. Canty,
Senior, Political Science
Louisiana State University
The dubious reasons that the Bush administration gave us for taking us to war in one of the most volatile regions of the world need to be exposed to open and fair scrutiny, if only because such an examination was not fully supported in the months leading up to our March 2003 invasion of Iraq.
Repealing the 2002 War Authorization Act in favor of drafting a more competent piece of legislation aimed at curtailing the military’s role in Iraq and beginning the steps toward complete withdrawal is a bold message, both symbolically and practically, to the President that his bloody excursion in regime change was not helpful to this nation, both in the monetary costs and the irreversible damage it did to our international reputation. This move by the US Congress is a clear sign to our international allies that the majority of the American people now stand behind what the world knew from the beginning-that this war was simply unnecessary.
The recent nonbinding resolution criticizing the President’s call for an escalation of troop deployment to the area was certainly a start in the right direction, but a true rebuke of the President’s megalomaniacal intentions in the form of repealing the act that authorized his war in the first place is an unequivocal message that a continued conflict (one that will continue to cost thousands of American lives if not stopped) will no longer be tolerated or supported.
In my mind, Congress has made the boldest declaration in support of our armed forces possible-that they belong at home, not on some ill-fated and ill-conceived adventure in international hegemony.
Sincerely,
Michael K. Canty,
Senior, Political Science
Louisiana State University