Just sent this letter off to my representatives in Congress. Senator Allen (R-VA), Senator Warner (R-VA), Representative Moran (D-VA) and President Bush (or their staff members) will soon be getting an eyeful, because they hadn't heard from me in a while and I thought it was time I checked in. The title of this diary (minus the parenthetical statement) was the subject line of the message.
I ended up writing and sending this because when I called them all earlier today I was so furious over today's news (including Karl Rove's obnoxious tongue-wagging) that I couldn't collect my thoughts as coherently as I'd planned.
( text below the fold )
As much as some might say that the information in the Downing Street Minutes is incorrect, misinterpreted, or "old news," the fact remains that the Bush Administration and the GOP Leadership did indeed fix the facts around their pre-determined policy of a pre-emptive war in Iraq, a country which posed no threat to us at all and had no connection whatsoever to the events of 9/11.
Republicans say that it's more important to stand united behind the war and our President than to question this administration's statements that led us to that war, and its policies in executing it.
Time and again we're told that to question the war is to undermine the troops, when in fact this administration sent our troops into this unjustifiable war without adequate protections to ensure their safety and no plan for securing the area after the regime of Saddam Hussein fell. Time and again we're told that dissent, one of the very founding principles of our country, is in fact treasonous and Unamerican.
I'm sick of being told that we're turning a corner, when our own military leaders admit that we don't have enough troops and the situation is out of control. I'm sick of being told that the insurgency is in its last throes, when bombs kill innocent (and, remember, under-armored and under-equipped) Americans who are only there because Bush wanted to be remembered as a successful President.
I'm tired of billions of dollars of taxpayers' money literally disappearing because there's no accountability in place to ensure that it's properly spent. I'm tired of our American soldiers having to work alongside private contractors (or, more correctly, mercenaries) who make ten times what they do. I'm tired of oil companies and military contractors reaping the rewards of the bloodshed and violence that are a direct result of the war crimes of the Bush administration.
Above all, I'm tired of the Republican leadership playing innocent and blaming Democrats for being "obstructionist" and "playing politics" when, in fact, it is the Republican leadership that is unwilling to accept anything less than total and complete success in every facet of their extremist, right-wing agenda.
This administration wants to operate with no oversight, no accountability, no responsibility, no debate, and no dissent. Questions are evaded, blame is diverted, mistakes forgotten, and self-serving lapdogs of corporate lobbyists hide behind Flag, God, and Country while questioning the patriotism of any who speak out against them.
Tell Cindy Sheehan, whose son died eleven days after Bush's famous "nope, no WMDs here" knee-slapper, that we're spreading freedom. She, and others who have lost friends, family, and loved ones to Bush's lies, are paying the price for his legacy, and to me that's the most Unamerican thing of all.
So, when was the last time you wrote your representatives, and what did you say? I like to point people toward Congress.org, which makes it very easy to contact your Representatives all from one place.