The Journal News October 25, 2006
Midterm elections key to changing nation's course
By Dirk Kemp
Election Day is Nov. 7, and the Rockland Coalition for Peace Justice urges you to vote.
The most pressing issue facing voters this election is the Iraq occupation and with 78 American casualties as of Saturday, Oct. 21, October became the deadliest month of the year and is on track to becoming the deadliest month of the entire war.
GlobalSecurity.org records October 2004 as having the most casualties with 137 Americans killed.
The Republican-controlled Congress will not change course, but it now finds it expedient to equivocate regarding the Iraq occupation.
During an interview Sunday on ABC's "This Week," President George W. Bush replied, "We've never been stay the course, George!" to a question from George Stephanopoulos.
Despite their changing rhetoric, conditions in Iraq continue to deteriorate. On Aug. 7, the U.S. military launched Operation Together Forward in Baghdad, which is a security sweep bolstered with 12,000 additional U.S. and Iraqi troops.
Responding to questions on Oct. 19, Maj. Gen. William B. Caldwell conceded, "Operation Together Forward has made a difference in the focus areas but has not met our overall expectations in sustaining a reduction in the level of violence."
The day after the general's remarks, Sunni insurgents staged military-like parades in towns less than a mile from U.S. bases, reported The Associated Press.
Staying the course, as Bush and the Republican Congress defined their Iraq plan, has failed the troops and has changed America at its very core. On Oct. 17, Bush signed the military Commission Act of 2006. This act authorizes military trials for suspected terrorists.
The online Wikipedia encyclopedia says the act changes pre-existing law to explicitly disallow the invocation of the Geneva Conventions when executing the writ of habeas corpus.
In other words, a suspected terrorist does not have the right to file for release on the grounds of unlawful imprisonment-the suspect can be held indefinitely.
It also states that a commission judge can introduce hearsay evidence, evidence obtained without a search warrant, evidence obtained when the degree of coercion is disputed, or classified evidence not made available to the defense.
Although this act is intended for resident aliens within the United States as well as other foreign nationals captured here and abroad, MSNBC host Keith Oberman makes a very good point when he asks, "If you are pulled off the street tomorrow, and they call you an alien or an undocumented immigrant or an 'unlawful enemy combatant' - exactly how are you going to convince them to give you a court hearing to prove you are not?"
The Military Commission Act of 2006 creates circumstances whereby any American citizen can be imprisoned with no legal way out.
This Republican-controlled Congress has not provided oversight for Bush's war of choice or for his administration's poor prosecution of the Iraq occupation, but has enriched its self via Republican "superlobbyist" Jack Abramoff and lobbyists of his ilk.
And to maintain their power, Republicans in the House of Representatives very possibly engaged in a cover-up to protect former Rep. Mark Foley of Florida, who they had evidence to believe might have acted inappropriately with 16- and 17-year-old male congressional pages.
If there remained a flicker of hope that our government had not been broken by this Republican-dominated Congress, I am sure it was doused by Homeland Security's mishandling of Hurricane Katrina.
A bipartisan governmental report on Katrina entitled, "A Failure of Initiative," identified failures at all levels of government.
But we can change this disastrous course, as the Democrats have made plans for a new direction.
In an Associated Press interview, House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., detailed her plans for the first 100 hours, in the event the Democrats take control of the House.
Among her intentions are the establishment of new rules to "break the link between lobbyists and legislation," enactment of all of the 9/11 commission recommendations, raising the minimum wage to $7.25, cutting the interest rate on student loans in half, allowing the government to negotiate directly with pharmaceutical companies to lower drug prices for Medicare patients and broadening of the types of stem cell research allowed by the federal government.
She added, "I hope with a veto-proof majority."
Vote for a change of course that supports the troops and vote for a new direction that puts America back on the moral high ground.
© Copyright 2006, The Journal News, a Gannett Co. Inc.
