THINKING FOR OURSELVES

Congressional Actions

By Shea Howell

Michigan Citizen, Aug. 12-18, 2007

ongress closed its doors last week for the summer. None too soon. It capped off a disappointing seven months by passing a shameful piece of legislation expanding the wiretapping powers of the executive. Elected to end this war and restore constitutional boundaries to the executive, the Democratic congress failed to do either.

Certainly, the Republicans out-maneuvered them. Republicans managed to use parliamentary tricks, especially the filibuster, requiring 60 votes in the Senate to end it, to block the slim Democratic lead from taking action. In this past session, Senate Republicans launched 43 filibusters, triple the previous record.

But the inability to end the war or address the constitutional crisis we face goes well beyond parliamentary tricks. Democrats in Congress are still shaped by the fear of being considered “soft on terrorism.” With most Americans this charge, wielded so effectively by Republicans in the most recent debate on expanding the presidential powers for warrantless wiretaps, is no longer a powerful argument. We have all witnessed how Bush’s claim to being “hard on terror” has ended again and again in a fiasco.

Fear of an executive branch committed to war without end is disturbing more Americans today. The emotional power of 9/11 has not only faded with time, but has been diminished by the realization of how much horror has been unleashed in the name of vengeance for those lost. Images of bombs exploding in schoolyards, markets, mosques and street corners long ago overshadowed those of the twin towers. Nightly reports of deaths in Baghdad, faces of fallen American soldiers, reports of incompetent health care, callous contractors, and government-sanctioned torture weigh heavily on our hearts.

We have lost more American lives in an illegal war in Iraq than on 9/11, and the lives of more than 150,000 Iraqi children, women, and men who were only trying to survive from day to day, have been cut short by U.S. bombs or bullets. In spite of the “surge” intended to increase security and despite a five-month-old increase in U.S. troop levels, the number of Iraqi civilians killed rose by more than a third in July, according to last week’s government figures. At least 1,652 civilians were killed in Iraq in July, 33 percent more than in the previous month, according to figures compiled by the Iraqi health, defense and interior ministries.

Congress has the responsibility to end this war. The single thing it could do to prevent future terrorist attacks on US soil would be to announce that this war was a mistake, that it was sold to the American people by a pack of liars and that we will withdraw all troops immediately. In addition, we will begin impeachment hearings against the two men most responsible for this war, President Bush and Vice President Cheney.

Unless Congress takes this kind of bold, direct action, the constitutional crisis created by the imperial designs of Bush and Cheney will continue to infect our notions of democracy. Already we see signs of it seeping into the campaigns of Democrats vying for the White House. Hillary Clinton is quietly supporting a continued and indefinite

U.S. presence in Iraq of 50-75,000 US troops. Obama, who has generally maintained a stronger anti-war position, is outdoing his rivals in pledging aggressive military intervention against Iran and Pakistan.

The question facing this Congress goes to the heart of our belief in constitutional democracy. Can we, the people, prevent a war-drunk president from committing the resources of our nation to an unjustified perpetual war?

Only by directly and courageously confronting this issue can we hope to restore peace and security to Iraq and to our land.

Email Shea Boggs Center,