Letter: McCain, Obama and Iraq war
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On one level, this letter is in support of Barack Obama’s campaign, but on another level, it questions citizens’ abilities to interpret information.
Our country does not have a strong track record, having twice voted President Bush into power, in spite of strong evidence that his administration fabricated its so-called evidence of Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction and his connections to al-Qaida. We should all remember Bush’s second State of the Union address and former Secretary of State Colin Powell’s speech to the United Nations about their certain “proof.”
Nearly everyone now knows Bush’s administration fabricated the “evidence.” Some people even suspect members of the administration have engaged in criminal actions by ordering the CIA to forge a letter linking Saddam Hussein to al-Qaida. Author and journalist Ron Suskind has taped the CIA’s former deputy chief of clandestine operations, Robert Richer, as saying the White House ordered the CIA to forge this letter. If the CIA carried out the White House’s orders to forge this letter, it may have ordered the forgery of the infamous Niger letter as well — the letter that led to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s “smoking gun.” We now know whose gun was smoking.
When considering whether to vote for John McCain or Barack Obama, we need to remember that our invasion — and destruction — of Iraq was based on deliberately falsified information, including the possibility of two forged documents ordered by the White House. This is the war that McCain voted for and still supports.
We hear McCain accusing Obama about not having supported the surge, which McCain now claims is “working.” I ask Louisiana voters to think this “working” issue through.
Why should we care whether the surge is working? We have killed how many Iraqis? How many have fled their country? How have the cities been walled off, Sunnis from Shiites, Shiites from Sunnis? What has happened to the infrastructure of a country with the third-richest oil resources in the world? What about the massive scale of corruption ? What about the 60,000 Iraqis in jail? What about the presidentially condoned torture? What about the U.S soldiers and Blackwater mercenaries acting like Saddam Hussein’s thugs, breaking down doors at night, shooting people in revenge, becoming what they thought they were fighting. How has this made America “safer”?
We are paying $12 billion a month for Bush’s failed experiment in “growing democracies.” Is McCain talking about balancing the budget by cutting government spending and indefinitely allocating any amount for this war? Can Louisiana voters see the disconnect — or will they vote again for the pretense of cutting back on government waste while spending trillions for a war based on lies and possible forgeries?
Irvin Peckham
writing program administrator
Baton Rouge
Our country does not have a strong track record, having twice voted President Bush into power, in spite of strong evidence that his administration fabricated its so-called evidence of Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction and his connections to al-Qaida. We should all remember Bush’s second State of the Union address and former Secretary of State Colin Powell’s speech to the United Nations about their certain “proof.”
Nearly everyone now knows Bush’s administration fabricated the “evidence.” Some people even suspect members of the administration have engaged in criminal actions by ordering the CIA to forge a letter linking Saddam Hussein to al-Qaida. Author and journalist Ron Suskind has taped the CIA’s former deputy chief of clandestine operations, Robert Richer, as saying the White House ordered the CIA to forge this letter. If the CIA carried out the White House’s orders to forge this letter, it may have ordered the forgery of the infamous Niger letter as well — the letter that led to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice’s “smoking gun.” We now know whose gun was smoking.
When considering whether to vote for John McCain or Barack Obama, we need to remember that our invasion — and destruction — of Iraq was based on deliberately falsified information, including the possibility of two forged documents ordered by the White House. This is the war that McCain voted for and still supports.
We hear McCain accusing Obama about not having supported the surge, which McCain now claims is “working.” I ask Louisiana voters to think this “working” issue through.
Why should we care whether the surge is working? We have killed how many Iraqis? How many have fled their country? How have the cities been walled off, Sunnis from Shiites, Shiites from Sunnis? What has happened to the infrastructure of a country with the third-richest oil resources in the world? What about the massive scale of corruption ? What about the 60,000 Iraqis in jail? What about the presidentially condoned torture? What about the U.S soldiers and Blackwater mercenaries acting like Saddam Hussein’s thugs, breaking down doors at night, shooting people in revenge, becoming what they thought they were fighting. How has this made America “safer”?
We are paying $12 billion a month for Bush’s failed experiment in “growing democracies.” Is McCain talking about balancing the budget by cutting government spending and indefinitely allocating any amount for this war? Can Louisiana voters see the disconnect — or will they vote again for the pretense of cutting back on government waste while spending trillions for a war based on lies and possible forgeries?
Irvin Peckham
writing program administrator
Baton Rouge
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