More Politics As Usual

So, now, safely past the Presidential election, conservatives like Trent Lott and neocons like William Kristol are criticizing Rumsfeld and calling for his resignation over issues like the lack of armor for the troops and the failure to plan for the insurgency.

Mr. Lott, Mr. Kristol, and the rest of the Republican party who supported Bush, I have this to say: You knew about this before the election. The armor issue is two years old. In March of 2004, in a town meeting, a soldier asked Rumsfeld about it just like the soldier did a few weeks ago. The Senate Armed Services Committee had a meeting to discuss this issue. The failure of Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz to plan for the reconstruction and a possible insurgency has been evident for over a year now.

You chose politics over the lives of American soldiers and the future of our nation. You helped reelect an intransigent President who you knew would stand by his intransigent Secretary of Defense just as he has done. You are now trying to get a regime that has refused to alter its course time and again to do just that, and you knew that, if Bush were reelected, it was likely that the nation would end up in this predicament, as Bush would choose to stand by Rumsfeld as Rumsfeld refused to resign. That is what has happened.

You were trying to have your cake and eat it too. You were willing to risk the lives of American soldiers and the future of Iraq and the United States in order to ensure your political futures.

Every bad decision made by Rumsfeld and supported by the Bush regime is hereafter your responsibility. Every American soldier who dies because of the Defense Department policies that you know and have known were flawed are on your hands. Personally. Each and every one of you who stood up for Bush while knowing that Americans are and were dying for the stubbornnes and ego of three men: Bush, Rumsfeld, and Wolfowitz is responsible for every life they waste in their quest to act like they are infallible gods.

Every American who dies for a lack of armor, for failure to provide sufficient troop strengths, and for the disbanding of the Iraqi police and army after the war is blood on your hands as surely as the blood Lady MacBeth could not wash away. Because you knew better. You knew about all this. You remained silent as this regime put America's sons and daughters in harm's way and said nothing because you cared more about politics than their lives. You told the American people that Bush was the best choice to lead us through this time of crisis even though you knew his policies and his Secretary of Defense are and were failing. But you did not care.

And every American who voted for Bush on the basis that he would better handle the war in Iraq, I say to you, that you are just as responsible. Either you knew the same things that Lott and Kristol did and voted for Bush anyway, or you wilfully chose to believe the lies of the Bush regime and closed your eyes and ears to the reality of what is happening in the world today. I will not let you off the hook by saying you are stupid as many on the left have done. You are not stupid. You are responsible.

True patriots stand up and do what is right, without regard to politics and crass self-interest. Even though he is crazy, Zell Miller is more a patriot than any of you, because he went against his own party to stand up for what he believed in. In his craze he was sadly, sadly wrong, but he had the courage of his convinctions, which is more than I can say for any of you.

Hypocrites. Zealots. Traitors. These words will be yours to own when history makes its judgment upon you. I hope your god truly is a merciful god, despite the evidence in your own Bible and the utter lack of mercy you, his worshippers, have shown to those whose lives you are responsible for. Because if I were to sit in judgment, I would not be merciful. I would be just, as you claim to be when you execute the mentally retarded. Unlike the mentally challenged, you knew what you were doing. If anyone deserves to sit on death row with thousands of deaths on their hands, it is you more than anyone sitting on death row in America right now. Because you killed with legislation, speeches, and a damning silence, you are no less murderers than they.

I am not responsible for bringing you to justice. For that, you are all lucky.