Time For Some More "Active" Anti-Bush Activism

This blog started out as an effort to block the re-election of George W. Bush, Tony Blair and Australian PM John Howard, the triumvirate who brought you the Greatest Lie Ever Told and who are personally responsible for the death, destruction and chaos that this deception has wrought around the world.

Sadly, all three men survived the elections of the past seven months and remain in power. Their re-election campaigns, of course, were marked by further lies. Weak political opponents, from parties which themselves have been pro-war, failed to seriously address the elephant in the middle of the lounge room: The Iraq War. Faced with fear campaigns and no credible alternatives, the people of the USA, Australia and Britain chose to stay with the devil they know.

The Democratic political process, and the Western media's coverage of certain major issues, have been woefully lacking. But we now have the smoking gun that proves the lies: the Downing Street Memo confirms that Bush and his cronies knew Saddam was not a serious threat, did not have WMDs and was not aligned with terrorists. Despite all the condemnation of "intelligence failures", the memo proves that "the intelligence and the facts were being fixed around the policy." The policy, concocted by the US neo-conservatives and carefully pushed through Dick Cheney's secretive Office Of Special Plans, was to remove Saddam Hussein "through military action justified by the conjunction of terrorism and WMD". In other words, terrorism and WMDs were concoted excuses for an illegal invasion which has led to the deaths of tens of thousands.

Bush’s lies have caused the deaths of tens of thousands of people, injured and maimed tens of thousands more, devastated a country, destroyed America’s reputation, caused one billion Muslims to hate America, ruined our alliances with Europe, created a police state at home, and squandered $300 billion dollars and counting.

These words come from a conservative US Republican, Paul Craig Roberts.

Given the failure of the electoral process to remove Bush, Blair and Howard from power, given the lack of serious political opposition, and given the Western media's woeful lack of courage in addressing the real issues here, including the Downing Street Memo, it's time for those of us who oppose Bush's lies to consider how best to proceed from here.

The solution has got to be impeachment. If the political process has failed and the mainstream media is too gutless to take on the major story of our times (and they wonder why their distribution is falling!), there is still the legal process. Lying to the nation about the reasons for going to war amounts to "High Crimes And Misdemeanors" under the US Constitution. It is an impeachable offence.

So now it is up to anti-war activists to push this legal process all the way to the US Supreme Court, using the Downing Street Memo as a battering ram to break down the GOP-controlled doors. Are you with us or against us?

I have been a lone blogger for a long time, habitually wary of "groupthink" situations which lead to compromise, policizing and ultimately, ineffective squabbling. I have felt very much like a voice crying in the wilderness, particularly because I am an Australian covering mostly US issues (my logic is that Bush's actions have a huge effect on my life and my world, far moreso than the actions of my own subservient PM). And ultimately, given that Bush and his gang remain in power, I have to admit that my efforts to date (despite nearly 30,000 visitors) have not been as successful as I would like.

So now I have decided to pursue a more active path. For starters, this blog is now a part of the Big Brass Alliance.

The Big Brass Alliance was formed in May 2005 as a collective of progressive bloggers who support After Downing Street, a coalition of veterans' groups, peace groups, and political activist groups formed to urge that the U.S. Congress launch a formal investigation into whether President Bush has committed impeachable offenses in connection with the Iraq war.

(Thanks to Winter Patriot for the link).

It's time for anti-war and anti-Bush bloggers to unite on this issue and push it all the way. If the media choose to ignore the Memo itself, they wont be able to ignore a mass movement in support of it. We can push the story by becoming part of the story.

PS: I read today that John Kerry he intends to present Congress with The Downing Street Memo on Monday. In a sign of the times, I got the news from Al Jazeera, on the same day that Donald Rumsfeld accused Al Jazeera of supporting terrorists. Go figure.