Reasons for Regime Change
by Ron Corby
My family comes from a long and strong military tradition. My grandfather fought in Europe during WWI (USA), my father served in Korea and fought in Vietnam (USA). I served twenty years (USAF) and served in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War. We were all enlisted men, all served proudly and honorably. I retired from active duty in 2000. My children are the first generation to attend college.I have a 21-year-old son who is in his second year of college. My 19-year-old daughter is both an exceptional student and athlete. She is National Merit Scholarship winner, had a 4.14 GPA, and was the 2004 Michigan state diving champion. The United States Military Academy at West Point had been following her accomplishments for two years and had been actively recruiting her. The Army swimming and diving coaches wanted her to be a member of the team. The USMA even had our local senators office send my daughter a form to fill out so she could be appointed to West Point. She appreciates the effort, but unfortunately must decline. The sad part of this story is I cannot and will not encourage her to be a member of the United Sates Military now or in the foreseeable future. I will not sacrifice my children for the empire building, Wall Street serving, twisted morality imposing Bush administration, and his neo-conservative supporters. My family will be prepared to defend this great nations national security and national interests if called upon, but not to line cronies’ pockets and support imperialistic machinations. The education at the USMC is top notch, the discipline and leadership learned unequalled, and the price is right. The reasons why my daughter will not be attending West Point nor serving in the military are contained in the paragraphs below:
The same people who attacked the Hon Senator McCain’s wartime record in 2000, also attacked John Kerry’s and even Max Cleland’s service records. These attacks were despicable and certainly condoned by the Bush people.
One of most important, but completely ignored issue during these elections and since then is “The Project for the New American Century” ( PNAC ). The long-range implications of this plan are mind-boggling. The ultimate goal is military, economic, theological, and social domination of the world. The cost in economic terms and the lives of our children (future servicemen and women) is too high. This plan is what the Iraq invasion was really about, this is a part of it. There was no al-Qaeda presence in Iraq prior to the Hussein’s removal. Hussein and Bin Laden hated each other, they are opposites politically and philosophically. While I agree Hussein is a monster and deserves to die for his crimes, Bush did not take us to war for that reason. Hussein had nothing to with 9/11, he wouldn’t have dared, knowing Bush was after him. Everyone knew the younger Bush was obsessed with Hussein, and would use any excuse to remove him. Bush’s own personal motives for this were a need to outdo his dad and siblings, and payback for Hussein offering a contract on his daddy’s life. Bush was easy pickings for Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Abrams, Bolton, and Perle to manipulate, all who were in the elder Bush administration and formulated these plans back then. The Iraq invasion was for the WMD, supposedly. The rest of the world knew our case was non-existent and rightfully did not support us. The plan to invade Iraq under any circumstances was developed by Wolfowitz working for Cheney in 1992. This was done towards the end of the elder Bush presidency and was part of the Defense Planning Guidance, developed by each administration. Their plans were thwarted by the unsuccessful re-election of the elder Bush in 1992. The way we operated last century was to overtly or covertly arm/fund various governments, or opposition parties, or various dictators or rebels/insurgents. We did this via the “indirect method” by the use of surrogates. The PNAC is a radical departure from previous methodology; we are now going to use the “direct” method. This means sending our troops around the world to impose our will on the rest of the world militarily, economically, socially and theologically. We, the American people, need to be perfectly clear of what we have signed on for by first electing and then re-electing this administration. The short and long term costs of this are tremendous. We are signing up to be the world’s policeman, we are signing up to impose our beliefs, impose our form of government, impose our economic systems on the rest of the world. The costs of establishing this and maintaining it are untenable, as all past empires have discovered throughout history. Unfortunately we squandered the world’s goodwill and support for removing the Taliban and rebuilding Afghanistan after 9/11. We did this by turning from the true war on terror against al-Qaeda around the world, and invading Iraq under patently false pretenses. Unfortunately we have again done a large disservice to the Afghan peoples. While I personally don’t support the Plan for the New American Century, if we knowingly and democratically choose to do so, so be it. What I find most disturbing is the way this plan is being surreptitiously implemented. We need close public scrutiny and debate; we need to go into this with eyes wide open. What is being attempted here is circumvention of our democracy. We will be presented with a Fait Accompli, if we are not vigilant. It really is almost too late now.
Intelligence failures leading up to 9/11 was another of Bush’s failures. The state of and level of cooperation/communication between intelligence agencies was not of Bush’s doing, they were relics of the cold war and past domestic abuses by the FBI & CIA, and by a failure to act by previous administrations and legislatures. What Bush did do wrong was to so vigorously try to distance his administration from anything to do with the Clinton administration. In doing so, he discounted the information from the Clinton administration and Richard Clarke, who tried to warn them the threat of terrorism was a clear and present danger. Bush demonstrated this in his unwillingness to convene a single cabinet meeting exclusively dealing with terrorism, of which the previous administration had many such high level cabinet meetings. After 9/11 the Bush administration first resisted the creation of the “National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States”. Even once it was forced to support it’s creation by public pressure, the administration impeded it wherever they could. Richard Clarke resigned in Jan 2003 out of frustration with the administrations posture on 9/11 and terrorism. He served under three administrations as an intelligence and terrorism expert. He was the only person in the entire government to ever admit or even hint the US government had failed its citizens. The Bush administration has since “purged” the various intelligence agencies of anyone who does not kowtow to their will. Free, independent thinkers, critics and any diverse views have been quashed.
The domestic spying scandal is one of the times I believe Bush clearly broke the law and harmed our constitutional rights. I am all for eavesdropping on real potential terrorists, and those they are in contact with. I don’t really care whether they are in or out of the US. What I do care greatly care about is that domestic eavesdropping was unilaterally ordered by the executive branch without any checks or balances. If the president had gone through the FISA courts, I would have no problem with anything deemed necessary by our professionals in the NSA. History has shown that such powers unchecked will lead to abuses, as in the 50s, 60s, and 70s. With the fear mongering and jingoism being practiced by this administration, before you know it war protesters will be monitored. From there anyone who criticizes Bush, political opponents, even citizens such as myself who speak out will come under suspicion. This will result is stifling free speech and seriously damage our democracy. This administration has to be checked as their circular reasoning can justify any actions in their minds. The person or persons who leaked this program to the public should be commended, not vilified as is being attempted by Bush. What other illegal actions are being taken by this administration that have not surfaced yet?
The budget deficit and level of national debt is another clear failure by the Bush administration. They were handed a budget surplus of $236 billion by the Clinton administration. The 2002 deficit was $158 billion, the 2003 deficit was $373 billion, and the 2004 projected deficit is $521 billion. The Bush $350 billion tax cut is over half of that, the one benefiting mostly the extremely wealthy. The national debt now tops $8.2 trillion, and will be at just under 70% of GDP. A little history of the national debt is in order. The raw numbers are really not as important as what percentage of the GDP the debt is. Presidents Reagan & Bush raised the debt from 32% of GDP to 66% after 12years of record increases. Clinton took the deficit from 66% to 57% of GDP in 8 yrs. Bush took only 4 yrs to take it back up to 68%, and at the rate we’re going will be at 78% after four more years. Our national debt is rising at a rate of $1.3 million a minute, 24hrs a day, 365 days a year.
We were also misled on the costs of the Medicare Prescription Bill recently passed. This bill was supported by over 1000 lobbyists of the pharmaceutical industry, and the Bush administration. It passed 220-215 after bullying many fiscal Republican conservatives into voting for it. One courageous congressman, Nick Smith of Michigan, actually had his son’s congressional bid threatened by the withholding of financial support by Bush supporters in the GOP. The Republican party did this after their overtures of support for his son’s candidacy were rejected. Unfortunately this is how our government and the Republican party operates now. The country’s top Medicare cost analyst complained that his former boss had ordered him to withhold from Congress unfavorable cost estimates about the Medicare prescription-drug bill. He said the real estimates exceeded what Congress said they were willing to pay by more than $100 billion. The chief actuary at the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, Richard Foster, said that in June 2003 he received a written note from Thomas Scully, then the centers’ administrator, ordering him to ignore information requests from members of Congress who were drafting the drug bill. Many Republican lawmakers had stated they would not support a prescription bill costing more than $400billion. The estimate was officially kept at $395 billion through the muzzling of key individuals. Foster estimated it would cost a minimum of $100 more. He was threatened with the loss of his job if he revealed the real estimate. Bush signed the bill in November 2003, and in January of 2004 Bush’ own budget director, Joshua Bolten raised the estimate to $534 billion. The latest estimate is $723 billion. The US Congress should be outraged by this and should impeach Bush for these illegal acts.
The administrations refusal to provide information on the Cheney energy task force is reprehensible. The public has a right to know who is involved in formulating policy. The right to “ private, candid’ counsel argument is a Red Herring. First of all, anyone who will not openly or publicly offer advice should not be trusted. That we have allowed this to happen is shameful. Ken Lay and other energy company executives were responsible for formulating this country’s energy policy, to the exclusion of all other points of view. The Bush administration is attempting to hide this information. Even though all courts that have heard the case have rejected the Bush Administrations arguments, they continue legal maneuvers to prevent disclosing the members and minutes of task force meetings.
The Enron scandal has also been downplayed by the Bush administration because of unethical contacts and influences in the administration. Ken Lay met privately with Dick Cheney as part of the Energy Task Force. The Enron collapse cost tens of thousands their life savings, while the fat cats took their profits. During the 2000 presidential campaign Bush jetted around the campaign finance laws and the country on an Enron jet provided by Ken Lay, his biggest financial supporter. Enron was deeply involved in the California energy crisis, costing many jobs, and even lives for poor elderly who could not afford the electricity prices. Ties between Enron and the 2nd Bush administrations are widespread, just some of the more noteworthy ones are; Robert Mosbacher, Brent Scowcroft, Ed Gillespie, Wendy Gramm, J Bennett Johnson, Marc Racicot, Elizabeth Moler, and many others
Patriot act abuses have also been many by this administration, and the patriot act is being used for political purposes routinely. Dissent is being quashed and social agendas are being furthered by use of the Patriot Act.
The ties between Halliburton and many Bush Administration members are scandalous and should be exposed. The no contract bids go back to the same thing happening in the rebuilding of Kuwait after the Gulf War. After the Gulf war our SECDEF Cheney became CEO of Halliburton, then became VP of the United States. Of course he was directly involved in greasing the wheels both times for no-bid contracts. Cheney’s reward for the no bid contracts to rebuild Kuwait was becoming CEO. While Cheney was CEO from 1995 to 2000, the number of offshore tax havens went from 9 to 44 subsidiaries. Halliburtons corporate tax payments went from paying $302 million in 1998, to getting an $85 million tax refund in 1999. They have had tremendous influence in actually formulating our foreign policy to maximize it’s profits. Lawrence Eagleburger was recently a board member at Halliburton, he was a prominent former Foreign Service officer under the Reagan, and first Bush administration. He was also the Secretary of State under the elder Bush. Ray Hunt, another Texas oil man on Halliburton’s board was appointed by Bush in 2001 to the “President’s Foreign Policy Advisory Board”. Based on what qualifications?
Valarie Plame was exposed as a CIA operative to get back at her husband Robert Wilson. Robert Wilson was sent by the administration to Niger to investigate claims Iraq had attempted to purchase “Yellow Cake” to produce weapons grade nuclear material. Robert Wilson had the audacity to truthfully report there was no basis for the claims. This is just one more example of how the Bush administration deals with people who don’t provide the required facts to support their plans. Scooter Libby, Dick Cheney, George Bush and others should be impeached for purposely and maliciously leaking classified information.
The erosion of the separation of church & state is of tremendous concern to me. I believe one of the key goals of Bush and his supporters is to turn this great nation into a theocracy. There is a pervasive and organized intrusion of fundamental Christian doctrines into all levels of government and public policy. Bush himself, and a large part of his base support believes he was put in the presidency by God himself. Given the events of the 2000 election and now his re-election, they may have a point! People who believe they are acting as an instrument of a supreme being as part of a “Divine Providence”, will literally do anything to achieve their aims. These zealots believe any means are justified by the ends. History is replete with examples of this phenomenon, and the results have been horrendous for humanity. This proclivity has been and is continually being displayed by the Bush administration. This is the greatest threat to our democracy and way of life. The indefensibility and insecurity of religious belief is forcing theists to become more and more demanding. Religious fundamentalists are aggressively acting to turn this country into a theocracy. The reason is an underlying insecurity, thus the need to have their beliefs validated by society, exclusively. Rational people have been too complacent for too long in regards to theists, frankly disregarding them as absurd and benign. I believe most religious people are good, well meaning people, their faith is just not based in any reality. The benign part has been over since the election of god’s right hand man, George Bush. Fundamentalists are now demanding their beliefs are accepted as true, and these beliefs are being turned into public policies. Now that theists are demanding more and more input into domestic, social, and foreign policy, and are increasingly getting it, they must be held to the same scrutiny as rational people. The danger of religious beliefs cannot be overstated, nor can its devastating impact throughout history be ignored. One must be open to the possibility ones beliefs are wrong, and open to new data, and fundamentalists just are not. Christian fundamentalists are just as dangerous as Muslim, or any other fundamentalists who have the egotistical belief they are right and all others are wrong, and that “God” talks to them. People need to truly get off the fence, stop hedging their bets. We need to stop accepting modern biology ( esp. neuroscience ), geology, physics, mathematics, astronomy, out of one side of our mouths, and praying out of the other side. We must have the conviction to do this, as the fundamentalists certainly do. Take the precepts of the bible to their natural conclusions; the universe is around 6000 yrs old for example. Teaching Creationism as a competing theory to Evolution is akin to teaching in biology class to consider the “Stork” theory as an alternate theory to human sexual reproduction. Simply stating something, “I believe the center of the earth is made of bubblegum” for example, does not make it a theory. Actual theories are supported by evidence, not faith. The “Santa Claus” analogy is one I use quite often; while a child’s belief in Santa has some desirable results, that does not make it true. I believe religion has always been used as an excellent people management tool by those having or aspiring to power. I believe theism may be psychologically convenient, maybe even psychologically healthy for a large percentage of the population; neither of those makes a supreme being real though. The fallacy that religion and morality are dependent on one another has been used since religions first evolved. If the “Ten Commandments” are examined, most of them are demanding obedience and worship. Sounds like a pretty egotistical or needy God to me. A little delusion can go a long way. I can only respect someone’s values if they come from a realized intrinsic conviction. I do not respect values derived from a dogmatic belief, blind faith, or a selfish fear that a failure to adhere to prescribed tenets will result in eternal damnation, or non-salvation. I continually find it astonishing so many trust in a book compiled from between 5000 to 2000 years ago. What would we say if our physician referred to a 2000 yr old medical text when treating us? How about if our next bridge spanning a river was built by an engineer using 2000 yr old engineering standards? Reason and faith are mutually exclusive and it is imperative we stop pretending otherwise, the stakes are getting too high. There either is a supreme being or there isn’t. The burden of proof rests on those making an affirmative claim. These are extremely dangerous times, and we must preserve our freedoms.
The above describes a naive Bush and some of his equally simple supporters. Another group of Bush supporters are just as dangerous, and not at all naive. I believe Bush to be a pawn directed by a very intelligent, very disciplined, very well funded group, commonly referred to as the neo-conservatives. Karl Rove and other neo-conservative strategists have very effectively combined Christian fundamentalism, nationalism, and unadulterated greed.
Anyone who criticizes this administration is isolated, marginalized, discredited, called unpatriotic or un-American, and punished if possible.
General Boykin publicly and in uniform, stated his God was superior to the Muslim God, therefore we would triumph. Bush obviously agrees and failed to act. Gen Boykin is now an undersecretary of intelligence oversight.
Abu Gharaib is another disaster driven by an ends justify the means mentality. I believe this was condoned by all the way up the chain of command. Our senior military officers are smart enough to shield themselves from direct responsibility. I spent twenty years in the military, and saw the changes over the years. I know how it works, and so do you senator. We now have a corporate mentality military. Everyone wants sausage, but no one in authority ever wants to officially know how it’s made. Wink Wink!
Misuse of the classification system for partisan purposes is another common trait of this administration. This has historically been attempted by all parties and past administrations, but never as blatantly as by this administration. The sole purpose of the classification system is to prevent disclosure of classified information. Classified information is information that if revealed endangers people, military, or national objectives. The recent “re-classification” of thousands of documents is a recent example. The purpose of the classification system is not to prevent lawful oversight, prevent criticism, prevent embarrassment, or evade accountability.
Allowing consolidation of media ownership by a few conglomerates is also part of the strategy to control the message in order to implement their agenda of consolidating their power in the hands of a few ultra rich, ultra conservatives
Tom Delay has lost all moral authority and respect, due do the multiple scandals he’s been involved with. Delay has stated Christianity is the only “Real Religion”, there should no place in America’s power structure for such arrogance. The casino consulting situation comes to mind. So do does the ethics committee investigation of bribery on the house floor. The Texas house of representatives fundraising investigation, and the strong arming attempts of Nick Smith mentioned before in which Delay was instrumental. Tom Delay finally resigned, as he is to be implicated in the Abramoff scandal. I find it interesting he will be using the same defense as his good friend and mutual supporter Ken Lay; the “I was so incompetent I had no idea what anyone working for me was doing” defense. I don’t think he will be able to pull this off. His arrogance and extremely high opinion of himself will probably not allow him to be portrayed as a buffoon.
The multiple hirings of media representative to influence proposed legislation is illegal. The placing of a “Ringer” in the white House Press Corps is typical of this administrations modus operandi.
The DOD utilizing internal covert operations which should be the purview of the CIA are other examples of malfeasance. This was done in part to evade congressional oversight. These Military members have no right to be treated as military combatants if captured in Iran or other places. The blurring of these lines gives justification to our enemies to mistreat our servicemembers, and does a disservice to us all.
I could go on and on and this letter would never end I would like to point out it’s ironic that 229 yrs ago we fought for independence from a global empire and a monarchy. The British monarchy was based on wealth, suppression of dissent and a self righteous sense of entitlement. This is exactly what is being created by the Republican party in America today. We just don’t call them “Kings, Queens, Lords, Emperor, Dukes”, etc. We call them “Mr President, CEO, Mr Secretary, Senator, Representative, Governor,”, etc. It’s pure semantics; there is nothing new under the sun. The power structures are based the same underpinnings. The “Haves” are consolidating their power/wealth, and the “Have Nots” are being increasingly left to fend for themselves. The delineation is becoming firmer day-by-day. The conservative belief is the federal government should only provide for the common defense, interstate commerce and foreign affairs is being turned into reality. Domestic programs are being drastically cut, while defense is driving our deficit to ever increasing heights. We of course cannot cut our “Wartime” budget, so what is left? The problem is Congress and the Executive branch has since the founding of our nation taken more and more authority, funding and responsibility from the States. Now the Federal government wants to give back the responsibility, but not the authority or the funding.
The Environmental rollbacks enacted by this administration are frightening. They are clearly in the pocket of corporate interests. This administration has systematically downplayed and actively quashed any data and government employees that supported the theory of Global Warming. The balance of their refusal to protect our environment is on religious grounds. God put everything on this earth for man to use, and they are going to do use it all up. Preserving anything for future generations is not needed, for the second coming of Christ, the rapture, eliminates the environment as a consideration. There is a significant core of GOP supporters who truly believe this. Of course every generation for the last 2000 years has believed the rapture would occur in their lifetime. The dovetailing of corporate and religious interests here is the cause of our dangerous environmental policies.
I would like to state that I am amazed that the only issue that seems to have mobilized the public and the US Congress is the Dubai ports deal. The security problems caused by a corporate takeover by Dubai of some of our port operations are minimal. If that were the criteria, there are many more such situations to explore. Dubai recently purchased a majority of the eastern US rail operations from CSX, as one example. It is refreshing that Bush’s fear mongering has turned around and bit him. It would be of more interest to explore the links between Treasury Secretary Snow, CSX railroad, the Dubai ports deal, and the fast tracking of approval for these deals. The actual danger of the ports deal is minimal because security would still be the responsibility of the US Coast Guard and the US Customs Service. The port operations supervision and labor would still be performed by the same people doing this work now, American citizens.
Hurricane Katrina is of course another of Bush’s failures. The first problem was incorporating FEMA into the Dept of Homeland Security. FEMA was effectively eviscerated. Loyal, professional career FEMA employees left in droves out of frustration and disgust. I would like to point out the difference in the speed, upfront preparation, and effectiveness of the federal response to the three hurricanes that ravaged Florida in 04 and the response to Katrina in 05 is stunning. Florida in 04 was again a key state in the run up to the presidential election, the hurricanes struck before the election. Florida and the US Supreme Court also handed the 2000 presidential election to him, he owed Florida big-time. Bush’s brother Jeb was governor of Florida in 04, and still is. Louisiana’s governor is a Democrat. New Orleans is a Democratic town. What better way to demonstrate to the electorate that red states and those governed by the GOP get much better support from the federal government than do blue states. Cynical, yes; but I believe nothing is beneath Bush and his handlers to gain and maintain political power.
The rest of the world is whistling though the graveyard that is this administrations foreign and environmental policy. Hoping all goes well, but the inmates are truly running the asylum in this country. It is incomprehensible to the rest of the world how we could let a religious zealot at the control of the most powerful nation the world has ever seen. If we continue down this road, there will be another World War, and it will be the world against us. Western Europe has learned these lessons well, and is becoming more secular. Europeans enjoy greater civil liberties now than we do in this country. We will be in the wrong because we are going down a path of hypocrisy, arrogance, intolerance, and military, economic, and social imperialism.
This president came into office promising to be a “Uniter”. Apparently this applies only to his base. The pure arrogance of only gracing those people and groups who fawn over him with his presence and attention is truly disgusting. Refusing to address the NAACP a couple of years ago is a perfect example. He should be the president of all of America. He should actually seek out and communicate with those that criticize him more than his supporters. He appears to prefer scripted public encounters, carefully selecting journalists with pre-approved softball questions, and prescreened audience members. An American icon and journalist hero Helen Thomas was frozen from asking questions at White House briefings for three years. Just recently she was again allowed to pose a question, it was not to Bush’s liking, so I predict it will be until the next administration before she is “allowed” to ask another question.
In closing I would like to say most of this administrations problems were caused precisely because they are a “Faith Based” administration. They had “Faith” Hussein was hiding WMD, that Iraqis would greet us cheering with flowers, that FEMA was ready, that the levees would hold, that the free market could handle every contingency, that he did not need new information, that his poorly conceived thoughts/initiatives were God talking to him, that surrounding himself with sycophants was prudent, putting political allies in power was wise, and finally that he and his cronies ends were justified by any and all means.
For the above reasons this president should be criticized, censored, and definitely impeached. There needs to be some accountability for these tremendously incompetent and criminal failures.
