Open Letter to the Members of Congress

[djxeno]

An Open Letter to the Members of Congress

by The Editors

Soon, you will be asked to vote on a resolution authorizing the

United States to overthrow the government of Iraq by military force.

Its passage, we read on all sides, is a foregone conclusion, as if

what the country now faces is not a decision but the disclosure of a

fate. The nation marches as if in a trance to war. In the House,

twenty of your number, led by Dennis Kucinich, have announced their

opposition to the war. In the Senate, Robert Byrd has mounted a

campaign against the version of the resolution already proposed by

the Bush Administration. He has said that the resolution's

unconstitutionality will prevent him from voting for it. "But I am

finding," he adds, "that the Constitution is irrelevant to people of

this Administration." The Joint Chiefs of Staff, according to the

Washington Post, oppose the war. Telephone calls and the mail to your

offices run strongly against it. Polls and news stories reveal a

divided and uncertain public. Yet debate in your chambers is

restricted to peripheral questions, such as the timing of the vote,

or the resolution's precise scope. You are a deliberative body, but

you do not deliberate. You are representatives, but you do not

represent.

The silence of those of you in the Democratic Party is especially

troubling. You are the opposition party, but you do not oppose.

Raising the subject of the war, your political advisers tell you,

will distract from the domestic issues that favor the party's chances

in the forthcoming Congressional election. In the face of the

Administration's pre-emptive war, your leaders have resorted to

pre-emptive surrender. For the sake of staying in power, you are

told, you must not exercise the power you have in the matter of the

war. What, then, is the purpose of your re-election? If you succeed,

you will already have thrown away the power you supposedly have won.

You will be members of Congress, but Congress will not be Congress.

Even the fortunes of the domestic causes you favor will depend far

more on the decision on the war than on the outcome of the election.

On April 4, 1967, as the war in Vietnam was reaching its full fury,

Martin Luther King Jr. said, "A time comes when silence is betrayal."

And he said, "Some of us who have already begun to break the silence

of the night have found that the calling to speak is often a vocation

of agony, but we must speak. We must speak with all the humility that

is appropriate to our limited vision, but we must speak."

Now the time to speak has come again. We urge you to speak--and, when

the time comes, to vote--against the war on Iraq.

The case against the war is simple, clear and strong. The

Administration calls it a chapter in the war on terror, but Iraq has

no demonstrated ties either to the September 11 attack on the United

States or to the Al Qaeda network that launched it. The aim of the

war is to deprive President Saddam Hussein of weapons of mass

destruction, but the extent of his program for building these

weapons, if it still exists, is murky. Still less clear is any

intention on his part to use such weapons. To do so would be suicide,

as he well knows. Democratic Representative Anna Eshoo of California

has reported that in closed session Administration officials have

been asked several times whether they have evidence of an imminent

threat from Saddam against the United States and have answered no.

She elaborated, "Not 'no, but' or 'maybe,' but 'no.'" On the other

hand, if he does have them, and faces his overthrow and possible

death at the hands of US forces, he might well use them--or, more

likely, give them to terrorist groups to use after his fall. He may

be doing so even now.

Some observers have likened the resolution under discussion to the

Gulf of Tonkin resolution of 1964 authorizing President Johnson to

use force in Vietnam. But that was passed only after a report was

received of two attacks on US naval forces. (We now know that the

first attack was provoked by a prior secret American attack and the

second was nonexistent.) The new resolution, which alleges no attack,

not even a fictional one, goes a step further. It is a Tonkin Gulf

resolution without a Tonkin Gulf incident.

Even if Saddam possesses weapons of mass destruction and wishes to

use them, a policy of deterrence would appear perfectly adequate to

stop him, just as it was adequate a half-century ago to stop a much

more fearsome dictator, Joseph Stalin. It is not true that military

force is the only means of preventing the proliferation of these

weapons, whether to Iraq or other countries. An alternative path is

clearly available. In the short run it passes through the United

Nations and its system of inspections, now more promising than

before because Iraq, responding to US pressure, has opened itself

unconditionally to inspectors. At the very least, this path should

be fully explored before military action--the traditional last

resort--is even considered. Such a choice in favor of

multilateralism, diplomacy and treaty agreements should be part of a

much broader policy of nonproliferation and disarmament of the kind

that has already enjoyed great success over the past several

decades. Under the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear

Weapons, for example, 182 nations have agreed to do without nuclear

weapons. The larger issue is whether proliferation--not just to Iraq

but to many other countries as well--is best addressed by military

or political means.

But the decision to go to war has a significance that goes far beyond

the war. The war is the product of a broader policy that has been

spelled out in the clearest possible terms by the Bush

Administration. Two other countries with nuclear programs--Iran and

North Korea--have already been identified by the President as

potential targets for military attack. The Administration's recently

published "National Security Strategy of the United States" sets

forth even larger ambitions. It declares a policy of military

supremacy over the entire earth--an objective never before attained

by any power. Military programs are meanwhile forbidden to other

countries, all of whom are to be prevented from "surpassing or

equaling" the United States. China is singled out for a warning that

by "pursuing advanced military capabilities," it is following an

"outdated path" that "threaten its neighbors." The new policy

reverses a long American tradition of contempt for unprovoked

attacks. It gives the United States the unrestricted right to attack

nations even when it has not been attacked by them and is not about

to be attacked by them. It trades deterrence for pre-emption--in

plain English, aggression. It accords the United States the right to

overthrow any regime--like the one in Iraq--it decides should be

overthrown. (The President would like international support and he

would like Congressional support but asserts his right to wage war

without either.) It declares that the defense of the United States

and the world against nuclear proliferation is military force. It is

an imperial policy--more ambitious than ancient Rome's, which, after

all, extended only to the Mediterranean and European world. Nelson

Mandela recently said of the Administration, "They think they're the

only power in the world.... One country wants to bully the world."

A vote for the war in Iraq is a vote for this policy. The most

important of the questions raised by the war, however, is larger

still. It is what sort of country the United States wants to be in

the twenty-first century. The genius of the American form of

government was the creation of a system of institutions to check and

balance government power and so render it accountable to the people.

Today that system is threatened by a monster of unbalanced and

unaccountable power--a new Leviathan--that is taking shape among us

in the executive branch of the government. This Leviathan--concealed

in an ever-deepening, self-created secrecy and fed by streams of

money from corporations that, as scandal after scandal has shown,

have themselves broken free of elementary accountability--menaces

civil liberties even as it threatens endless, unprovoked war. As

disrespectful of the Constitution as it is of the UN Charter, the

Administration has turned away from law in all its manifestations and

placed its reliance on overwhelming force to achieve its ends.

In pursuit of empire abroad, it endangers the Republic at home. The

bully of the world threatens to become the bully of Americans, too.

Already, the Justice Department claims the right to jail American

citizens indefinitely on the sole ground that a bureaucrat in the

Pentagon has labeled them something called an "enemy combatant." Even

the domestic electoral system has been compromised by the debacle in

Florida. Nor has the shadow cast on democracy by that election yet

been lifted. Election reform has not occurred. Modest campaign reform

designed to slow the flood of corporate cash into politics, even

after passage in Congress, is being eviscerated by executive

decisions. More important, this year's Congressional campaign, by

shunning debate on the fundamental issue of war and peace, has

signaled to the public that even in the most important matters facing

the country neither it nor its representatives decide; only the

executive does.

Members of Congress! Be faithful to your oaths of office and to the

traditions of your branch of government. Think of the country, not

of your re-election. Assert your power. Stand up for the

prerogatives of Congress. Defend the Constitution. Reject the

arrogance--and the ignorance--of power. Show respect for your

constituents--they require your honest judgment, not capitulation to

the executive. Say no to empire. Affirm the Republic. Preserve the

peace. Vote against war in Iraq.

This article can be found on the web at:

http://www.thenation.com/doc.mhtml?i=20021014&s=editors

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[dnice35]

Members of Congress! Be faithful to your oaths of office and to the

traditions of your branch of government. Think of the country, not

of your re-election. Assert your power. Stand up for the

prerogatives of Congress. Defend the Constitution. Reject the

arrogance--and the ignorance--of power. Show respect for your

constituents--they require your honest judgment, not capitulation to

the executive. Say no to empire. Affirm the Republic. Preserve the

peace. Vote against war in Iraq.

This is all major bs! no one is trying to make an empire, this must have been written by a democrat. Why dont we think of National security instead? and by the way the UN has prooven useless in disarming Saddam. otherwise we wouldnt have to be going back there in the first place!

[djxeno]

Your right. The U.N has also been usless against Israel, for over 30 years, but we don't dare bomb them cuz then they'll be mad at us

boo hoo.

-XeNo-

[dnice35]

Why would we want to dissarm Israel? So they wont be able to defend themselfs against the muslims. You know if it werent for our aid the muslims would wipe out all the jews. for all those who claim they want world peace, taking sides against us aiding Israel would be a hipocracy.

[djxeno]

Ok, so if we dissarm Iraq how is he suppose to defend himself? It's funny, the U.S. wants to disarm them and bomb them on top of that, talk about a bully.

Answer this question, how come Israel and the U.S. can defy U.N resolutions but Iraq can't?

[dnice35]

Originally posted by djxeno

Ok, so if we dissarm Iraq how is he suppose to defend himself? It's funny, the U.S. wants to disarm them and bomb them on top of that, talk about a bully.

Answer this question, how come Israel and the U.S. can defy U.N resolutions but Iraq can't?

Fair enough I'll go ahead and indulge your request. first of all after dissarming Iraq they will still be able to defend themself, they will still have weapons, just no weapons with mass destruction capabilities. But that wont happen cause they will not accept new UN resolutions. so that being said....

The US is not looking to dissarm them, we are looking to remove that parasite out of power period! I believe our great president Bush made that quite clear.

Now as far as I know yes Israel has defied the UN, but they do it in the name of self preservation. The UN expects Israelis to watch from the sidelines while these palestinian parasites go and kill innocent Israeli civilians in the name of "allah". Does that make sence to you? Now Israel obviously has to retaliate and hey if one or two of those barbarians die then be it. The world is a better off.

The UN has no right to interfere, the palestinians have made it clear they are not reasonable human beings that you can negotiate with. all they know is brut force so Israel indulges their request.

As far as the US defying the UN, well we feel like we must when it comes to Saddam. One, the UN resolutions are obviously not working. two, Saddam has already said he will not agree to new UN resolutions, thus giving us no other choice but to take the cockroach out of power.

Remember you are defending the same man who invaded Kuwait just ten years ago. Lets not forget the same animal you defend is a liar and a murderer and has no respect for human life.

In conclusion ask yourself if an animal with access to weapons of mass destruction is a threat to humanity or not? should we just let that savage run lose while we wait for him to invade another country? or worst start a nuclear war. I think NOT!

[djxeno]

Originally posted by dnice35

Fair enough I'll go ahead and indulge your request. first of all after dissarming Iraq they will still be able to defend themself, they will still have weapons, just no weapons with mass destruction capabilities. But that wont happen cause they will not accept new UN resolutions. so that being said....

The US is not looking to dissarm them, we are looking to remove that parasite out of power period! I believe our great president Bush made that quite clear.

Now as far as I know yes Israel has defied the UN, but they do it in the name of self preservation. The UN expects Israelis to watch from the sidelines while these palestinian parasites go and kill innocent Israeli civilians in the name of "allah". Does that make sence to you? Now Israel obviously has to retaliate and hey if one or two of those barbarians die then be it. The world is a better off.

The UN has no right to interfere, the palestinians have made it clear they are not reasonable human beings that you can negotiate with. all they know is brut force so Israel indulges their request.

As far as the US defying the UN, well we feel like we must when it comes to Saddam. One, the UN resolutions are obviously not working. two, Saddam has already said he will not agree to new UN resolutions, thus giving us no other choice but to take the cockroach out of power.

Remember you are defending the same man who invaded Kuwait just ten years ago. Lets not forget the same animal you defend is a liar and a murderer and has no respect for human life.

In conclusion ask yourself if an animal with access to weapons of mass destruction is a threat to humanity or not? should we just let that savage run lose while we wait for him to invade another country? or worst start a nuclear war. I think NOT!

Dude I've never met somebody so brainwashed as you. The media really has taught you so well its scary. First of all, Sadaam cannot defend himself without WMD because that's what the U.S. will use against him. Second, even if they don't, they will take away as much weapons as they can find and Saddam won't have shit to fight back with.

They'll take the oil and put a puppet government in there like they did in afghanistan and there will be many attempts to murder that governments' leaders.

And you comments about the Palestinians really make me sick. Your blasphemous comment about "Allah" also dissed your own God, if you believe in one. But i doubt your smart enough to realize that. Did you forget that the Israeli's dropped a one-ton bomb on a civilian neighborhood, or was that just fighting "terrorism" cuz every palestinian must be a "terrorist" even if they are infants.

You have condradicted yourself many times in your response, once saying that well the U.S. has to violate resolustions cuz sadaam isnt obeying them and thats why we must take him out of power. Are you aware that the same resolutions that were put on Iraq by the United States has crushed Iraq's economy and killed 5,000 innocent civilian infants every month?

Of course not....all you do is watch the news.

And let's not forget the same animal YOU defend can't put a grammatically correct sentence together and has named ariel sharon "a man of peace."

I'm appalled with all the racism and double standards. Israel, the U.S. can all break U.N. resolutions but when somebody else does it everybody has a hissy fit. Get the FUCK out of here. Maybe if the Palestinians and Iraqi's were WHITE we would all live in peace and harmony....

-XeNo-

[dnice35]

Since you defend the palestinians and Iraqis so much maybe you should go live with them. You'll see how warm and kind they are to Americans. And let me remind you these were the same parasites that went out on the streets of their pathetic country to celebrate when they heard what had happened to us Sept. 11. you call me brain washed I call myself a realist, and yes you are damn right the US wants a puppet goverment in Iraq, so what? At least we, as well as the rest of the world, will feel a little safer.

and so what if the US sanctions has crushed the Iraqi economy? Lets not forget this was brought on by the doings of your beloved Saddam. By the way most of those sanctions came under the Clinton administration, so Mr. Bush has little or nothing to do about it.

and you say that we want to dissarm Saddam, well he shouldnt be with WMD in the first place! would you like him to develope and use those on us or on another country?

To top it off those parasite (palestinians) are so stupid they think becoming a suicide bomber is the same as being an enterprenur. remember Saddam donates XXX amount of money for each one of those bombings. dumb parasites

PS: my God doesnt tell me to kill in his name. killing is not a godly act its a human intuition. having said that neither does "Allah", but these are just mindless parasites who miss interpret their religious beliefs.

[bigmahs]

Originally posted by djxeno

posted below...

[dnice35]

:clap: :clap:

Well said Bigmahs....

[bigmahs]

The sanction were put there by the UNited Nations for INVADING Kuwait nothing else. Hey did you know that Iraq is the 5th largest importer of oil to the U.S.????? So why is it that the people of the Iraq are the one of the poorest inthe world the sanctions right WRONG the dictator which seems you are in bed with chooses to upgrade his air defenses instaed of feeding his people. And don't give me that I am brainwashed by the media

because it's reported all over the world BBC news al jazere every where. So xeno tell me who is at fault for the hardship in that country the U.S. ?????

WRONG

-Bush is cleaning up the mess your democratic porn star president's caused when 2 U.S. EMBASSIES AND A DESTROYER WERE ATTACKED on his watch and he Pussy footed around the subject in between getting his rocks off.

-Ariel Sharon is defending his people period. These animals are blowing themselves up every day that's civilized right???

WRONG!!!

Your argument does not have a leg to stand on.

[djxeno]

Originally posted by dnice35

Since you defend the palestinians and Iraqis so much maybe you should go live with them. You'll see how warm and kind they are to Americans. And let me remind you these were the same parasites that went out on the streets of their pathetic country to celebrate when they heard what had happened to us Sept. 11. you call me brain washed I call myself a realist, and yes you are damn right the US wants a puppet goverment in Iraq, so what? At least we, as well as the rest of the world, will feel a little safer.

and so what if the US sanctions has crushed the Iraqi economy? Lets not forget this was brought on by the doings of your beloved Saddam. By the way most of those sanctions came under the Clinton administration, so Mr. Bush has little or nothing to do about it.

and you say that we want to dissarm Saddam, well he shouldnt be with WMD in the first place! would you like him to develope and use those on us or on another country?

To top it off those parasite (palestinians) are so stupid they think becoming a suicide bomber is the same as being an enterprenur. remember Saddam donates XXX amount of money for each one of those bombings. dumb parasites

PS: my God doesnt tell me to kill in his name. killing is not a godly act its a human intuition. having said that neither does "Allah", but these are just mindless parasites who miss interpret their religious beliefs.

Are you really that stupid to believe that the Palestinians were celebrating on Sept 11th. You ever heard of different time zones?

They showed the Palestinians celebrating at 2pm Eastern Standard time, and they showed them celebrating in broad daylight. The time zone in Palestine is 7 hours ahead of hours, making it 9pm in Palestine. I don't know what world you live in but the sun sets at the latest at 8:30, not to mention this was in September.

You are right that suicide bombers are wrong, but what really ticks me off is that you think the Israelis don't engage in terrorism cuz that is what you have been lead to believe by our precious media. I know people personally who went over there and wrote down what injustices they saw. IF you saw what was going on over there you would wake up as more and more of us have.

And of course you can't attack my point of the Isrealis dropping a ONE TON bomb on a civilian neighborhood cuz u know that's fucked up but you can't admit it.

-XeNo-

[bigpoppanils]

Originally posted by bigmahs

-Bush is cleaning up the mess your democratic porn star president's caused when 2 U.S. EMBASSIES AND A DESTROYER WERE ATTACKED on his watch and he Pussy footed around the subject in between getting his rocks off.

-Ariel Sharon is defending his people period. These animals are blowing themselves up every day that's civilized right???

WRONG!!!

-Bush isnt cleaning up Clinton's mess....he's cleaning up after his father.

-Although i do beleive Israel has a right to defend itself, an entire race should not have to be slaughtered for Israel to feel safe.

[djxeno]

Originally posted by bigpoppanils

-Bush isnt cleaning up Clinton's mess....he's cleaning up after his father.

-Although i do beleive Israel has a right to defend itself, an entire race should not have to be slaughtered for Israel to feel safe.

Thank You, my fellow Faithless fan

[kramadas]

Bush is a fuckin moron, and yes, his latest "Strategy" is the beginning of the road to imperialism. The word "pre-emptive" is pure bullshit.

Answer me this...who the fuck is he to want "military supremacy" over the world? Look up the world "imperialism" in the dictionary.

If this is the path he chooses, then its the beginning of the end of the US as we know it.

[dnice35]

Originally posted by djxeno

Are you really that stupid to believe that the Palestinians were celebrating on Sept 11th. You ever heard of different time zones?

They showed the Palestinians celebrating at 2pm Eastern Standard time, and they showed them celebrating in broad daylight. The time zone in Palestine is 7 hours ahead of hours, making it 9pm in Palestine. I don't know what world you live in but the sun sets at the latest at 8:30, not to mention this was in September.

You are right that suicide bombers are wrong, but what really ticks me off is that you think the Israelis don't engage in terrorism cuz that is what you have been lead to believe by our precious media. I know people personally who went over there and wrote down what injustices they saw. IF you saw what was going on over there you would wake up as more and more of us have.

And of course you can't attack my point of the Isrealis dropping a ONE TON bomb on a civilian neighborhood cuz u know that's fucked up but you can't admit it.

-XeNo-

wow your lack of comon sense amazes me, lets go over what you just said. there is a 7hour time difference between us and the parasites. that being stablished lets go back to the facts. Sept. 11, 8:47, the first plane crashes into the world trade center. Not 2pm (dont know where u got that number from). 9am plus 7 hours would make it 4pm in parasite city. thats when those mindless morons took to the streets and celebrate by burning american and israeli flags. I will never forget watching those ASSHOLES prance around as if they had just been told they won a brand new camel! (remember the remarkable things called cameras, they can record something now and play it later.)

Anyways the question arrises why do you persist in giving your sympathy to these barbarians? Is the towel around your head wrapped too tight or something?

Do not forget the US has worked hard to stablish a palestinian state so these FUCKING people could have a cave to call their own. and yet they hate us, cause we do not allow them to kill Israelis. these things are bred and taught since young to hate Jews. yet for some reason you dont see that.

by the way, yes dropping a one ton bomb on innocent people is fucked up, but so was the incident which occured in Munich 1972.

and so are all the otehr unprovoked attacks on innocent Jews through out history!

[djxeno]

I really can't take you seriously anymore dogg, really I tried but I can't anymore LOL.

Have a nice life.

and just for the record yes the plane hit at 8:45 but the tape wasn't played till around 2, I guess they couldn't find any tapes in their archives soon enough.

-XeNo-

[bigmahs]

and just for the record yes the plane hit at 8:45 but the tape wasn't played till around 2, I guess they couldn't find any tapes in their archives soon enough.

-XeNo-

[dnice35]

Originally posted by bigmahs

and just for the record yes the plane hit at 8:45 but the tape wasn't played till around 2, I guess they couldn't find any tapes in their archives soon enough.

-XeNo-

Yeah and we never landed on the moon to right? conspiracy right?

The bottomline is they were dancing and at that point is when the 1 ton bomb should have been dropped fucking maggots

[nycmuzik]

Originally posted by bigpoppanils

-Although i do beleive Israel has a right to defend itself, an entire race should not have to be slaughtered for Israel to feel safe.

How exactly is Isreal trying to slaughter an entire race??

Anyway...Back to the topic at hand.....That letter is complete bullshit......All these people preaching for peace just want the US to sit back....Always...After Sept. 11 these same people said that the US shouldnt retaliate for what happened....Now the same things are being said.....Complete crap if you ask me....We sit back and we'll all die.....What the US is gonna do with Iraq isnt going to bring an end to this country......It will only make us less vulnerable to scum like Bin Laden, Saddam, and the countless others just like them.....

[kramadas]

Originally posted by dnice35

Yeah and we never landed on the moon to right? conspiracy right?

The bottomline is they were dancing and at that point is when the 1 ton bomb should have been dropped fucking maggots

They should have made it a two ton bomb..... this world would be better off without those camel humpers.

[dnice35]

Originally posted by raver_mania

They should have made it a two ton bomb..... this world would be better off without those camel humpers.

You ppl are animals. There really is absolutely no difference between you and the terrorists who caused Sept 11.

Just listen to your own words... "they should have dropped a two ton bomb"....fuckin terrorist scum!

[kramadas]

Originally posted by dnice35

You ppl are animals. There really is absolutely no difference between you and the terrorists who caused Sept 11.

Just listen to your own words... "they should have dropped a two ton bomb"....fuckin terrorist scum!

You are breaking my heart.... boohoohoo.

Anyways thers a big difference between should have and did.

[dnice35]

Personally I am not a murderer, but I wouldnt care if Israel dropped one on those animals. No love lost here.

I will never forgive those savages for celebrating during our tragedy ya know? as someone stated previously, hate breeds hate. they hate us dont expect me to like them. I am not as forgiving as God is, Im only human.

[kramadas]

Originally posted by dnice35

Personally I am not a murderer, but I wouldnt care if Israel dropped one on those animals. No love lost here.

I will never forgive those savages for celebrating during our tragedy ya know? as someone stated previously, hate breeds hate. they hate us dont expect me to like them. I am not as forgiving as God is, Im only human.

Exactly - hate breeds hate. Maybe they "hate" because they see the destruction of their homes/families/friends, etc by the IDF supported by the US.

Condoning an attack on innocent civilians, is just as bad as terrorism, ie, anyone who supports the slaughter of civilians is a terrorist.