The House passed a resolution declaring that the United States will win
the War on Terror. The first surprise is the utter unreality that must
exist in our Congress for such a declaration to seem like a sensible
use of resources. The second is that it received the craven support of
42 Democrats in passing.
The complete and institutionalized break from reality required for
anyone to think that simply declaring something to be true, even if
voted on by the House of Idiots, makes it the truth, or even merely
inspirational, makes me rather frightened and sad. The language of the
resolution is revealing of a national leadership deeply in denial about
the hard, cold facts of life.
Text of the Resolution and commentary after the jump…
Declaring that the United States will prevail in the Global War on Terror, the struggle to protect freedom from the terrorist adversary.
Whereas the United States and its allies are engaged in a Global War on Terror, a long and demanding struggle against an adversary that is driven by hatred of American values and that is committed to imposing, by the use of terror, its repressive ideology throughout the world;
The first place the declarants run up against reality is this non-sense about the ‘adversary’ being driven by a hatred of American values. You cannot defeat an enemy you do not understand. Terror is driven by nationalistic geopolitical forces every bit as amenable to reason and negotiation as any other international dispute.
Suicide terrorism in particular is caused by the military occupation by a democratic state of what the terrorists view as the homeland by those who have significant cultural differences which lead to mistrust and demonization of the opponent.
As for ‘repressive ideology’ we need look no further than the Religious Right in this country if we wish to fight such a thing.
Whereas for the past two decades, terrorists have used violence in a futile attempt to intimidate the United States;
Actually, not so much. Hamas bombed the American Marine barracks in Lebanon to get us to withdraw; we did so. Al Qaeda attacked the WTC and Pentagon to get us to withdraw our troops from Saudi Arabia; we did so. The next terror campaign will no doubt be aimed at securing our withdrawal from Iraq; we’ll likely do so. Where’s the futility?
Most Americans have stood idly by as the cretins in our government have shredded our Constitution. Our Congress has also stood by and allowed it to be shredded (some are the very same people who voted for this dumbass resolution) in order to ‘protect us from terror’; I’d say that’s fairly good evidence that we have been effectively intimidated.
Whereas it is essential to the security of the American people and to world security that the United States, together with its allies, take the battle to the terrorists and to those who provide them assistance;
(In a high, sing-songy mock-homosexual voice) Meaningless!
Whereas the Taliban, Al Qaeda, and other terrorists failed to stop free elections in Afghanistan and the first popularly-elected President in that nation’s history has taken office;
Whereas that President is a wholly owned subsidiary of Chevron, controls only Kabul, tolerates a degree of warlordism that betrays the people of Afghistan to servitude, and has presided over the explosive growth of the Afghani heroin trade…
Whereas the continued determination of Afghanistan, the United States, and the North Atlantic Treaty Organization will be required to sustain a sovereign, free, and secure Afghanistan;
If by ‘sovereign, free, and secure’ you mean fractured, impotent, warlord-infested, and at the mercy of religious fanatics…
Whereas the steadfast resolve of the United States and its partners since September 11, 2001, helped persuade the government of Libya to surrender its weapons of mass destruction;
Except, of course, that it was diplomatic measures taken far in advance of 2001 that caused Libya to renounce WMD and surrender the pitiful fruits of a tiny and unsophisticated program. This is one of those lies that refuses to die.
Whereas by early 2003 Saddam Hussein and his criminal, Ba’athist regime in Iraq, which had supported terrorists, constituted a threat against global peace and security and was in violation of mandatory United Nations Security Council Resolutions;
The criminal regime we supported right up to the first Gulf War in all their many crimes, such as attacking Iran as our proxy, and which we refused to overthrow even after the first Gulf War in the well-founded fear of creating chaos in the region. The criminal regime which languished under the severest economic sanctions ever levied against a sovereign nation, and which even according to its neighbors constituted no military threat to anyone, let alone to world peace, or America.
As for the value assigned to Security Council resolutions by United States in the normal course of events, check the American delegations’s executive toilet, where you will find a whole ream of them.
Whereas the mission of the United States and its Coalition partners, having removed Saddam Hussein and his regime from power, is to establish a sovereign, free, secure, and united Iraq at peace with its neighbors;
This particular lie beggars the imagination. This is the point at which even the Hawkiest Democrat should have done a spit take, then voted against this pack of lies.
Whereas the terrorists have declared Iraq to be the central front in their war against all who oppose their ideology;
Boy, the terrorists must have a well-developed policy apparatus to have take such a decision and declared it so clearly. Most sovereign nations fail to speak with such unity and purpose; amazing that a motley collection of terrorist cells around the world can do so. Perhaps we have a bit of projection here folks.
Whereas the Iraqi people, with the help of the United States and other Coalition partners, have formed a permanent, representative government under a newly ratified constitution;
A permanent, represenative government that is irrelevant outside the Green Zone, so divided they can’t even make policy, infiltrated by insurgents and sectarian death squads, and cannot field an armed forces capable to standing up to the indigenous militias. A government that was designed and created as puppet for U.S. interests, but nonetheless seems to slipping out of control. And a Constitution that enshrines theocratic law as the highest authority in a multi-faith, multi-sect society, practically ensuring dissolution and civil war.
Whereas the terrorists seek to destroy the new unity government because it threatens the terrorists’ aspirations for Iraq and the broader Middle East;
98% of the insurgency is Iraqi. The ‘terrorists’ are irrelevant and never more than the use of a widely recognized brand for a local franchise. The insurgency’s aspirations for Iraq is mainly that Americans not be occupying it; to that end they do oppose the ‘unity government’ which legitimates and abets the continuing occupation.
Whereas United States Armed Forces, in coordination with Iraqi security forces and Coalition and other friendly forces, have scored impressive victories in Iraq including finding and killing the terrorist leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi;
Impressive victories like the slaughter of Fallujah, the massacre at Haditha, the tortures and killings within Abu Ghraib and other detention centers, and the unremitting and unreported daily killing of innocent civilians at checkpoints and via aerial bombing. Yes, we are making progress at ensuring that Iraq is pacified, i.e. no longer has a population to oppose us.
As for the Coalition, they must mean that ever-shrinking list of minor nations and closely allied countries that have not quite yet decided to pull out and condemn the whole affair as a complete clusterfucking failure.
Whereas Iraqi security forces are, over time, taking over from United States and Coalition forces a growing proportion of independent operations and increasingly lead the fight to secure Iraq;
At least in the nightly slaughter of civilians by sectarian death squads. They are really doing a great job of taking the heat off in terms of body count. Of course, they won’t fight the ‘insurgents’ or ‘terrorists’ because they are members of those organizations on the weekends and evenings.
Whereas the United States and Coalition servicemembers and civilians and the members of the Iraqi security forces and those assisting them who have made the ultimate sacrifice or been wounded in Iraq have done so nobly, in the cause of freedom; and
Yes, they are noble. Pity that their noble sacrifices, which this country’s leadership ensures stays out of the press with embargoes on coverage of returning casualties and funerals, go largely unnoticed. Pity also that those sacrifices where made only for lies, not to advance either American or Iraqi freedom.
Whereas the United States and its Coalition partners will continue to support Iraq as part of the Global War on Terror: Now, therefore, be it
Whatever you may call it, a pig is still a pig. Call it ‘Global War on Terror’ of the ‘Global Struggle against Extremism’… whatever. It’s still a pig.
Resolved, That the House of Representatives–
(1) honors all those Americans who have taken an active part in the Global War on Terror, whether as first responders protecting the homeland, as servicemembers overseas, as diplomats and intelligence officers, or in other roles;
Honors them. Note that they don’t support them by actually funding the programs which support their well-being and provide them the equipment they need. Nah, we just honor them, then turn around and cut their budgets.
(2) honors the sacrifices of the United States Armed Forces and of partners in the Coalition, and of the Iraqis and Afghans who fight alongside them, especially those who have fallen or been wounded in the struggle, and honors as well the sacrifices of their families and of others who risk their lives to help defend freedom;
But won’t send the President, or Vice President, or even a cabinet secretary, or even a peon delegate to their goddamn funerals. But won’t fully fund the medical care and rehabilitation they need when they get home. But won’t pay a decent death benefit to the heirs when they die in service to their nation.
(3) declares that it is not in the national security interest of the United States to set an arbitrary date for the withdrawal or redeployment of United States Armed Forces from Iraq;
I agree. An arbitrary date would not be a good thing. A rational and strategically sound date which provides for adequate force protection, on the other hand… Can you say Strawman?
(4) declares that the United States is committed to the completion of the mission to create a sovereign, free, secure, and united Iraq;
And to fully enumerating Pi, and squaring the circle, and making everyone richer than everyone else, and to touching our tailbones with our toungues, and seven other impossible things that sound like fun. How about we just leave it at sovereign, and let the Iraqis take it from there?
(5) congratulates Prime Minister Nuri Al-Maliki and the Iraqi people on the courage they have shown by participating, in increasing millions, in the elections of 2005 and on the formation of the first government under Iraq’s new constitution;
Yes, congratulations PM Al-Maliki. In English we still have a word that honors leaders like you: Quisling. It honors (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vidkun_Quisling) PM Quisling’s brave and visionary leadership of the Norwegian people when they were liberated by the Nazis. Perhaps you, too, will have a word to commemorate your visionary leadership in the Iraqi vernacular.
(6) calls upon the nations of the world to promote global peace and security by standing with the United States and other Coalition partners to support the efforts of the Iraqi and Afghan people to live in freedom; and
Well, I suppose they have to. But there ain’t no use in talking when there’s nobody listening.
(7) declares that the United States will prevail in the Global War on Terror, the noble struggle to protect freedom from the terrorist adversary.
This is my favorite part. Just declare victory. Say it like you mean it and the rest will follow. No need for strategy, or foresight, or a realistic assessment of the problem; just claim that you will prevail. It’s a law after all; Congress passed it. Must be true.
Yay for us! We’re gonna win! Congress says so!
Fucking idiots.
For your 5 minutes of hate exercises, I present the 42 dumbass Democrats who voted AYE on this piece of neo-con reality fluffing:
- John Barrow (GA-12)
- Melissa Bean (IL-8)
- Howard Berman (CA-28)
- Marion Berry (AK-1)
- Sanford Bishop (GA-2)
- Dan Boren (OK-2)
- Leonard Boswell (IA-3)
- Rick Boucher (VA-9)
- Dennis Cardoza (CA-18)
- Ed Case (HI-2)
- Ben Chandler (KY-6)
- Jim Cooper (TN-6)
- Jim Costa (CA-20)
- Jerry Costello (IL-12)
- Bud Cramer (AL-5)
- Henry Cuellar (TX-28)
- Artur Davis (TN-7)
- Chet Edwards (TX-17)
- Bob Etheridge (NC-2)
- Bart Gordon (TN-6)
- Green, Gene (TX-29)
- Stephanie Herseth (SD-At Large)
- Brian Higgins (NY-27)
- Tim Holden (PA-17)
- Ron Kind (WI-3)
- Rick Larsen (WA-2)
- Daniel Lipinski (IL-3)
- Stephen Lynch (MA-9)
- Jim Marshall (GA-3)
- Jim Matheson (UT-2)
- Carolyn McCarthy (MN-4)
- Mike McIntyre (NC-7)
- Charlie Melancon (LA-3)
- Dennis Moore (KS-3)
- Colin Peterson (MN-7)
- Mike Ross (AK-4)
- John Salazar (CO-3)
- Adam Smith (WA-9)
- Vic Snyder (AK-2)
- John Spratt (SC-5)
- Gene Taylor (MS-4)
- Bennie Thompson (MS-2)
And for your adoration as paragons of reason in a party gone wild, the only three Republicans who refused to put their names to this dumbassery.
- John J. Duncan, Jr. (TN-2)
- James A. Leach (IA-2)
- Ron Paul (TX-14)