Wednesday, April 28, 2004

 

Letters to the Editor..!

Not a clue

EDITOR: How presidential. How responsible. Aren't we frightened by this? When Bob Woodward, interviewing for his book "Plan of Attack," asked George W. Bush how history would judge the war, Bush replied: "History. We don't know. We'll all be dead." And he is leading us? Help.

MAUREEN GRADEK, Healdsburg

 

Impeachable offenses

Editor -- I believe Bob Woodward, in his new book, has revealed three impeachable offenses:

1: Misappropriation of funds. Funds were used from the congressional appropriation for the war in Afghanistan to secretly prepare for the war in Iraq. That is illegal.

2: Violation of security. War plans were told and shown to a representative of a foreign government, even though marked "no foreign."

3: Foreign interference in an election. A foreign country agreed with the administration to interfere in the American political process by guaranteeing that they would lower gas prices to help the economy before the election.

JULIE RUFO

Alameda

~*~  Dear Julie;  Those are all points well taken.  But fortunately for Bush...he didn't get caught practicing the most impeachable offense of all.....illicit sexual contact!

And finally....a great opinion piece by Bay Area columnist, Ruth Rosen:

Ducking responsibility

FOR DECADES, conservative Republicans have hectored single mothers on welfare, sexually active teenagers and disadvantaged minorities to stop blaming others and to take responsibility for their own lives.

 ....During her evasive testimony before the Sept. 11 commission, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice sounded like a stereotypical liberal as she repeatedly blamed "structural" problems (rather than actual people) for intelligence failures. She also described the Aug. 6, 2001, "Presidential Daily Briefing," or PDB, as "historical information based on old reporting. There was no new threat information."

Excuse me, but the title alone -- "Bin Laden Determined to Strike in U. S." -- should have sent shock waves through her office. The intelligence community does not give morning "history backgrounders" to the president. This particular memo, in fact, contained specific information about active threats. Yet, according to Rice, there was nothing more she could have done to prevent the terrorist attacks.

.....Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, another member of this responsibility- phobic administration, said that no one could have predicted that the war in Iraq would turn into such a dangerous occupation. Oh, really? Former Army Chief of Staff Gen. Eric K. Shinseki told Rumsfeld that he needed several hundreds of thousands more troops. He was then sent into retirement.

Now, Rumsfeld says he is surprised about "the way it happens to be today. " To which Marine Corps Gen. Anthony Zinni, the former commander of the U.S. Central Command, responds, "Anyone could know the problem they were going to see. How could they not?"

Rice and Rumsfeld are guilty of gross incompetence and should resign.

....Whether or not you support the president or the war, it is hard to argue that Bush has demonstrated competence as a chief executive in pursuing these goals.

Bush is also guilty of breathtaking arrogance. Here is a man who shirked his own military responsibility, swaggered as he played a hero in a flight suit and then told the enemy, with adolescent bravado, to "bring it on." Yet this is a man who is too insecure to admit he could have done more and too timid to face the Sept. 11 commission without Cheney at his side.

Bush's deceptions and betrayal of the public trust after Sept. 11 may or may not constitute impeachable crimes. But he has certainly forfeited the right to govern our nation.

November can't come soon enough.

posted by ~Brahma 3:45 PM