WAKE UP AMERICA, my opinions on the USA 2004 election

THE USA 2004 ELECTION & THE WAR IN IRAQ: I was going to prepare a detailed analysis article of significant reasons why Americans should not vote the Bush Republican party back into power this November 2nd, but so many others have already done such a fine job of this, that I will provide links below instead & just post this page of my opinions. As a 52 year old Canadian, I have never publicly expressed my political views on American politics before, but I feel I need to now in the hopes that a few of the "religious right wing" & neo conservative Republicans might start to think for themselves, get their head out of the sand & realize the path the Bush administration has taken Americans down, especially regarding the war in Iraq & the costs & consequences of that war. When the U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan calls the U.S. invasion of Iraq "illegal", the 9/11 commission, Collin Powell, Richard Clarke, the CIA (Duelfer report) & many others confirm that the Bush government started the war in Iraq based on false premises, yet Bush still defends his lies & tries to justify his actions, Americans should start examining this president & consider impeaching him rather than re-elect him.

LINKS: You don't have to believe me, there is a huge body of evidence out there. Please go see Michael Moore's movie Fahrenheit 9/11 or rent/purchase it on DVD or VHS. Or have a read over an excellent article by Ralph Nader on The Record of George W. Bush. Or read what Democratic presidential nominee Sen. John Kerry has to say about Bush. Or read the powerful & well written opinions of billionaire George Soros about why Americans shouldn't re-elect Bush. Or read the CIAs Duelfer report on the unsuccessful search for weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. Or read the 9-11 commission report that outlines the unpreparedness for and the immediate response to the attacks of Sept. 11/2001 including all the warnings that the Bush administration ignored. Regarding warnings that could have saved American lives, read Richard Clarke's comments on 60 Minutes, he's the former terrorism advisor to President Bush (the Bush administration's top official on counter-terrorism). Or read about Paul Bremer the former American administrator of Iraq (until June 2004) who admitted that the Bush administration didn't provide enough troops at first to occupy Iraq, maintain the peace, prevent looting & secure the weapons so they weren't used against Americans. Or read about Collin Powel's regrets for his presentation to the UN Security Council in February 2003 where he tried to convince the world that Iraq had Weapons of Mass Destruction, but now admits "We got it wrong," & "We have seen nothing to suggest that he had actual stockpiles." & "I am not only disappointed, but I regret that the information was not correct."  Or watch on TV or read the transcripts of the presidential debates & vice presidential debate. Or read what some of President Bush's own Republican senators are saying, Richard Lugar & Chuck Hagel. Or read about how the Bush administration has mismanaged the readiness of war equipment according to Army Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez. Or read the advice Pat Robertson (a Republican) gave Bush before the Iraq war ("a disaster & messy") & other important comments that reveal the nature of Bush. Or get a copy of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's 90 minute documentary by William Karel called The World According To Bush. Or watch this elections TV commercials for the two candidates & notice how the Republicans lie & make negative attack & fear commercials. Or listen to all the pieces of evidence now on any news channel that indicate that Bush is often not a truthful man, that America is NOT more secure because of his actions & that the principals of the religious right wing are not being honoured by this wolf in sheep's clothing, who clearly has his own agenda (divided loyalties) & not necessarily the best interests of the American people. If you want to check the accuracy of what the politicians say during the election campaigning & debates, check the Annenberg Public Policy Center of the University of Pennsylvania at www.factcheck.org Both Republicans & Democrats lie, distort the truth & exaggerate far too often, which confuses the public, but you can use factcheck.org to help sort it out so you know the real truth & vote with clarity.

A PLEA TO AMERICANS: Bush even violated the U.S.A. constitution (which he swore to uphold), which lays out under which circumstances the U.S.A. can go to war. The Iraq war was not a "war of necessity" it was a "war of choice". Presidents aren't supposed to put their troops in harms way by starting a war unless there are no other options, Bush had options. The USA constitution doesn't allow the president to start a war because the leader of another country is a "really bad dude", the president only has the authority to start a war IF the national security of the USA is seriously threatened & we all clearly know now that wasn't the case with Iraq before the war & Bush knew this before the war. This makes him a war monger (starting a war when it wasn't necessary). Americans, please wake up before the November 2nd election & see that the Bush government is ultimately NOT good for your country & Bush hasn't been telling you the whole truth, not because he didn't know what the truth was, but because he choose to ignore the truth & those experts who were trying to tell him the truth. Bush's foreign policy (especially regarding Iraq) has made America incredibly unpopular throughout the world, has decreased the respect for American authority & increased the threat to U.S.A. national security. History will not treat George W. Bush kindly & neither should you. If you re-elect Bush, the world will probably be in for more of his war mongering & lies. If you re-elect Bush, he will probably invade yet another country or two, even though he clearly has no workable exit strategy to get Americans out of Iraq anytime soon. Your choices as Americans will affect much of the rest of the world, so please chose carefully.

CANADIAN PERSPECTIVE: By the way, have you noticed that Canada steadfastly refuses to help out in Iraq with personnel, because it is an illegal war, yet Canadians have devoted huge resources (for the size of our population) to helping in Afghanistan because it was a legal, internationally recognized & justifiable war. For taking this appropriate stance against the war Bush started in Iraq, Canada has been unusually & unofficially sanctioned in several areas of trade with the U.S.A. including banning all our beef, supposedly because we found ONE cow with "mad cow disease" 19 months ago (& none since). The Canadian government has had to budget 4 billion dollars CDN to bail out the Canadian beef industry because of this sanction & that's money that could have been better spent on our failing health care system. If you think 4 billion dollars isn't much, consider that Canada is only 1/9th (11%) the population of the U.S.A., so that money is equivalent in our budget to the U.S.A. having to spend 36 Billion dollars CDN (almost 29 billion dollars U.S.) out of it's budget. That's a pretty heavy price to pay as a sanction. The Canadian government is in tune with the vast majority of it's people as a democracy should be & we are sending a clear message that we will not stand with Bush & his lies. For this stand we Canadians are paying a price. Americans are & will continue to pay a heavy price too if they foolishly let the Bush administration operate the way it has been. Americans should not be alienating themselves from Canada & their international friends by supporting a president who acts unilaterally & against an enormous amount of world opinion. We understand the right for the U.S.A. to operate nearly unilaterally when faced with a matter of severe threat to national security, but Iraq was not such a threat (no serious threat to national security existed from Iraq) & the Bush administration should have listened more carefully to other nations, not tried so hard to trump up reasons to go to war (all of which turned out to be false). There may still be a very limited opportunity for the American government to demonstrate appropriate, cooperative, responsible, reasonable & benevolent behavior throughout the world instead of being a bully, but you'll need to elect a different government on November 2nd 2004 to do that.

JUST SO YOU KNOW: In case you wonder about my religious affiliation, I am an evangelical Christian (for lack of a better term), not some extreme left wing liberal, but I refuse to take an extreme right wing political stand like Bush is doing, because then I would be almost as wrong as those Muslims who allow their clerics & politicians to convince them that terrorism is acceptable. Neither extreme is acceptable, we need to let truth & middle of the road political views prevail if we are to see a reduction of war & strife in the world. As a Christian, I will not stand idly by & let Bush & the Republicans usurp the truths & principals in the Bible, without taking a stand against him via my written opinions. I am ashamed to call myself a Christian when people like Bush & many of his followers call themselves Christians. Frankly, I'm amazed that more American Christians aren't taking a firm stand against Bush & his administration. Bush has urged the world community to "fight radicalism and terror with justice and dignity.", yet Bush himself is radical, is terrorizing Iraq & doesn't always demonstrate justice and dignity, or tell the truth. I expect Muslims who know the Koran well, to take a stand against "radical Islamic terrorism" & I expect Christians who know their Bible well, to take a stand against "radical evangelical Christian crusading". I just did & I hope others will too.

By Doug Hembruff.
Written in September 2004. Last updated Oct. 20/2004

As a follow up, you might want to see the fascinating docmentary movie called "Why We Fight" which came out in early 2006, see the trailer.