By Elaine Brower, 11/8/06
My son returned from Iraq last week, shaken and saddened by what he saw. I thank God he returned home to our family in one physical piece. However, looming over our heads is the “back door draft,” a policy that has been forced upon our military and their families without their consent. Our troops return home to a hero’s welcome, only to receive redeployment papers sometime in the near future disrupting their settled lives.
Oh, you say, Rumsfeld resigned and the Dems are in charge of Congress
now. But I say, BEWARE. Nancy Pelosi is lunching with a criminal on
Friday, no doubt about it. I hope she keeps that in mind. I do not
put my faith in the newly elected Democrats because they are the lesser
of two evils. The DCC platform did not consider the immediate
withdrawal of our troops from Iraq; did not address the “back door
draft;” and did not address investigation and impeachment hearings, to
name a few items. As a matter of fact, the Dems took all of those
issues “off the table.” Nancy Pelosi is known for keeping to her word,
and her words were “impeachment would not be considered.” We, the
people, must make her eat those words.
However, watching Bush on the news today did make me smile, a lot. I
usually cannot stand the sight of him with his grimacing face,
patronizing attitude and leaning stance. Today was the exception. He
was nervous, jittery, but he still lied through his teeth. He’s
advocating “working together” with the newly elected “democratic
leaders.” Liar, liar. He has over 800 signing statements ignoring
every single law passed by HIS Congress. Let’s imagine what the next
two years will look like. The Dems are spineless wimps who are also on
the take from lobbyists and large corporate sponsors. We, the
watchdogs of our democracy cannot fall asleep, again. We cannot get
comfortable and go back to watching episodes of “Lost.” I hate to
tell all of you activists out there, our work has just begun. We can
bask in the glory of winning this day, but tomorrow it’s back hitting
the pavement. This is the time when we must draw out a massive
resistance to this Government, and demand not only impeachment
proceedings be put “on the table,” but an investigation into the war
crimes committed by Bush & Company, as begun by Congressman John
Conyers, become a reality.
I refuse to have my son be redeployed to the hell hole we call the Iraq
War or “War on Terrorism.” Ratcheting up our efforts to get this crew
held accountable for the entire mess created over the last 5 years is
IMPERATIVE. Now that we have proof positive that the American people
have spoken out against this criminal Regime and are wide awake, join
me in the streets to demand justice and an end to this occupation NOW,
before those redeployment papers arrive in my mailbox.