Bob Bossie

Bob Bossie speaks on the Military Commissions Act and the need to drive out the Bush regime. Bossie, SCJ, has
been a staff person at the 8th Day Center for Justice in Chicago since
1980.  He works on issues of peace, human rights, economics and
non-violence.

Thank God for this election.

It’s clear that the majority of voters oppose the policies of this “regime”.

They have withdrawn their consent; the politics of fear no longer reigns.

This was not so much a vote for the Democrats who have little, if any, program different from the Bush administration.

It’s
common wisdom that the vote was against a war that has created a living
hell in Iraq: 3000 GIs dead, 600,000 Iraqis, untold hundreds of
thousands left with broken minds, bodies and spirits — not to forget
their loved ones — and, might I add, destroyed a country.

At
speeches I gave after the first Gulf War in 1991, I recall my spouting
numerous facts but then I looked over at my brother who was with me and
then telling the audience that if my brother alone was killed or
injured, my life would never be the same. This is the same for all
these loved ones.

I”ve been to Iraq four times in the 90s and I
thought I”d seen the extent of this hell, but now I know that, that
time pales in comparison.

We should be aware this vote was also
against torture, extraordinary rendition, secret prisons, snatching
people off the street and disappearing them, as happened under various
dictatorships such as Chile and El Salvador years.

Let us not
forget, the Military Commissions Act of 2006 was signed by Bush on Oct.
17 in a public ceremony. This act allows the Bush regime to declare
anyone an “illegal enemy combatant.” Once that determination has been
made by the Bush regime itself, that person is subject to indefinite
detention and torture without any recourse to the courts. Essentially,
this does away with habeas corpus, the foundation of the criminal
justice system.

• While habeas corpus technically still
  applies to citizens under this law, many in the legal community believe
  the designation of a citizen as “illegal enemy combatant” effectively
  voids that right.

• I”ve been in jail for acts of
  nonviolent resistance and have been brought before a judge within 24
  hours of being arrested. That is my right in Illinois under habeas
  corpus. But with the Military Commissions Act, that is essentially no
  longer my right.This law was passed by a wide margin of support in the
  House (253-168) and Senate (65-34).*

This law was passed by a wide margin of support in the House (253-168) and Senate (65-34).*

This law is what pushed me over the edge with regards to the need to “drive out the Bush regime.”

I
believe I feel this way because all the criminal and evil actions of
this regime are now, by definition, legal. With the support of the
House and Senate.

Government has failed us. The
courts and even the mainline churches have failed us. And what can one
say of the mainstream media?

The signing of this law caps the Bush regime’s attack on the US Constitution.

I was reminded some time ago that everything Hitler did was, in fact, legal.

The
day after the signing of this law, the Bush administration advised the
US Court of Appeals in DC that it no longer had any right, now or in
the future, to hear cases of habeas corpus brought by those detained
for years at Guantanamo, and presumably, other such prisons.

The
very same day Bush signed this law, in a private ceremony, he signed
the “John Warner Defense Authorization Act of 2007” which allows the
President to declare a “public emergency” and station troops anywhere
in America and take control of state based National Guard units without
the consent of the governor or local authorities, in order to “suppress
public disorder.”

According to Senator Patrick
Leahy (D Vermont), this latest act will actually encourage the
President to declare federal martial law.

Now is the time to build the movement to Drive Out the Bush Regime. The world can’t wait.

Many
of our sisters and brothers are looking for more ways to withdraw
consent than that afforded them by electoral politics. They know it
will take more, much more to end this tyranny and begin to construct a
society, a world, where human community and the earth herself can
flourish.

They are looking for the direction and inspiration which World Can’t Wait campaign can provide.

Our children look to us for this; they expect it of us.

What will we leave the children of the world?

If
we need signs of encouragement and hope that this is not just wishful
thinking, we need only look at the fall of the Soviet Union, or the
nonviolent “Velvet Revolution” which overthrew the government of
Czechoslovakia in 1989.

Or we might look at the peasant uprising which threw out the corrupt government of Bolivia a few years back.

Or, today, we might look to the mass movement to opposing the government of Kyrgyzstan.

I’m
reminded that it was 100 years ago, Sept. 11, 1906, that Gandhi began
the modern nonviolent movement. On that day 3000 Indians in
Johannesburg, South Africa, joined Gandhi in challenging the oppressive
laws of that country with nonviolent civil disobedience.

Now
we have the opportunity to join with that long tradition of nonviolent
rebellion by giving of our time, our money, our hearts to this much
deserved World Can’t Wait campaign.

It’s time to drive out the Bush regime. Now is the time to act.

 

=======
*House: R=230, D=201, I=1
MCA Vote: yes-R=219, D=34, I=0
no-R=7, D=160, I=1
Senate: R=55, D=44, I=1
MVA Vote: yes-R=53, D=12, I=0
no-R=1, D=32, I=1