Your Guy?

I have previously mentioned in this blog former President Bill Clinton’s indiscretion with a woman during his tenure in office. The entire country witnessed the GOP led charge to investigate this matter. The president made statements under oath. He used selective specific language during his testimony. Interpretation of parts of the selective specific language testimony by mostly GOP members of congress led to charges of lying under oath. All of which led to the formal charges for his impeachment by the House of Representatives. The House of Representatives impeached the president, a constitutional event trigger by a majority vote of its’ membership. The Senate did not find him guilty, a constitutional process terminated by a vote which fall short of the necessary two thirds majority of its’ membership. Both of these two votes coming down to expressions of political party lines. Anyone with a rudimentary understanding of the constitutional process and an equally rudimentary mathematical capability would have come to the inescapable conclusion of ultimate failure of the process. Therefore the entire sequence of events must have had a different ultimate goal. I suggest the embarrassment of the president and theatre for the ultra right wing of the Republican Party as the real reasons.

President George W. Bush has said he fulfilled his commitment to the Texas National Guard. He said he would hunt down those responsible for the events of 9/11. He said we would get Osama bin Laden. He said Saddam Hussein had ties to Al Qaeda. He said Saddam Hussein had weapons of mass destruction, both chemical and biological. He said Hussein was attempting to build atom weapons with the aluminum rods from Niger. He said he had nothing to do with the outing of a CIA operative. He said the war with Iraq would cost less than 50 billion dollars. He said Iraqi oil production would pay for the war. He said there would be less than 5000 American troops left in Iraq five years after the invasion. He said our troops would be welcomed with flowers in Iraq. He said the mission was successful and complete from the deck of an aircraft carrier. He had no plan for occupation of his conquered country. He has continually said the U. S. was winning the war in Iraq. He has been saying there is no civil war going on in Iraq. He has told our all-volunteer armed forces their tours of duty in Iraq would be twelve months. He has told them they would be allowed to stay home for at least one year in between tours of duty. If you have any questions regarding any of these assertions, I would suggest you watch Bill Moyers’ recently aired PBS special. Unless you believe everything you see on the documentary is smoke and mirrors, in which case I have some swamp land in Florida for sale…a facetious statement, I believe you’ll come away from the documentary with a different perspective.

The war in Iraq, which has still not been formally declared by vote of the Congress under constitutional mandate, is in its sixth year. More than 154,000 troops remain there. More than 3,200 Americans have died there. More than 16,000 have been wounded. Many of those include amputees and others who will suffer the effects of their wounds for the rest of their lives. Their deserved medical treatment and benefits will effect the national treasury and budget for the next seventy-five years or so. The Iraqi war has already cost in excess of one trillion dollars, $1,000,000,000,000.00. This figure does not include the necessary funds to replenish and repair the military hardware already used.

Which one of these two presidents is your guy?