About ten days ago I watched with great anticipation when the President of The United States in his capacity as Commander-In-Chief of the Armed Forces gave a speech about the current war in Iraq.

With the White House Library room in the background, with a smile on his face and that turned-up lip quivering, President George W. Bush looked us right in the eye and lied to us. Looking wide-eyed and uncomfortable to the point of being scared, our President told us that he felt we needed to increase the number of troops in Iraq by over 20,000. The increase would only be temporary, but he did not say how long it would last, or what would happen if it did not help improve the terrible situation in Iraq . He said we needed to change tactics and get the Iraqis more involved so we could be “winning” in Iraq . He promised, (I saw it and heard it myself) that he would consult Congress about these proposed changes and would listen to their ideas and recommendations with an open mind. He said it at least twice……..He promised………

Well to put this in blunt enough terms so you do not misunderstand me, on that fateful Wednesday, the President of the United States , on national television in an address to the nation, with purposeful intent and full knowledge of his actions, lied to all of us. While we were all fooled into thinking the President was really going to ask Congress for their opinions, in accordance with the U.S. Constitution and the War Powers Act of 1973, in reality the “Surge of Troops” was already moving forward. Since that carefully scripted disingenuous speech by our Commander in Chief, troops have already been moved into Baghdad from Kuwait , other units in Iraq have had their tours extended by four months, units still in the U.S. have received notice to move early to Iraq and the call-up rules for the reserves have been changed to an almost open-ended system. The legal and lawful oversight responsibilities of the U.S. Congress concerning the Unites States engaging in any and all forms of warfare were ignored. The opinions and recommendations of members of Congress, current senior military officers, former senior military leaders and the will of the American Citizens were obviously deemed not important and were never even considered. We were lied to, millions of us right to our faces. To paraphrase the President’s recent comments about the troop surge, “No one can stop me”.

So you don’t think I am making some of this up let me quote the War Powers Act of 1973 passed by the U.S. Congress and passed over the veto of Richard Nixon:

The President in every possible instance shall consult with Congress before introducing United States Armed Forces into hostilities or into situations where imminent involvement in hostilities is clearly indicated by the circumstances, and after every such introduction shall consult regularly with the Congress until United States Armed Forces are no longer engaged in hostilities or have been removed from such situations. 50 U.S.C. s. 1542.

At any time that United States Armed Forces are engaged in hostilities outside the territory of the United States, its possessions and territories without a declaration of war or specific statutory authorization, such forces shall be removed by the President if the Congress so directs by concurrent resolution. 50 U.S.C. s. 1544.

The President said in his speech and in recent comments, that he admits we made mistakes in Iraq by not having enough troops. I say no Mr. President, that was not a mistake, that was incompetence and failure to do your duty as Commander-In-Chief. During the planning for this war, you and your arrogant, stubborn, micro-managing former Secretary of Defense, failed to listen to the highest ranking officer in the Army, the sitting Secretary of State and former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, and many other senior career military officers and professional strategic military planners who advised you we needed at least twice the number of troops in Iraq to start the war and occupy the country. Because you were unwilling to listen then, and continued your obstinate and inflexible approach to the war for and additional three and one-half years, we lost early on the opportunity to properly disarm and occupy Iraq . That mistake as you call it, in my estimation, has directly resulted in the loss of the lives of between 2,000 – 2,500 of the U.S. personnel killed in Iraq or about two-thirds of the total killed so far. Those Soldiers, Sailors, Airman, Marines and Coast Guardsman, Active and Reserve did not have to die, but did so because of what you are now are calling a mistake. When you fail to listen to your experts in the beginning of a war, fail to listen to them later on during the war when the violence in the war zone has spiraled out of control and U.S. causalities have soared, and continue to fail to listen to them for over three and one-half years, that is dereliction of duty.

America let me ask a question. First of all our constitution does not allow one man to completely control our military or make war on his own. Do you want that kind of system? Do you trust any man or woman so much that they alone can decide the fate of this country and lead us into wars and cause the deaths of our sons and daughters without any debate or checks and balances? When I joined the Army I swore to support and defend the Constitution of the United States , not one office or one man or one party.

Now the President and his Secretary of State indicate that they do not need Congressional approval for U.S. military action attacks against Iran or other countries within the Middle East and that they alone can decide to take such action. The Congress of The United States cannot let this happen.

When I voted twice for George W. Bush for President, I had faith in him and thought he had a good heart, and was a good man. A person who made mistakes and learned from them, a religious family man who had finally found his way and was dedicated to “serving” the nation. I have lost that faith.

Around seventy five years ago some other men were “elected” to positions as heads of state. Then during their initial years in office they systematically took away the power of the people to protest, they consolidated under them the control of the military, they restricted free speech and protest, they assumed the power to investigate every aspect of their citizens lives and imprisoned or ruined the lives of those they found unsuitable, they restricted or ignored the authority of the other elected bodies within their respective countries, even those who initially supported their rise to power. Then these men personally started wars for dubious reasons and during the conduct of those wars completely ignored the advice of their senior military commanders on how to win or end those wars. The end results are a matter of history and as they say “History Repeats Itself”.