Deception and betrayal went hand and hand with Bush

by
Chaplain Kathie

While the US Congress fails to find out exactly what was behind the invasion of Iraq along with everything else during the Bush presidency, the British people seem to believe that finding out what caused the death and destruction is well worth the effort of fully investigating. They are in the process of doing just that.

Confidential memo reveals US plan to provoke an invasion of IraqBuzz up!
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Jamie Doward, Gaby Hinsliff and Mark Townsend The Observer, Sunday 21 June 2009 Article historyA confidential record of a meeting between President Bush and Tony Blair before the invasion of Iraq, outlining their intention to go to war without a second United Nations resolution, will be an explosive issue for the official inquiry into the UK's role in toppling Saddam Hussein.

The memo, written on 31 January 2003, almost two months before the invasion and seen by the Observer, confirms that as the two men became increasingly aware UN inspectors would fail to find weapons of mass destruction (WMD) they had to contemplate alternative scenarios that might trigger a second resolution legitimising military action.

Bush told Blair the US had drawn up a provocative plan "to fly U2 reconnaissance aircraft painted in UN colours over Iraq with fighter cover". Bush said that if Saddam fired at the planes this would put the Iraqi leader in breach of UN resolutions.

The president expressed hopes that an Iraqi defector would be "brought out" to give a public presentation on Saddam's WMD or that someone might assassinate the Iraqi leader. However, Bush confirmed even without a second resolution, the US was prepared for military action. The memo said Blair told Bush he was "solidly with the president".
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http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2009/jun/21/iraq-inquiry-tony-blair-bush

The push to go to war would not be anything new in the history of nations. Excuses are found all the time. Bush pushing to invade Iraq and the result we are dealing with today though shows a complete and total disregard for the people sent to do it as well as the Iraqi people themselves.

There was already an active military campaign going on in Afghanistan and proving fairly successful at the time. The perplexing thing is that even with an active military campaign, there were less doctors and nurses working for the VA than following the Gulf War. Considering wars usually do produce wounded soldiers along with killed in action, this was already a dangerous sign.

Following the attacks of 9-11, there was an increased reaction in veterans already. Most of them were living with PTSD but denying they needed help. 9-11 sent a lot of them flocking to the VA and mental health care. This further complicated the situation of an active campaign without the proper staffing.

All of this was not bad enough. Bush cut the VA budget. Secretary of Veterans Affairs Nicholson didn't see the need to increase staff or claims processors. What made this worse was the fact when there was a flood of veterans seeking care, Nicholson returned some of the funds intended to take care of our veterans.

With all of this, then add in this piece of further information there was a push to invade Iraq no matter what the evidence was. Where were the doctors and nurses and claims processors with there was already a backlog, a waiting line and two active military campaigns?

History had already shown the administration this would be a long drawn out deadly campaign. Dick Cheney, after all was the Secretary of Defense during the last time the US had gone up against Saddam. Cheney used the excuse of not going after Saddam to remove him from power as getting the US tied up in a "quagmire" if they had. The media however treated this term by Cheney as something new as if he never used it before.

Knowing what they were getting the men and women in the military involved with, we need to seriously be asking how they could be so callous they betrayed them? Had they really appreciated their service as they frequently claimed, wouldn't they have made sure everything was in place to care for the wounded? If they really valued the families as much as they said they did, wouldn't they have made sure families of the wounded wouldn't have to suffer needlessly without incomes waiting for claims to be approved and the wounded spouse treated with the respect and care they earned? Had the Republican elected in control been really concerned with the needs of the troops, wouldn't they have demanded the administration take action on gearing up the VA and the medical services of the DOD to meet the need? They didn't. No one with the power to do anything proved they really cared at all.

No vital need to invade Iraq with troops already in Afghanistan, but no one thought of the troops they were sending in and this, this is the ultimate betrayal of all.

Has there been proper staffing in the VA would we be seeing so many suicides today? Would we be seeing so many waiting months and years for claims to be approved? Would we be seeing a backlog of those claims approaching a million? Did anyone really think of any of this?

Today we hear McCain and Republicans talking on TV demanding tough talk on the Iranian elections. The same tough talk they used to support the invasion of Iraq. Do they stop to think of how wrong they have been in the past? Do they stop and think about the price that may have to be paid by the men and women in the military as a result of any of the demands they are making? Do they really want a war with Iran now? North Korea? What's next for all their tough talk? These are many of the same people in charge when the troops were betrayed already! This in no way leaves the Democrats off the hook for what happened because they were too afraid to speak out in public. They managed to give passionate pleas on the floor of Congress to fund the VA but publicly they were not showing up on cable news shows making the same kind of passionate plea for action.

There are many Republican voters totally appalled by all that has been going on because they have been paying attention. They care about the men and women in the military and our veterans enough to actually prove it instead of just talking about it. They are demanding the veterans are taken care of. Whatever is preventing the rest of the Republicans from doing the same is beyond explanation.