Urgent Challenges
Many urgent challenges face us today as we work toward creating a safer world. One of the most urgent is confronting the arrogant speech and actions of President Bush and his administration. His new National Security Strategy issued this week reaffirms the Bush doctrine of preemptive military strikes against other nations. It also describes Iran as an imminent danger to the world, thus setting up the same scenario that led to the Iraq invasion three years ago. And he verbally attacks Syria, China, Russia, North Korea, and Venezuela.
At the same time the U.S. military is engaged in the largest operation in three years in Iraq and is bringing more troops in to the country. We have already built very large, permanent bases in that country. Does anyone seriously think we have any plans to pull our soldiers out of Iraq?
Congress just authorized another $68 billion to spend in Afghanistan and Iraq (over the next few months) and also increased the national debt limit. With every minute that passes, the future of our nation is further jeopardized as we plummet into a deeper hole of debt and the future of our world is threatened by the escalation of conflict [and the potential for war with Iran] through the speech and actions of President Bush.
Senator Feingold is calling for censure of the President by the Senate. Others are publicly speaking about impeachment. Yet no one seems able to pull back on the reins with any success. Some days I think we can just wait it out until a new President is elected. But Bush has over two years to continue the damage he is causing to our world. And we don’t have any idea, of course, who the next President will be.
Today is the only time we have. This weekend marks the third anniversary of the Iraq invasion when we heard the same rhetoric we heard this week about Iran. When will it stop? Who will stop it? What will we do to make the world a safer place for everyone?
