thedesertsun.com | President must answer to Downing Street Memo

thedesertsun.com | President must answer to Downing Street Memo:
David Spero
Special to The Desert Sun
June 18, 2005

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On May 1, The London Times dropped an atomic bomb on the Bush administration, the Downing Street Memo.

Largely ignored by our country's corporate-owned media, the memo states that "Bush wanted to remove Saddam Hussein, through military action, justified by the conjunction of terrorism and weapons of mass destruction. But the intelligence and facts were being fixed around the policy." The memo's content, authenticity and accuracy remain unchallenged.

According to the memo, Bush created an elaborate plot to invade Iraq as early as 2002. Therefor, all that talk about aluminum tubes, portable biological labs and weapons of mass destruction was nothing more than verbal theatrics. Bush's endlessly reiterated phrase that war was to be used "only as a last resort" was deceptive, as were the threats to Saddam to "turn over" weapons of mass destruction. Feeding concocted "evidence" to an angry, gullible America, Bush utilized the unstable political climate after Sept. 11 to drive America into war.

Rep. John Conyers of Michigan has been circulating a petition to be hand-delivered to the president. It has more than 500,000 American and 100 congressional signatures on it. Rep. Mary Bono, in lockstep conformity with her Republican colleagues, having already sent Tom Delay a quick $5,000 for his legal defense fund, refuses to sign the petition. The petition requests simply that Bush respond honestly and in detail to the memo's allegations.

This massive scandal will not go away. The president's apparently soiled hands are dyed with the blood of more than 1,700 American soldiers and 100,000 Iraqi citizens. The potential crimes of George Bush reduce Richard Nixon and Bill Clinton's misdeeds into subjects for a comedy act.

But this is no time for laughter.

America's credibility, its conscience and soul, stand at a crossroad. George Bush should be thoroughly investigated by a congressional committee or independent counsel. And, if these allegations hold true, Bush should be impeached and then imprisoned for war crimes against humanity.

David Spero is a poet and author living in Palm Springs