by James Glaser
September 5, 2002

I have been looking over some of my last columns and see the anger that is exposed by them. No I am not about to apologize for that anger. I have never said that emotion would be kept out of my writing and as I think about it, I think it is about time that all Americans start to get a little angry with what those in Washington are doing.

Our Nation has a whole boatload of domestic problems that we could be working togethre on. America should never be an example for how different races should live together. The gulf between the rich and poor is getting wider. Social Security reform has been promised by both political parties for over twenty years and what we are doing to the elderly with prescription drug costs is a real crime.

After over twenty some years of building up debt for our children and grandchildren to pay, we reached an end during Clinton's Presidency. Maybe it was the Republicans or maybe the Democrats that got the budget balanced, who cares? We even paid a token amount toward taking down that massive national debt, it was a move in the right direction.

Now that has all ended. From surplus to massive deficit in one year of George Bush. One terrorist attack is all it took to take the whole domestic agenda off everyone's plate in Washington. The swing of high poll numbers for George and Terrorism has made the whole agenda in Washington, foreign policy and George and his staff seem particularly inept with that.

I'll tell you what has made me so mad. I have this great job now, I am rebuilding a hundred and twenty year old, one horse open sleigh. Doesn't that sound like just a real fun job? Well it is, but always in the back of my mind, (probably because I have been to war) I have these thoughts of American troops and Aircraft in harms way and I am also thinking about the harm they are inflicting on innocent people. Hey, I would just love to blow the whole war thing off and that is what I think George Bush must be doing when he goes to Texas. George can do that because he has no Idea of what he is doing and neither does Dick Cheney.

Wait a minute. I am going to copy this paragraph written by Bridget Gibson as it explains what I am talking about here.

"I have watched in horror as my fellow citizens have died, been imprisoned and stripped of their Constitutional rights, and been required to serve in our military forces under the leadership of a person whose own military records shows him to have been AWOL. It is ironic that the shrillest voices calling for the certain deaths of many of these service men and women have never faced military service. Dick Cheney "had other priorities in the 60s than military service," John Ashcroft decided his teaching career was more important, Richard Perle, Paul Wolfowitz, Andrew Card, Karl Rove, Tommy Thompson, Trent Lott, and Tom DeLay, all had other things to do during the time that our nation was fighting and dying in the jungles of Southeast Asia I guess now that they are older, they have decided that they need to make up for their lack of courage and conviction by calling the loudest for the deaths of others." From "Men of Dishonor" by Bridget Gibson, 27 August 2002

I guess I am not the only one getting angry. All these guys advising George Bush to send our country into another war with Iraq and Colin Powell the only guy at the White House with military experience, is saying that peace is better, Go Figure! However all of these men with total lack of military experience, like George, can just walk away from war in their time off, because they have no Idea of what War is.

War isn't just about the troops we send over seas and the innocent people those troops will kill, like in every war that has ever been fought, but also the families of our troops. The heart break for the mothers and fathers of those service people that die. That same heart break for the wives and children.

Think about those that get maimed for life with blindness, loss of limbs, hearing, and minds. What does that do to a family? These leaders in Washington only know what Hollywood has taught them about war. Today's Generals must side with these men for the sake of their careers. Almost all of the former Generals, without that career pressure have said we should not attack Iraq or we should finish one war first, that would be Afghanistan.

I get mad because America has allowed a group of men, who do not have the expertise needed for the job, to take over our foreign policy, while those with the history of service in this field, are ignored. I get mad because these men, mad for the glory of victory are not honest enough to tell us that we want Iraq's oil and if we have to kill a few hundred thousand more people to do it, that is OK with them.

Remember none of these men will have to face any enemy nor most likely will any of their children and that makes me mad too.

It makes me mad that George Bush and all of these men working for him, have sworn to preserve, protect, and defend our Constitution. I don't think any of them have read it and that makes me mad. You can click on the Constitution right here on my web page and read Article II, Section 2. Three short paragraphs describe the constitutional duties of the president of the United States and true the first is "the president's first constitutional power is to be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy," but that is it, no where does it even hint that the president has constitutional authority to commit the country to war. That power, to commit the country to war is in Article I and belongs to the Congress.

It makes me mad that people who swear to uphold the Constitution on a Christian Bible, a faith they proclaim, subvert that very document they swore to uphold. Those in Washington believe that they know better than the principals our country was founded on and want to implement the rules they think are best. We didn't elect them to make up their own rules and throw away the rights of every American citizen, because they think that is best. And yes, that makes me mad.