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During the past few weeks the U.S. economy has continued to decline, unemployment has risen further. Our country is plunging deeper in debt, the stock market continues to lose ground
and our resources are being squandered on the so called "war" in Iraq.
It has now come to light that a group of prominent republicans gathered in Washington, D.C. in 1997 and formulated a plan to invade and take control of Iraq and possibly some other middle
east countries. This plan could not be instituted at the time because President Clinton was in office but as soon as George W. Bush was put into the White House and several of the men who came up with the plan
were back in top government posts, the plan was brought to life.
The terrorist attack on New York and Washington triggered the backing they needed to turn attention to Iraq and most members of Congress blindly followed.
Now we find our government placed in a difficult position because President bush has hurriedly dispatched our forces to the regions near Iraq and our allies around the world are
re-thinking the idea of waging war.
Colin Powell and George Bush continue to say that Iraq has "weapons of mass destruction" and rehash the things Iraq did over ten years ago as proof. We need to see some "recent" proof
that such weapons are held in Iraq before we go to war to disarm Saddam and, why not give the inspectors time to find all of those weapons, if they exist. I believe the reason President Bush refuses to allow
more time is that he has fallen in step with the group of republicans who decided this would be done at their meeting in 1997.
Heed The Voice From The Mountain
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Storm Clouds Over America
Senator Robert Byrd in his eloquent speech before the U.S. Senate recently brought to our attention some of the problems we face if America begins this unprecedented
path which the present administration has embarked upon.
Heretofore the U.S. has never, without provocation, taken the drastic action of attempting, by military force, to change the government of another country.
It has been the policy of America for many years to promote democratic governments in all countries, however it has been our policy to use diplomacy and trade to do so, not outright
attacks on countries with which we do not agree.
While the Bush administration contends that Iraq possesses weapons of mass destruction, they have not presented specific evidence of it to the American people and have expressed no desire
to allow the inspectors to prove or disprove their contentions concerning the weapons. This brings us back to the meeting of high ranking republicans in 1997 and the plan they devised to invade Iraq, changing
all previous foreign relation policies which this country has followed.
It is time for our elected representatives to stand up for what America stands for and take back the decision to wage war from the President. The authority to declare war was given to to
Congress and Senate for the express purpose of preventing a president and a small group around him from plunging our country into war as now appears to be the case.
The Voice From the Mountain as heard by
G. Lee Hearl ye Old Physic and Soothsayer
March 8, 2003
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