Isn't it strange how we are just hearing about three representatives who traveled to Iraq in 2002 on what may have been Saddam's checkbook, and later voted against Bush's idiotic and illegal invasion of Iraq to change that regime?
But the good news is, when confronted by this information, the democratic representatives in question unanimously stood up, raised their collective fists in the air, and said "And by God, we voted the right way!" Their ferocious defense of their own good sense was matched only by the embarrassment this Justice Department action caused the president and Dick Cheney in relation to their current disaster in the region -- the apparent failure of the so-called surge and its concomitant payoffs to all the various players erupting as we speak -- and in relation to their future disaster, the pending attack on Iran for its annoying reluctance to become America's bitch.
Oh, wait, no, it didn't really happen that way.
Instead, the representatives in question backpedaled and said "we didn't know, we wouldn't have gone to Iraq if we had known, etc, etc." Got all defensive. Look, even the girl who brought down the great Eliot "black socks" Spitzer was straightforward about her line of work. But the folks we send to Washington appear not to realize that when they assume the politician's role, they take money to do favors, and they ought not quibble about whence that money comes.
So what if Saddam paid for it -- we were not at war with Saddam in 2002. Only a few years before this trip -- a trip every single member of Congress SHOULD have taken in the fall of 2002 -- Cheney's former company was still profiting from work it did with Iraq during sanctions. And if we didn't like Saddam, isn't that all the more reason to make him pay for our trips there? Or is it always better to spend tax dollars (directly, or indirectly through the rent-seeking efforts of domestic white collar welfare corporations who lobby our congressmen 24/7?)
The timing of this indictment was Rovian, but the response was pure Democratic Party cowardice. As we watch even the formerly calm areas of Iraq rise up in frustrated rage against us, our puppet government in Baghdad, and each other, and as Bush and Cheney prepare --again without congressional oversight or permission -- to pre-emptively attack yet another sovereign country without provocation, remember that we always have choices.
We can honestly stand up, defend ourselves and publicly damn the evildoers in Washington and elsewhere, or we can roll over, put a pillow over our heads and hope no one we know gets killed tomorrow. Five years into this thing, should it really take rare heroes in the media and in our neighborhoods to articulate that this illegal two trillion dollar invasion and occupation was not a good idea, and those who made it happen are not very bright at best, certainly traitors to the Constitution, and quite possibly criminally insane?
I'd have been happy if a single one of those congressmen who made that trip on Saddam's dime had said, "You know what, we were right to find out first hand what was going on, and our votes against invading Iraq were right then, they are right now, and to paraphrase a man in the oval office who isn't much interested in facts, they will be right forever."
Since they didn't say this, thanks for allowing me to vent on their behalf.