Sign Max Cleland's antiwar petition to Bush

[Generic Other]

Here's an excerpt from the petition:

Let me see if I can get this straight.

The President of the United States decides to go to war against a nation led by a brutal dictator supported by one party rule. That dictator has made war on his neighbors. The President decides this is a threat to the United States. In his campaign for President he gives no indication of wanting to go to war. In fact, he decries the over extension of American military might and says other nations must do more. However, unbeknown to the American public, the President's own Pentagon advisors have already cooked up a plan to go to war. All they are looking for is an excuse.

An element of the U.S. military is under attack. The President, his Secretary of Defense and his advisors sell the idea to Congress and the American people that it is time to go to war. Based on faulty intelligence, cherry-picked information is fed to Congress and the American people. The President goes on national television to explain the case for war, using as part of the rationale for the war an incident that never happened. The Congress buys the bait hook, line and sinker and passes a resolution giving the President the authority to use "all necessary means" to prosecute the war.

The war is started with an air and ground attack. Initially there is optimism. The President says we are winning. The cocky, self-assured Secretary of Defense says we are winning. As a matter of fact, the Secretary of Defense promises the troops will be home soon.

However, the truth on the ground that the soldiers face in the war is different than the political policy that sent them there. They face increased opposition from a determined enemy. They are surprised by terrorist attacks, suicide bombers, village assassinations, increasing casualties and growing anti-American sentiment. They find themselves bogged down in a guerrilla land war, unable to move forward and unable to disengage because there are no allies in the war to turn the war over to. There is no plan B. There is no exit strategy. Military morale declines. The President's popularity sinks and the American people are increasingly frustrated by the cost of blood and treasure poured into a never-ending war.

Sound familiar? It does to me!
The President was Lyndon Johnson.
Got Ya!
The cocky, self-assured Secretary of Defense was Robert McNamara.
Got ya again!
The Congressional resolution was the Gulf of Tonkin resolution.
You are catching on!

The war was the war that I, John Kerry, Chuck Hagel, John McCain and three and-a-half million other Americans of our generation were caught up in. It was the scene of America’s longest war. It was also the locale of the most frustrating outcome of any war this nation has ever fought.

Unfortunately, the people who drove the engine to get into the war in Iraq never served in Vietnam.

Not the President.
Not the Vice-President
Not the Secretary of Defense.
Not the Deputy Secretary of Defense.

Too bad. They could have learned some lessons


http://www.dscc.org/information/desertdisaster_petition/