Dear Rep. Courtney,
Please do everything in your power to oppose President Bush's plans to escalate the war in Iraq. It will only get more Americans killed and not resolve the ongoing sectarian conflict.
I also ask you to do everything in your power to prevent the Bush Administration from launching a pre-emptive air and/or naval assault on Iran. That would bring disaster to everyone.
Let me remind you what James Madison, our 4th President, said about war...
"...war is "the true nurse of executive aggrandizement...
Of all the enemies of true liberty, war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force, of the people. The same malignant aspect in republicanism may be traced in the inequality of fortunes, and the opportunities of fraud, growing out of a state of war, and in the degeneracy of manner and of morals, engendered in both. No nation can preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare."
Continual warfare is the goal of the Neo-conservatives who infest the Bush Administration. The Bush Administration is insane. They are drunk with power and instead of taking the November 2006 elections as a rejection of their warmongering policies, they are planning on using the limited amount of time left to make things worse for everyone but those profiting on this war.
It’s your Constitutional duty, Mr. Courtney, to hold the Bush Administration in check and accountable for their actions.
Remember the words of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. from his speech title “Beyond Vietnam”,
“…wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows” and “The greatest purveyor of violence in the world today is my own government.”
Unfortunately, the last sentence above is still true today. Rev. King Jr. also said in that same speech, "A nation that continues year after year to spend more money on military defense than on programs of social uplift is approaching spiritual death.”
The Bush Administration has pushed the United States to the brink of becoming a totalitarian state and they want to send us over the edge. They’ve pushed to increase military spending by sacrificing fiscal responsibility and social programs for the poor. This militaristic direction will create economic instability here and lead this nation to embrace fascism. Remember, the synonym for fascism is corporatism. Here’s a link --
http://www.rense.com/general37/fascism.htm -- to Dr. Lawrence Britt’s 14 characteristic of fascism. These characteristics were derived from common traits shared by the regimes of Hitler (Germany), Mussolini (Italy), Franco (Spain), Suharto (Indonesia) and several Latin American regimes. Read them and see how close our Republic is to falling into the darkness of fascism. I also suggest you read Chris Hedges new book, “American Fascists: The Christian Right and the War On America”
http://www.amazon.com/American-Fascists-Christian-Right-America/dp/0743284437/sr=8-1/qid=1171036811/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/104-6779265-8483936?ie=UTF8&s=books and Watergate whistle-blower John Dean’s interviews about the Bush Admin’s imperial presidency. John Dean has publicly warned that we are in a proto-fascist state –“John Dean on the Daily Show”, July 11, 2006
http://lincmad.blogspot.com/2006/07/john-dean-on-daily-show.html .
Please Mr. Courtney, do everything in your power to oppose President Bush’s insane plans to send more troops into Iraq and to pre-emptively strike Iran. These are the times that call for Profiles in Courage. We have a President gone berserk. We worked to get Democrats the majority so that you could put brakes on the Bush Administration. Use that majority to its fullest potential.
Footnotes:
Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. speeches
http://www.stanford.edu/group/King/publications/speeches/contents.htm 14 Defining Charasteristics of Fascism by Dr. Lawrence Britt, first published in Free Inquiry, Spring 2003 edition
http://www.rense.com/general37/fascism.htm