Babel-17
Veteran
We saw it with Clinton and now we are seeing it in spades with Bush, these "elective surgery" wars have a potential to damage a democracy and in the case of the USA give to an already very powerful president/executive branch even greater real/assumed powers plus a very effective bully pulpit.
I have no easy or clear answer. Obviously we can't take our military options off the table but I don't like what I see happening to the democratic process.
I see Bush using the military with its people as unpaid actors in what amounts to free campaign commercials. Inevitably it seems the role a president plays as commander and chief ends up getting parlayed to gain partisan political advantage.
And yes, we saw this under Clinton as dissenters against the war in Bosnia were branded as short sighted fools who were willing to allow genocide. The argument was applied in a fairly heavy handed fashion iirc.
But not imho to the level we see under this administration.
I believe the political and social cost of this phenomenon must be added to the running tally for our liberation of Iraq.
We, the USA, really need to set some ground rules for the runup to these types of wars. Imo there's a lot of room for improvement in how congress performs its "advise and consent" and its subsequent oversight.
Cable TV with its self inflicted slavery to the need for immediate imagery and uncomplicated story lines needs to take a careful examination of itself.
The american public needs to demand to be better informed and to seek redress when they are deceived. War is no casual affair and we should demand the most sober and thorough consideration be applied to any plans for executing it.
I see the process of accountability as being totally crippled by partisanship. We need to explore the areas regarding the process that are ripe for reform and where a broad consensus can be achieved and from there work to improve the whole system.
I have no easy or clear answer. Obviously we can't take our military options off the table but I don't like what I see happening to the democratic process.
I see Bush using the military with its people as unpaid actors in what amounts to free campaign commercials. Inevitably it seems the role a president plays as commander and chief ends up getting parlayed to gain partisan political advantage.
And yes, we saw this under Clinton as dissenters against the war in Bosnia were branded as short sighted fools who were willing to allow genocide. The argument was applied in a fairly heavy handed fashion iirc.
But not imho to the level we see under this administration.
I believe the political and social cost of this phenomenon must be added to the running tally for our liberation of Iraq.
We, the USA, really need to set some ground rules for the runup to these types of wars. Imo there's a lot of room for improvement in how congress performs its "advise and consent" and its subsequent oversight.
Cable TV with its self inflicted slavery to the need for immediate imagery and uncomplicated story lines needs to take a careful examination of itself.
The american public needs to demand to be better informed and to seek redress when they are deceived. War is no casual affair and we should demand the most sober and thorough consideration be applied to any plans for executing it.
I see the process of accountability as being totally crippled by partisanship. We need to explore the areas regarding the process that are ripe for reform and where a broad consensus can be achieved and from there work to improve the whole system.
