Tuesday, May 01, 2007

"The Constitution is just a piece of paper" - G.W. Bush



"President Bush said Tuesday he vetoed a $124 billion war-spending bill that called for U.S. combat troops to leave Iraq in 2008, arguing that it replaced "the opinion of politicians for the judgment of our military commanders." He said: "Setting a deadline for withdrawal is setting a date for failure."

Exsqueeze me? You said what?

"arguing that it replaced "the opinion of politicians for the judgment of our military commanders"

I got news for you Sparky. In this country, the CIVILIAN GOVERNMENT controls the military. Go read what few tattered scraps of The Constitution that your administration has left intact. The Executive Branch is a Co-Equal branch of government to The Legislature and The Supreme Court.

To put it terms you can understand, the U.S. Government is like The Trinity. God, Jesus, The Holy Ghost...all co-equal aspects of the same God. In this analogy, The Legislature is like Jesus...they pass laws that tell us what the nation should aspire to. How we should behave. The Supreme Court is like God. They tell us what is and is not permissable under The Constitution. The Executive Branch is like the Holy Spirit. It inspires people and fills them with passion. Although in this administration, it seems to be responsible for a lot of speaking-in-tongues, biting off snake heads and other irrational, incomprehensible goon-babble.

"Setting a deadline for withdrawal is setting a date for failure, and that would be irresponsible," Bush said in a televised address after the veto."


OK, Dubya. Tell me this.

What does Victory look like, eh? Victory Against Terrorism. What is that, exactly?



Will there come a day when the last hostile, islamic radical has been killed or captured and all of the rest of the Muslims left in the world are grateful to us and are our friends?

We got 'em all? Is that what you think will happen?

What next? Convert them all to The Assembly of God or Mormonism?

What fucking crack-smoking, meth-snorting, bible-thumping, imaginary planet do you live on?

These people are still pissed off about shit that happened a thousand years ago. You think you are going to bring them around to your way of thinking by invading, killing, destroying, imprisoning, humiliating and controlling?

Have you ever read a single history book? Just one? Have you?

I'm not sure The United States can ever recover from the damage inflicted on us by George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Paul Wolfowitz, Karl Rove, Donald Rumsfeld, Condie Rice and the rest of the neo-conservative zealots who have wiped their asses with The Constitution and then rubbed it in the faces of the rest of the world. They have taken everything that we stood for, everything we aspired to and everything we imagined ourselves to be and they have utterly destroyed it.

We are on the decline. China and India are the fastest growing powers in the world.

America will need to learn how to be humble, but still relevant.

We will be the next United Kingdom. Remember the British Empire? A former Dominant World Power fallen to the level of a mere "powerfull ally".

But to whom? And will anyone want us?

Greece was the birthplace of Democracy.

Italy was home to the Roman Empire.

Constantinople in modern day Turkey was home to both the Holy Roman Empire of Charlemagne and the Ottoman empire that survived until WWI.

Napoleon controlled his empire from France.

How much power do Greece, Italy, Turkey, France or Britain have today? Even if they combined their influence?

America is no different than other dominant world powers. They come and they go.

It would behoove us to loose the arrogance and start learning to get along with people.

16 comments:

Red Seven said...

Yes, yes, and yes.

To end up like the U.K., with our civilization and thriving economy intact is the best we can possibly hope for. The other possibility is to piss off everyone to such a great extent that they'll blow us all to smithereens.

crse said...

Wow. See this is why you got the thinking blog award! I never thought about it like that. I mean yeah about the war, yeah about the constitution but we are the next UK. I guess I thought we were too big and decadent for that. I agree with red7eric. That really wouldn't be too bad considering the damage we've done...

Dan said...

Great post. One of your best, and that's some high praise.

Faith said...

Yes, and China is slowly poisoning our animals and food supply in a very discreet and hard-to-define manner, so I think they *definitely* have the upper-upper hand on us at this point.

I agree with the others. (Does that make me a lemming?) Good post. Really, really liked it. :)

FletcherDodge said...

"In this country, the CIVILIAN GOVERNMENT controls the military. Go read what few tattered scraps of The Constitution that your administration has left intact. The Executive Branch is a Co-Equal branch of government to The Legislature and The Supreme Court."

Wow. I'd say you're about half-right on that. You might want to re-read Article 2 of the Constitution so that you won't be embarassed by the fact that Bush knows more about it than you do.

Here's a quick tidbit...

"The President shall be Commander in Chief of the Army and Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of the several States, when called into the actual Service of the United States;"

So the prez is the top commander of the military. Granted, it is Congress that has the power to declare war or not (which they did in the current case).

I'm not sayin' I agree with the war. Certainly not saying Bush is a good commander.

Just sayin' your Consititution learnin' needs a little brushin' up.

Xavier Onassis said...

emaw - Yes, I knew that the President is Commander in Chief. The point I was trying to make is the absudity of him standing up and saying that "managing the war should left to the commanders on the ground and not by politicians in Washington."

What the fuck does he think he is if not a politician in Washington? Given his spotty National Guard record he's certainly not qualified to be a military commander (except for that pesky little clause in the constitution). And he is most certainly the one calling the shots.

It's just as hypocritical as when he stands up and warns Syria and Iran not to meddle in the affairs of a sovereign Iraq.

WHAT THE FUCK?!? What does he think he's been doing for the last 4 fucking years?!?

His problem is, he thinks the rest of the world is as stupid as he is, will be easily bamboozled and won't recognize bullshit when they smell it.

He's wrong. He's sooo incredibly wrong on so many things it boggles the mind.

Xavier Onassis said...

crse - I think I should have qualified that a bit.

We will be the next U.K., but with better dental care, better food and less class.

Satyavati devi dasi said...

OMG...
XO, I think I'm in love with you.

What are you doing say Tuesday??

Anonymous said...

Boy, don't know where to start or end. Let's keep it simple. For those who want us to pull out according to the timeline proposed by the dems, accept that the country will collapse into chaos, thousands will die, the middle east will become more destabilized, and Iran will be a bigger threat than it is today. If that's the price you're willing to pay, so be it.

Iwanski said...

Good God. It seems whatever you write about, I steal your idea the next day.

Xavier Onassis said...

satyavati - and all this time I thought you were in love with Greg Beck! JEEZ! You are so fickle!!!

travel - "For those who want us to pull out according to the timeline proposed by the dems, accept that the country will collapse into chaos, thousands will die, the middle east will become more destabilized, and Iran will be a bigger threat than it is today..."

Ummm, all of those things are true today due to the fact that we invaded Iraq for no reason, destroyed its infrastructure, hung its leader at the end of a rope, threw the country into chaos, turned citizen against citizen, lifted the lid on previously suppressed tribal passions and attempted to install a puppet regime that didn't have any popular support.

Iraq had never experienced a suicide bombing prior to our arrival.

It now has the distiction of experiencing more suicide bombings than any other country in the world.

When we leave, things will be worse how?

Seems to me that we are the problem. The sooner we leave, the sooner things will get better.

Anonymous said...

I just told you how it will get worse, Xo.

As to your last point, the sooner things will get better? HOW?

Actually, I don't think either of us can claim we know.

Xavier Onassis said...

travel - I guess I should have been more specific.

"the country will collapse into chaos" - It did that the day we invaded the country and toppled their government. It's been in chaos ever since.

"thousands will die" - Thousands of American soldiers have died in combat since Bush declared victory 4 years ago. I have no idea how many Iraqis have died. I'm guessing more than us.

"the middle east will become more destabilized...Iran will be a bigger threat than it is today" - Iran is openly producing atomic weapons, bragging about it on the world stage, giving us the finger and chuckling about it because they know there isn't anything we can do about ir. Why? Because we are bogged down in Iraq and Afghanistan. That sounds pretty destabilized to me!

By leaving, taking a big humiliating bite out of a nasty shit sandwich, we defuse the situation and remove biggist irritant in the region.

Only then can we have any hope of making things better.

Staying where we are, flipping a huge, arrogant fuck you to the entire region, "staying the course" and daring anyone to do anything about it isn't really trailblazing the road to peace.

Maybe we should try a different approach?

Satyavati devi dasi said...

Don't you remember that post he had recently about threesomes...? I can be in love with him and with you too.

What a post THAT would make.

Anonymous said...

Yes, we should try a different approach and we are...it's called the troop surge and it has barely got off the ground. Earlier this year the democrats wished Patreaus (sp?) well, God speed, the whole nine yards with the troop surge and immediately moved to pull the rug out from under him by tagging on unrealistic dates to when they expected him to complete the mission.

I'm not happy with the Iraq war. I want our soldiers home too but I don't want us to leave another Viet Nam/Cambodia behind us.

Anonymous said...

and FAITH, to pick up on what you're saying about China and the food supply, I agree!!! We've got a real crisis on our hands and no immediate way to deal with it. WTF is the bread basket of the world doing importing crap like that from China!!!