Tuesday, May 23, 2006

The Opposite of Progress
J.H. Colter - Lindon, Utah

Under the Constitution, the president makes war, but Congress declares war. Thus, if the president wants to use force (in other than an emergency situation), he must come to Congress with his evidence and convince Congress to declare war. Leaving aside whether that was done in the Iraq case, what that means is that if there is a flaw in the evidence, it is up to Congress to test it, to find it, to challenge the president, to make sure he is not leading us to war on a lie. Congress is allowed to review the classified information, to make sure it is valid and supports a declaration of war. They are not to take the [resident's word; they are to find out for themselves, to talk to the intel folks. It is called oversight. That is why we pay those guys.

Thus, if Mr. Bush pulled a fast one on Congress, exactly which of the two is the inept one? Which of the two did not do their job? Which of the two should be fired for incompetence? All this talk from senators about how Mr. Bush misled them is nothing but an admission that they were completely inept at their core job responsibility, and now they want to blame someone else for their own incompetence.