Congress: End Endless War and Stop Becoming “the Evil That We Deplore”

[Purveyor]

Sunday, 24 February 2013 12:16
By Norman Solomon

Congress waited six years to repeal the Tonkin Gulf Resolution after it opened the bloody floodgates for the Vietnam War in August 1964.

If that seems slow, consider the continuing failure of Congress to repeal the “war on terror” resolution -- the Authorization for Use of Military Force -- that sailed through, with just one dissenting vote, three days after 9/11.

Prior to casting the only “no” vote, Congresswoman Barbara Lee spoke on the House floor. “As we act,” she said, “let us not become the evil that we deplore.”

We have. That’s why, more than 11 years later, Lee’s prophetic one-minute speech is so painful to watch. The “war on terror” has inflicted carnage in Iraq, Afghanistan, Yemen and elsewhere as a matter of routine. Targets change, but the assumed prerogative to kill with impunity remains.

Now, Rep. Lee has introduced H.R. 198, a measure to repeal the Authorization for Use of Military Force. (This week, several thousand people have already used a RootsAction.org special webpage to email their Senators and House members about repealing that “authorization” for endless war.) Opposed to repeal, the Obama administration is pleased to keep claiming that the 137-month-old resolution justifies everything from on-the-ground troops in combat to drone strikes and kill lists to flagrant abrogation of civil liberties.

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http://truth-out.org/news/item/14755-congress-end-endless-war-and-stop-becoming-the-evil-that-we-deplore

[Gorp]

1. "Becoming"? - I thought they already were.

[indepat]

2. Our government appears to have opted to stay the course internationally,

continue favored tax treatment of dividends, capital gains, and carried interest for the most affluent, and retain mountainous tax loopholes for large corporations as it contemplates how much will have to be cut from social security and Medicare benefits, mostly to pay for this egregious largess. If valid, just how sick, corrupt, and venal, i.e., just how inhumane would this be? Would such be promoting the general welfare or would government be abrogating its constitutional mandate to do so, all the while greasing the pockets of its largest financial benefactors?