Some dare call it treason (long)

[EstimatedProphet]

A friend mailed me this article the other day, which I think sums up a lot of people's feelings. I repost it in entirety:

> Some Dare Call It Treason-Wake Up America!
> by Dr. Robert Bowman, USAF Ret.
> I am a member of Veterans For Peace, an organization of thousands of
combat
> veterans. All of us have put our life on the line for this country.
> Most of us opposed the recent invasion of Iraq. We also opposed the first
> Gulf War, and the sanctions that followed. We opposed the slaughter
> of fleeing Iraqis on the Road to Basra. We opposed the use of Depleted
> Uranium munitions. And we opposed the lies upon which the first
> Gulf War was based. But there was one good thing about that first Gulf
War.
> It ended. And without a wholesale invasion of Iraq. Why?
>
> Here's what the first President Bush wrote about that in his memoirs:
>
> "Trying to eliminate Saddam would have incurred incalculable human and
> political costs. Apprehending him was probably impossible.
> We would have been forced to occupy Baghdad and, in effect, rule Iraq.
There
> was no viable exit strategy we could see, violating another
> of our principles. Furthermore, we had been self-consciously trying to set
a
> pattern for handling aggression in the post-Cold War world.
> Going in and occupying Iraq, thus unilaterally exceeding the United
Nations
> mandate, would have destroyed the precedent of international
> response to aggression that we hoped to establish. Had we gone the
invasion
> route, the United States could conceivably still be an
> occupying power in a bitterly hostile land."
>
> My brothers and sisters, it is just too darn bad his son can't read!
>
> I've been severely criticized for speaking out in opposition to this war.
So
> have you, probably. We're told that we're aiding and abetting
> the enemy. We're told that we should support the president no matter what.
> We're told that patriotism demands that we support the war.
> They say that we're abusing the freedoms that our troops are in the Middle
> East defending. They say we should be ashamed to be
> protesting while the troops are in the desert protecting our right to do
so.
>
> Well I say, Hogwash!
>
> I feel an affinity for the troops over there in Iraq. They are my comrades
> in arms. I admire their sense of honor and sacrifice. I understand
> why some of them believe they should be there. They have neither the
> experience nor the wisdom to see past the lies they have been told.
> The truth is, they are not over there protecting our freedoms. Our
freedoms
> are not under attack from Saddam Hussein or the remnants
> of his Baathist party. Our freedoms are under attack by John Ashcroft.
They
> are threatened by John Poindexter. They are trampled by
> Donald Rumsfeld. They are disdained by Dick Cheney. And they are not even
> understood by George W. Bush. The battle to preserve
> our freedoms is not taking place in Baghdad and Tikrit. It is taking place
> in Central Park in New York City, in Lafayette Park in
> Washington DC, in Ghirardelli Park in San Francisco, and in River Front
Park
> in Melbourne, Florida. The front lines go right down
> US 1 and up New Haven Avenue.
>
> It is we, here at home, who are the foot soldiers battling to preserve our
> cherished freedoms by exercising them, in spite of opposition
> and ridicule. It is we who protect our civil rights through speaking out.
We
> are the Minutemen sounding the alarm against tyranny. We are
> upholding the spirit of the American Revolution. We are preserving the
> freedoms that the troops in the desert have a right to come back to.
> The troops getting shot at in Iraq are not protecting us. We are
protecting
> them, and their honor and their freedoms. We have just completed
> a forced march through hostile territory to defend their freedoms and
ours,
> and the ideals America was founded on. We are protecting this
> nation by speaking truth to power. Let us do it loudly and fearlessly and
> courageously and joyfully, for we are the true patriots!
>
> Here is the truth that we proclaim. This war has nothing to do with
national
> security or freedom or democracy or human rights or protecting
> our allies or weapons of mass destruction or defeating terrorism or
> disarming Iraq. It has to do with money. It has to do with oil. And it has
> to do with raw imperial power. It is based on a pack of lies. And it is
> wrong. Those who forced this war on an unwilling world are guilty of
> flagrantly violating the U.S. Constitution, the UN Charter, and
> international law. What they have done is illegal, immoral,
unconstitutional
> and TREASON.
>
> It's been said that somewhere in Texas there is a village looking for
their
> idiot. Now that may be funny, but it misses the point. George W. Bush
> is not an imbecile. He is a TRAITOR.
>
> Before this war started, we knew it would fracture NATO, split the United
> Nations, separate us from our allies, and destroy the great nation
> we inherited from our fathers who died in World War II. And it has. We
knew
> it would make our beloved country feared and hated, an
> outcast from the world community, a pariah among the peoples, and the
number
> one rogue nation on earth. And it has. It has done so based
> on a pack of lies. My sisters and brothers, that is not stupidity. That is
> TREASON.
>
> We knew this sadistic corporate war would incense the Arab world, provide
> thousands of new Osama bin Ladens, and enormously increase
> the terrorist threat. And it has. We knew it would further endanger the
> American people and destroy our national security. And it has.
> That is not stupidity, it is TREASON.
>
> The cabal of neoconservatives at PNAC who planned this war (Cheney,
> Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Libby, Perle, Jeb Bush) even before W
> became president, knew the American people would not stand for it unless
> there was a new Pearl Harbor. 9/11 supplied that. Our government
> was warned. They were warned by the Clinton Administration. They were
warned
> by 11 other countries. And they were specifically warned
> by an FBI agent that one of them was planning on flying a hijacked
airliner
> into the World Trade Center.
>
> They not only ignored the warnings, they made sure no fighter jets were
> scrambled to stop it. If they had just done nothing, and allowed normal
> procedures to be followed, the Twin Towers would still be standing and
> thousands of dead Americans would still be alive. This is not stupidity,
> it is TREASON.
>
> As a combat veteran, I will not stand idly by and watch our security
> destroyed by a president who went AWOL rather than fight in Vietnam.
> Honor requires that I call this by its right name. It is TREASON.
>
> As one who has devoted his life to the security of this country, I will
not
> stand by and watch an appointed president send our sons and daughters
> around the world to kill Arabs for the oil companies without calling it by
> its right name. It is TREASON.
>
> I joined the Air Force to protect our borders and our people, not the
> financial interests of Folgers, Chiquita Banana, and Exxon. We've had
> enough corporate wars. No more Iraqs. No more El Salvadors. No more
Kosovos.
> No more Colombias. These are not isolated incidents
> of stupidity. They are part of a long, bloody history of foreign policy
> being conducted for the financial benefit of the wealthy few. It is a new
> colonialism. It violates our Constitution. It endangers our people. And it
> is TREASON.
>
> As a pilot who flew 101 combat missions in Vietnam, I can tell you that
the
> best thing our government can do for its combat veterans is to
> quit making more of them. Peace is patriotic; a preemptive war is immoral,
> illegal, unconstitutional, a war crime, and TREASON. I swore to
> uphold the Constitution of the United States against all enemies foreign
and
> domestic. That includes a renegade president. Wake up, America!
> It is time for George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld, and the whole
> oil mafia to be removed from office and indicted for TREASON.
>
> We are the people. We are sovereign. We are the patriots. The whole world
is
> with us. Never allow anyone to intimidate you into silence.
> Wake up, America! It's time to speak truth to power. God bless America,
and
> God save us from the traitors in our government.
>
>
>
>
> Dr. Robert Bowman was a Col. in the USAF and Chief of Technology
Assessment
> under President Jimmy Carter and is a Catholic Bishop of The Apostolic
> Society of Franciscan Communities.
>
> web site: www.rmbowman.com
>
> He has been President of the Institute for Space and Security Studies
since
> 1982. Before that he was Vice-President of Space Communications Company;
> Manager, Advanced Space Programs for General Dynamics; and Director,
> Advanced Space Programs Development for DoD, directing the
> "Star Wars" programs.
>
>

[EstimatedProphet]

1. Kick

It's worth reading IMO