Moral & ethical duty of America's Leaders

It is far past time for America’s political leaders to live up to the public trust and earn their pay. It is far past time for our collective leadership to face reality and begin correcting the horrible mess the Bush Administration has gotten us all into.

The unilateral U.S. decision to go to war in Iraq violated the United Nations Charter, international law, and set a dangerous precedent for justifying “preemptive” attacks by other nations, perhaps even against ourselves. For the first time in my life (over six decades) I am mortally ashamed of the acts of my own government!


It is impossible for a rational person to imagine a more inept or dysfunctional administration than the one currently being inflicted upon the American people by this administration:

Prior to the war, this so-called "conservative" administration’s top budget [Mitch Daniels] official estimated . . . .that the cost of a war with Iraq could be in the range of $50 billion to $60 billion… well, so much for being 'fiscally responsible' not to mention 'conservative' as will be evident below:

Prior to the Iraq invasion, Donald Rumsfeld predicted that maybe up to $50 billion would be required for the war in Iraq. . . .

Amazingly, prior to the war, Paul Wolfowitz, Deputy Secretary of Defense, even seriously predicted that the war might actually ‘pay for itself’ thru the sale of oil . . .

The US now admits to spending almost $300 billion so far - but does not count costs which will accrue after the war. Predictions now range from a total war cost ranging from $500 billion to several trillion dollars. Given the track record so far, we’ll be lucky to get out for the higher estimates. This means:

So far the war has cost every man, woman & child in the US around $1,000.

The total cost could be as much or even much more than $3,335 for every many, woman & Child in the country. The problem is that it is open ended and we simply do not know!

So, who are the folks running this war? Here are some of the thing some of these people have famously said:

“Treat each federal dollar as if it was hard earned; it was - by a taxpayer.”
- (Donald Rumsfeld, the man actually in charge of running the war in Iraq)

"I don't do numbers."
- (Donald Rumsfeld, the man actually in charge of running the war in Iraq and spending billions of taxpayer dollars in the process - $6 billion per month in fact)

I think it (the war) will go relatively quickly, . . . (in) weeks rather than months“
(Prediction made by the Vice President of the US, Richard Cheney)

''I think they're in the last throes, if you will, of the insurgency."
(Richard Cheney , Vice President of the US in May, 2005)

“I can't tell you if the use of force in Iraq today will last five days, five weeks or five months, but it won't last any longer than that.”
- (Donald Rumsfeld, the man actually in charge of running the war in Iraq)

“It is easier to get into something than to get out of it.”
- (Donald Rumsfeld, the man actually in charge of running the war in Iraq)

"We know where they are. They're in the area around Tikrit and Baghdad and east, west, south and north somewhat."
- (Donald Rumsfeld, the man actually in charge of running the war in Iraq on Iraq's weapons of mass destruction - which he may still be hoping to find, perhaps in outer space somewhere)

"I don't do quagmires."
- (Donald Rumsfeld, the man actually in charge of running the war in Iraq, and astoundingly flippant with American lives)

"It's an enormous country - you know, it's bigger than Texas! Or as big, I guess - I haven't looked lately."
- (Donald Rumsfeld, the man actually in charge of running the war in Iraq, on Iraq, the country)

“It could last six days, six weeks. I doubt six months.”
- - (Donald Rumsfeld, the man actually in charge of running the war in Iraq , early on after the invasion, predicting the duration of the War)

Our political leaders have the moral, & ethical responsibility - all of them, from the top down - do everything in their power to put the war in Iraq behind us as quickly and in as fair a manner as possible, and begin rebuilding the world’s trust in our country before it is too late to recover.

Ignoring reality is not an option. It is in fact, an egregious dereliction of duty and a great danger to our nation and the world.