Congress must be changed now

by Tom Maertens
reprinted from the Mankato Free Press

As elections approach, the Bush administration is once again hyping terrorism, just as in 2004.

Karl Rove knows that you can fool some of the people all of the time, using the strategy described by Hermann Goering: " … the people can always be brought to do the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to greater danger."

Using this strategy, the administration manipulated a single terrorist attack five years ago to justify a trumped-up war and an unprecedented power grab.

Every one of Bush’s justifications for the invasion has proven false, including the claim that the war has made us safer. The government estimated there were 20,000 al Qaeda members on 9/11 but, stoked by the U.S. occupation of Iraq, its membership has reportedly grown to 50,000.

To silence critics, the Bush administration invokes Hitler, Lenin, and World War III, while smearing opponents as Nazi appeasers.

Using fear mongering about terrorism, Bush instituted domestic spying, widespread wiretapping and warrantless searches. The recent Military Commissions Act allows unarmed American citizens to be arrested as enemy combatants and denied habeas corpus.

These measures, which were rubberstamped by Gil Gutknecht, Mark Kennedy and the lapdog Republican congress, constitute an assault on our democratic system and a warning.

When the next attack comes, Bush will demand still more power, and this feckless Congress will surrender its remaining constitutional functions, just like the infamous Reichstag capitulation in 1933 that led to a police state in Germany.

We need to change Congress now.