by Liam Scheff
Daily Forty-Niner
U-Wire
Today is a historic day. Congress is in a lopsided debate regarding whether to grant President Bush the sole right and power to wage a war, in the name of all of us, all of the citizens of this country, on the people, not the government of Iraq, one of the richest oil-nations in the world.
That Iraq is one of the top oil-producers in the world should not be lost on any of us. We should be reminded daily by the cars we drive, the petroleum-based pesticides that are sprayed on the increasingly inedible food that we eat, and the diminishing quality of the air we breathe and the water we drink.
Whether you are in favor of a foreign war, it is important to take note of a few notable changes that will occur if the resolution to bypass the founding Constitution of this nation is accepted.
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And barring a filibuster or other unlikely events, I think it will be.
We will no longer be able to claim ourselves as a democracy. We will be an empire, without a doubt.
The Senate and Congress are reporting letters and envoys measuring 500 and 1,000 to 1 opposed to a pre-emptive strike against the people of Iraq, ruled by a dictator. But the pleas from the people of this country will be ignored by those who feel that war is the appropriate fix for a faltering economy by the illegitimate, irresponsible fundamentalist regime in Washington.
We will be an empire on a mission to secure our life-blood: oil. Saddam Hussein is a dictator and a despot. He is one of dozens of world leaders who has abused his power in the world during nearly 50 years since World War II, after which America took position as the world's most powerful economy and military. Hussein will be among the very few whom America has bothered to intervene with.
His country produces a deadly black liquid which is capable of destroying our world. It is his source of money and power.
It is holding the world hostage.
It is called oil.
We can and should curtail its use and use technology and intelligence to change the balance of power in the world.
But we won't, at least until it's clear that there's none left. It's a great failing of humanity, this lack of insight.
We live as witnesses to a great tragedy, the single greatest betrayal of the rather noble intentions of the rebels and protesters who freed this country from empirical rule by England and sought to conduct an experiment in democracy.
We've forgotten that an experiment needs to be maintained and observed, and we've fallen asleep while the virus of greed and shortsightedness ruined the best intentions of a great many people who've invested labor, trust and hope in the ideals of liberty, equality and justice.
I wish you all safety, and advise you to keep your heads up and your eyes looking for the people who have the courage to tell the truth in this increasingly dangerous and muddy world.
