LEAVE ON A HIGH NOTE

As a Sixth District constituent of retiring Congressman Henry Hyde, I am saddened how he is tarnishing his legacy in the twilight of his 32 year congressional career.

He does this by his blind lockstep support of our murderous and failed war in Iraq. Every month I remind him through his website of the number of our brave but deceived soldiers who his president, his party, indeed, he has sent to their doom simply to avoid admitting the truth about the lies and deception that launched this war of choice.

Rep. Hyde, like the president and his war cabinet, knows full well the enormity of our unfolding catastrophe in Iraq. But to avoid their day of reckoning, they continue the charade that the war is a just cause that can be won if only we “stay the course”. This is the essence of the canned “talking points” response I receive from him each month.

To demonstrate the disconnect Rep. Hyde has to the Iraq war, he does not even have an issue topic on his web site for it. The closest one is “Defense/Homeland Security”. The only connection one can make is that the Iraq war is degrading our ability to defend ourselves and reducing homeland security.

Rep. Hyde still has time to leave office with honor. He should join his courageous colleague John Murtha, (Dem. PA), who abandoned his support of the war when he learned the truth about its utter failure. Murtha now speaks tirelessly about the need to stop the senseless slaughter of our soldiers in a lost cause.

The truth sometimes hurts, but not nearly as much as loss of life and limb so your political leaders can avoid having to tell it.

Originally published in Glen Ellyn Sun, November 10, 2006

ELECTION DAY MASSACRE

The Election Day massacre I refer to is not the Democratic takeover of the U.S. House, the virtual deadlock in the Senate or a democratic majority of governorships. I refer instead to the 130 casualties – 63 killed and 67 wounded, including an American and British soldier killed.

That may be a typical day in Iraq but it is also a massacre. And every day the current and future leaders of our nation fail to acknowledge the failure of our military experiment in Iraq and work to end it will see another massacre. We are on track to lose 85 soldiers in Iraq this month. The legislators who ran and lost supporting this bizarre and bloody war should understand that unlike those soldiers, they get to wake up the day after they lose. The only thing they have really lost is their souls.

Originally published in Chicago Tribune Web Blog, November 8, 2006
Chicago Sun-Times, November 10, 2006

A TELLING NICKNAME

A telling exchange by 6th Congressional district candidates Tammy Duckworth and Peter Roskam during the Channel 11 debate October 23 , demonstrated how slickly candidate Roskam completely avoided an honest response to a critical issue facing our district and society.

On the subject of gun control Duckworth correctly pointed out Roskam's out-of-the-mainstream position opposing the ban on assault weapons. She attributed his position of rubber-stamping the NRA support of assault weapons to their financial support of his campaigns.

Roskam answered by stating that any weapon in the hands of a criminal is an assault weapon. Under that logic a single shot derringer is equivalent to an AK-47 when handled by the wrong person. In one phrase Roskam both avoided explaining his untenable position on assault weapons and trivialized the enormous human carnage these weapons reap on our citizenry each year.

The Senator abhors the nickname "Rubberstamp Roskam". But when he takes the cash and carriers the water for the NRA, he justly earns it.

Originally published in Glen Ellyn Sun, November 3, 2006

INTELLIGENCE VERSUS WISDOM

There is a big difference between intelligence and wisdom. President Bush and his war cabinet of Vice President Cheney, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, and Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice are all highly intelligent. Unforturnately, they lack wisdom.

Their willingness to either initiate or sign on to the war of choice in Iraq may be the most unwise decision by an administration in our lifetime if not our history. Now, 1,300 days and hundreds of thousands of dead, wounded and displaced Iraqis later, they continue to pretend the mission can be salvaged. They are willing to let an endless number of Iraqis and their American occupiers become casualties in a venture that is not sustainable.

Their complete inability to admit they were wrong and refusal to extricate us from this unfolding catastrophe is not only unwise, it is criminal.

Originally published in Glen Ellyn News, November 1, 2006