CONG. PETER ROSKAM'S MARCH, 2009 REPORT CARD ON MIDDLE EAST WARS
April 6, 2009
Congressman Peter Roskam
150 S. Bloomingdale Road, Suite 200
Bloomingdale, IL 60108
Dear Congressman Roskam,
For many months now I’ve been imploring you to address our pre-emptive and self destructive wars in the Middle East by their rightful names in the Issues section of your US House website: http://www.roskam.house.gov/, instead of terming the issue “War On Terror”. I checked again today and, sure enough, your issue page still says “War On Terror”, and the last entry is still from September 23, 2008, six months and two weeks ago, and deals with a Viet Nam solder getting his dog tags back after forty years.
You may remember what I requested of you just last month:
"Sir, haven’t you heard yet, that most of the world has dropped that slogan invented
by the Bush administration after 911 to gear up for their pre-emptive wars, as being
utterly irrelevant to achieving real security from extremism?"
While you disregarded my plea, the Obama administration, devoid of the tone-deafness you show in your website, dropped “War On Terror” from its lexicon on March 30. Unlike you, they have listened to human rights groups who persuasively argue it was used to justify pre-emptive war, open a prison camp at Guantanamo used for torture and endless incarceration of hundreds of suspected terrorists without cause, and a general attack on the Islamic world.
Just today our President spoke before the Turkish parliament and essentially apologized to Muslims worldwide for the catastrophic policies of the Bush administration toward them as symbolized by our fairy tale Iraq war.
Your continued use of the term “War on Terror” is an embarrassment to your office and an insult to the peace loving people of the Sixth District. I again ask you to remove it from your website and to start a real dialogue with your constituents about these wars.
In addition, Sir, your website display of photos from your bi partisan trip to Iraq does nothing to reveal truth about a senseless war which has led to a million deaths, and caused several million more to flee their homes. The picture of the smiling little boys flashing the “V” sign is inappropriate when thousands upon thousands of Iraqi children will never take another breath because of our arrogance and cruelty. Seeing pictures of Iraqi streets filled with American tanks is sickening. Would you like to see foreign tanks filling the streets of Wheaton, IL? You and your war party, Democrats as well as Republicans, should have more sense then to display such insensitive photos.
These needless wars would be immoral in boom times. But with our economy in free fall from regulatory neglect, they only hasten our certain demise as a great moral and economic force for good in the world.
Congressman, it is never too late to recognize truth and act on it. We are waiting.
Respectfully yours,
Walt Zlotow
6th District Resident
Congressman Peter Roskam
150 S. Bloomingdale Road, Suite 200
Bloomingdale, IL 60108
Dear Congressman Roskam,
For many months now I’ve been imploring you to address our pre-emptive and self destructive wars in the Middle East by their rightful names in the Issues section of your US House website: http://www.roskam.house.gov/, instead of terming the issue “War On Terror”. I checked again today and, sure enough, your issue page still says “War On Terror”, and the last entry is still from September 23, 2008, six months and two weeks ago, and deals with a Viet Nam solder getting his dog tags back after forty years.
You may remember what I requested of you just last month:
"Sir, haven’t you heard yet, that most of the world has dropped that slogan invented
by the Bush administration after 911 to gear up for their pre-emptive wars, as being
utterly irrelevant to achieving real security from extremism?"
While you disregarded my plea, the Obama administration, devoid of the tone-deafness you show in your website, dropped “War On Terror” from its lexicon on March 30. Unlike you, they have listened to human rights groups who persuasively argue it was used to justify pre-emptive war, open a prison camp at Guantanamo used for torture and endless incarceration of hundreds of suspected terrorists without cause, and a general attack on the Islamic world.
Just today our President spoke before the Turkish parliament and essentially apologized to Muslims worldwide for the catastrophic policies of the Bush administration toward them as symbolized by our fairy tale Iraq war.
Your continued use of the term “War on Terror” is an embarrassment to your office and an insult to the peace loving people of the Sixth District. I again ask you to remove it from your website and to start a real dialogue with your constituents about these wars.
In addition, Sir, your website display of photos from your bi partisan trip to Iraq does nothing to reveal truth about a senseless war which has led to a million deaths, and caused several million more to flee their homes. The picture of the smiling little boys flashing the “V” sign is inappropriate when thousands upon thousands of Iraqi children will never take another breath because of our arrogance and cruelty. Seeing pictures of Iraqi streets filled with American tanks is sickening. Would you like to see foreign tanks filling the streets of Wheaton, IL? You and your war party, Democrats as well as Republicans, should have more sense then to display such insensitive photos.
These needless wars would be immoral in boom times. But with our economy in free fall from regulatory neglect, they only hasten our certain demise as a great moral and economic force for good in the world.
Congressman, it is never too late to recognize truth and act on it. We are waiting.
Respectfully yours,
Walt Zlotow
6th District Resident
posted by Walt Zlotow at 5:37 PM
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