Sixty-seven Years After Infamy....

"December 7, 1941.... a date which will live in infamy.... the United States of America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan. "

So said President Franklin D. Roosevelt as he asked Congress for a Declaration of War sixty-seven years ago.

On that day Japan also attacked Hong Kong, Guam, the Philippine Islands, Wake Island and Midway Island.

In response to this all-out attack, Roosevelt clearly and forcefully declared.... "As commander in chief of the Army and Navy I have directed that all measures be taken for our defense. But always will our whole nation remember the character of the onslaught against us...."

Today it is much different. Seemingly nationless enemies strike civilian populations.... cloaked suicidal terrorism is the new norm, not declarations of war between nations.

As Richard A. Clarke who was the White House counterterrorism coordinator under presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush explains today in his op-ed "Plans of Attack" (WaPo) .... "Ten young men land a small boat at a quay in a city of 18 million people. Within minutes of setting ashore, they are throwing grenades and raking crowds with automatic weapons fire. Days later, almost 200 people are dead, more are wounded, the financial capital of a nation of a billion people has ground to a halt, and the world is riveted.

"To most of the world, the Mumbai massacre seems inexplicable and random, like the periodic devastation caused by typhoons or tornadoes, or simply pointless, just killing for killing's sake. But the attack was neither random nor pointless. The carnage in Mumbai was goal-oriented, an attempt to advance an overall strategy that is being ruthlessly pursued by the Islamist radical network."

That is the face of conflict today.

Even Osama bin Laden's dastardly 9/11 attack on the twin towers wasn't a Pearl Harbor.... it wasn't backed by a nation declaring war. The very nationless nature of the attack allowed the Bush presidency to name its own target for retaliation.... Iraq.... leading America down the shadowy path of their selective-intelligence "war on terrorism."

Clarke maps out the terrorism minefield facing the Obama administration.... "Seven years after 9/11, the United States has neither eliminated the threat from al-Qaeda nor secured Afghanistan, where bin Laden's terrorists were once headquartered.

"To accomplish these two tasks, we must now eliminate the new terrorist safe haven in Pakistan. But that will require effective action from a weak and riven Pakistani government. It might also depend upon dealing with the long-standing India-Pakistan rivalry."

In the wake of Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt galvanized the nation through his leadership and call for shared sacrifice as he declared war on Japan. It now falls to Barack Obama to rally the nation, and the world, to a common goal.... the defeat of the hydra-headed terrorist monster.

Bush's Sand Pedestal

While sniffing his Rovian glue and.... "Citing History, Bush Suggests His Policies Will One Day Be Vindicated." (WaPo)

The Decider, a legend in his own mind, has been trying to spit-polish his dismal approval-ratings and legacy by comparing his record on Iraq, terrorism, trade and other misfires to other presidents who were unpopular in their time.... Harry S. Truman, William McKinley, Franklin D. Roosevelt and honest Abe.

But, while Bush envisions "a distant future in which Iraq is a tranquil democracy, Palestinians live peaceably alongside Israelis and terrorism is a tactic of the past," historians have reached far different conclusions.

"In an informal survey of scholars this spring, just two out of 109 historians said Bush would be judged a success; a majority deemed him the 'worst president ever.' "

Still, his laughable comparisons are his only irrefutable arguments as he leaves the Oval Office in a flurry of legacy-retooling dust.....in response to Bob Woodward's question on how history would judge him, The Decider said..."We don't know. We'll all be dead."

What Bush has failed to grasp, however, is that the dead can speak from the grave....

Not just the graves of the thousands of soldiers and hundreds of thousands of victims of the Iraq war, but the grave of the hopes of so many Americans who looked to the Bush administration for justice and fair stewardship only to find they were buried under Bush-administration-facilitated corporate favoritism and greed.

Instead of trying to reframe his legacy with bogus comparisons, The Decider should just heed his own twisted logic.... "If we don't succeed, we run the risk of failure." He didn't succeed.....

Freedom from Tyranny

The 4th of July!

A day where we should be able to look to our leaders to inspire, and uphold the vision of our founding fathers, who took a stand for freedom and the self-evident truths embodied in their Declaration of Independence.

Today the Flag still waves, the fireworks still awe, and the bands still march.... but most citizens don't look to the White House, Congress, or the Justice Department for principled leadership. By their base actions they have sullied the idealism embodied in that ringing declaration.

We are painfully aware of the unequal treatment under the law doled out by President Bush and his Justice Department, but John Fabian Witt today reminds us of another abandoned precept in, "A Declaration The President Ignores." (WaPo)

That precept is that war ought to be governed by law.

"In late June 1776, as the first detachments of what was to become a sizable British force were landing 90 miles away in New York, Thomas Jefferson and the Continental Congress in Philadelphia drew up charges denouncing King George III to the world. The accusations were to serve as the core of the declaration. The climatic final charges, for which the rest were prologue, indicted the king for war crimes."

Since then the United States has aligned itself with the rules of warfare.... the 1780s treaty with Prussia.... Abraham Lincoln's code for the Union Army.... Franklin Roosevelt's guidance in establishing the Nuremberg tribunal for German war criminals and his aides who wrote the U.N. charter's rules for the use of force.... and the international law regarding combatants, civilians and mercenaries embodied in the Third Geneva Convention's rules on prisoners of war.

Sadly, we've had to bear witness as our present King George has morphed into British King George III. Under the guise of national security, he has drug our nation into the muddy pits of Guantanamo, secret CIA prisons, Abu Ghraib and even "formalized" torture.

As a result, King George has fueled the rise of terrorist recruitment, has isolated us and tarnished our reputation in the eyes of the world.... what the Declaration calls "the Opinions of Mankind."

This day as we celebrate the courage it took to declare our independence in 1776, let's vow to regain that courage and declare our own independence from the tyranny of King George and his minions.

Tell them loud and clear.... "We're taking back our country!"

"W" Doesn't Stand For Wisdom

"Bush Defends Military Buildup in Iraq" (WaPo) President Bush called for patience with his Iraq surge operations.... "we're seeing some hopeful signs."

"The great enemy of truth is very often not the lie... deliberate, contrived and dishonest... but the myth... persistent, persuasive, and unrealistic. Belief in myths allows the comfort of opinion without the discomfort of thought." John F. Kennedy

"Six Members of Sunni Bloc Quit Iraq Cabinet in Protest" (WaPo) ... The Sunnis have a sense of alienation within Iraq's Shiite-dominated government. And, the "lack of progress on important legislation, coupled with the failure to reconcile with minority Sunnis, ranks among the greatest obstacles to stability in Iraq."

"In the truest sense, freedom cannot be bestowed; it must be achieved." Franklin Roosevelt

"Democrats Plan to Press GOP on Iraq" (WaPo) After the 4th of July break, Senate and House Democrats intend to demand greater accountability from Bush and the Iraqi government with binding troop-withdrawal timelines.... "they will offer weekly votes to force Republicans, and the president, to defend the war."

"Patriotism means to stand by the country. It does not mean to stand by the president." Theodore Roosevelt.

"Bush Is Told to Justify Executive Privilege" (WaPo).... The White House invoked executive privilege to block the release of documents surrounding the firing of U. S. Attorneys. The chairmen of the House and Senate Judiciary committees accused the administration of a "veil of secrecy.... unprecedented and damaging to the tradition of open government."

"I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crises. The great point is to bring them the real facts." Abraham Lincoln

"Justices to Weigh Detainee Rights" (WaPo) Yesterday the Supreme Court reversed an earlier decision and will now consider whether Guantanamo Bay detainees have been "unfairly barred from the federal courts by the Bush Administration and Congress."

"...And there is distrust in Washington. I am surprised, frankly, at the amount of distrust that exists in this town. And I'm sorry it's the case, and I'll work hard to try to elevate it." George W. Bush