Impeaching Bush-War In Iraq

Impeaching Bush-war in Iraq is a battlecry from many liberals in our country. But it is just a little late now that his presidency is almost up. President Bush was not the only hated president in American history. One president, who many wanted to kill, and did succeed in killing was President Lincoln.

Many said the same things about him as they say about President Bush for the war in Iraq.

There are claims that President Bush violated people’s rights by putting them in jail without a trial. Lincoln did the same thing. Lincoln’s Secretary of State, William Seward, did not like him. Lincoln sent some 500,000 men to their deaths to preserve the Union, not to free the slaves. Slavery became his springboard for his war to preserve the Union. These deaths do not include the families back home who died of starvation or attack from those lowlife’s taking advantage of the war situation while husbands were away.

President Lincoln sent Phillip Sheridan on his scorched earth policy for the south. He took the war to the South and destroyed a way of life. Perhaps this is what President Bush should have done. Kill them all. Burn down the little shacks they have for houses. Kill their livestock. Rape their women (do not tell me the North did not rape any of the Southern women while doing their scorched earth policy.)

Maybe we should have attacked with a crazed, blood-filled look in our eyes. But we did not. Bush did not want to shed any more blood than was necessary. His compassion was his undoing in this war. The crowds still chant, impeaching Bush-war in Iraq.

"Lincoln once said that while blacks may not be equal that they are entitled to the income that they earn from their labor."

Lincoln did not want to wash away slavery—he was willing to let the south keep their slaves. He did, however, want to keep it in check so it did not spread to other states—he hoped it would disappear with time. He used slavery as his springboard to defend his real purpose which was to keep the union together.

Even much of Lincoln's cabinet had little respect for him. "Lincoln is now regarded along with Washington and Franklin Roosevelt as the Republic's three greatest presidents, a champion of freedom, and hero of the American nation. He is the most beloved of our presidents.

In his lifetime, however, he was one of the most controversial presidents. In the South, his name was an anathema, but there were also strident critics in the North. Overseas journalists in Britain caricatured him mercilessly, making him the butt of public ridicule and scorn. Lincoln's two monumental achievements are saving the Union and emancipation of the slaves.

He believed in reason. He hoped that slavery would eventually wither away if it could be contained. Lincoln was a man of his time. He thought that blacks were inferior. In fact, as President, he told a group of black leaders that the solution to the race issue was freed slaves colonizing Africa." Click here for more on Lincoln's beliefs.

There are those who cried impeaching Bush-war in Iraq is what the United States needed to do. Why? What would this solve? President Bush was told the United States was in danger from terrorist groups operating in Iraq. He was told Saddam was building WMD and needed to be taken out to save our country. Of course, all these “experts” seem to have disappeared from the scene and have left people crying out the slogan impeaching Bush-war in Iraq!

Presidents rely on many intelligence agencies to feed them information so they can make informed decisions. If those groups do not feed the correct information, then he cannot make the right call. President Bush knew from the news media that Saddam was a bad person, so if the intelligence community was telling him that Saddam was evil, then there was no reason for him not to believe Saddam was evil. Yet we still hear the battlecry, Impeaching Bush-war in Iraq is wrong....

Okay. Maybe President Bush should have picked up the phone and called Saddam, “Hey, my Muslim friend, my intelligence community is telling me you are evil and I should come over there and kick you in the $#*&." Maybe he would have replied,“Hey my cowboy friend, your intelligence community is right. I am fixing to blow your %$#* to the moon.”

Every American wanted revenge after 9/11. Taking down the Taliban was not enough. We wanted more. Iraq was the likely target, especially sense the intelligence community was suggesting it and backing up their suggestion with facts. Maybe some exaggerated facts now.

And it is believed that President Lincoln tricked the South into attacking Fort Sumner, thus starting the United States Civil War and making it look like the South started it.

"Lincoln’s goal was to preserve the Union; he would have been happy to preserve the peace as well, but he was willing to engage in a war to preserve it as well, a war he thought would be short."

President Bush also thought the war would be short. Over four thousand American lives have been lost, not to mention the injured and those families who will suffer for years from the wounds of the war. Impeaching Bush-war in Iraq has been on the minds of Democrats in Congress.

Impeaching Bush-war in Iraq has crossed the minds of many of the families of lost and wounded soldiers, I am sure, as they face the day to day struggles of surviving the after affects of the war. Those of us who have not lost a loved one or who do not have a loved one injured cannot imagine the hell these families are going through.

If Lincoln were alive today and took the nation to war I wonder what would be said of him.

“I don't know if Lincoln were alive today whom he would support for president (other than himself, of course; I'm not quite as confident as some Obamaphiles in my ability to read into the words of politicians who died 140 years ago.) But I do know that if many of today's politically-involved know-it-alls had been alive in 1864, they would have excoriated Lincoln as a war criminal and an idiot and would have sought to have him impeached. That I am sure of.”

Posted by: JB | Feb 13, 2008 12:46:52 PM

Another post on this same page states:

“JB, we lose sight today of how widely Lincoln was hated during his presidency, in the North for the cost of pursuing the war, in the South for pursuing the war. Absent a few well-timed battlefield victories, Lincoln would have probably lost the election of 1864 to the Democratic candidate, George B. McClellan, the same who built the Army of the Potomac but proved ineffective in wielding it, and McClellan would probably have sued for peace, leaving the country divided.

I'm sure that Lincoln had his own coterie of enemies calling for his impeachment and removal from office. This always comes to me when I read, hear, or see people calling George W. Bush the "Worst. President. Ever." During his time, there would have been plenty of people willing to hang that appellation on Lincoln, but he turned out, with the perspective of history, to be one of the best. Not comparing GWB with Lincoln, just saying that it's too soon to tell.”

Posted by: Dave | Feb 13, 2008 4:31:10 PM

Anonymous said...

“I believe that Lincoln was our greatest president. I also realize that he did things far beyond what President Bush has done, or has been accused of doing, in persuit of his legitimate war aims.

1. Lincoln suspended habeus corpus in parts of the country without congressional authorization.

2. Lincoln established military courts to try US citizens.

3. Although it was done without his foreknowledge, Lincoln approved of the arrest of his most voricious political opponent (Clement Vallandigham) and the "deportation of Vallandigham to the Confederacy. Vallandigham later was nominated the Democratic candidate for governor of Ohio, and ran his campaign from Windsor, Ontario”. This is from www.kennethandersonlawofwar.blogspot.com . When I tried to link it, internet explorer will not allow it to open, yet I do want to give proper credit to this site.

So Lincoln is considered to be one of our best if not the best president the United States has had. He did what he thought he needed to do to preserve the nation, not free the slaves.

Eliminating slavery was a collateral benefit of the Civil War. I believe that impeaching Bush-war in Iraq is the wrong cry for President Bush. He did what he thought he needed to do to preserve the security of the United States of America. And it seems to have worked since we have had no more 9/11's on American soil.

What would we be saying if Saddam did launch some sort of attack that killed thousands of Americans because President Bush took no action? Do not believe for a moment that Homeland Security can protect us. We would be crying about impeaching Bush-war in Iraq?

Could any of us say we could have done a better job? Hindsight is better than foresight. Maybe we should have been more aggressive in the early days. Maybe President Bush was hoping the Iraqis would embrace freedom. And yet the crowds keep shouting about impeaching Bush-war in Iraq.

Maybe his intelligence communities should have read the Koran, then the Military would have known it was going to have to fight the battle on two fronts—the Iraqi military and the insurgents. Should President Bush have been impeached? Impeaching Bush-war in Iraq? As a writer says earlier, “It is too early to tell.”

I say, no, impeaching Bush-war in Iraq, no. President Bush should not be impeached for doing his best.

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