Tuesday, June 07, 2005

GOP may Try to Use Clinton Law Against Brit Memo

Firstly, go check out Clinton's statement about the Iraqi Liberation Law before you listen to any GOP lies and spew about this 1998 law... (what the fuck WON'T they blame on Clinton??). Clinton said this: "Today I am signing into law H.R. 4655, the "Iraq Liberation Act of 1998." This Act makes clear that it is the sense of the Congress that the United States should support those elements of the Iraqi opposition that advocate a very different future for Iraq than the bitter reality of internal repression and external aggression that the current regime in Baghdad now offers." Didja notice he said "support those elements of the Iraqi opposition"? It's pretty damned difficult to support those elements of the Iraqi opposition when we are bombing them, their entire nation, and all their natural resources to Hell and back, eh? Read the text of the law here. Look specifically at SEC. 8. RULE OF CONSTRUCTION: Nothing in this Act shall be construed to authorize or otherwise speak to the use of United States Armed Forces (except as provided in section 4(a)(2)) in carrying out this Act. OK, so check out Sec. 4(a)(2): MILITARY ASSISTANCE- (A) The President is authorized to direct the drawdown of defense articles from the stocks of the Department of Defense, defense services of the Department of Defense, and military education and training for such organizations. (B) The aggregate value (as defined in section 644(m) of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961) of assistance provided under this paragraph may not exceed $97,000,000. So, let's recap: The US can train and educate the opposition Iraqis and perhaps give them weapons but they cannot use our military to wage a WAR... and the price tag cannot exceed $97 million. And, remember that the GOP held the majority under the Dem Clinton presidency, so, this bill was originally introduced to the House w/o that restriction but was passed only w/ the restriction added... so the GOP made it clear in '98 that we could not wage a war nor put our economy into hock if we did support Saddam opposition inside of Iraq... the GOP majority made the restrictions into law - they can't now wage an all out war and rack up $700 million and counting and say that the '98 law backs them up. If this law authorized the US to wage war against Iraq, Bush would not have had to ask for the resolution before Congress to use military force, and Bush would not have had to trump up WMD claims as the reason, either. They are liars & hypocrites w/unnecessary blood on their hands.
Posted by Tina :: 12:32 AM :: 2 Comments:

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