Letter: Bush determined to get Saddam

Friday, Aug. 2, 2002 | 9:17 a.m.

The news leak is that President Bush is planning an invasion of Iraq. That's not news; Retro-Bush has always had that on his agenda right after tax cuts and just before Star Wars.

Back when our Constitution was in place, presidents such as FDR had to go to Congress and say, "I ask" that war be declared. No one has paid much attention to that since FDR; after 9/11, the Constitution has been nearly irrelevant. Now all George seems obligated to do is send leaks to the media so that the public will accept the idea as if through a kind of osmosis.

The first attempt at tying Iraq to terrorism didn't work so now he's floating the idea that Saddam is "evil." Saddam did do some evil things back in the '80s, but that is about the time he was working for us. Somewhere presidents have been thinking outside the Constitution to come up with executive powers to declare war on things and abstractions. The war on drugs sounds like we're bombing Viagra. If you can accept that, it is a short step to believing we were not at war with Afghanistan. We were at war with terrorism, and the terrorists just happened to live in Afghanistan. Similarly, George may be considering declaring war on evil rather than on Iraq.

The latest excuse for war is that Saddam does not have an atom bomb so we have to get him before he gets one. So without leave of Congress, King George intends an unprovoked invasion of Iraq, with the intent of establishing a puppet leader who is favorable to our oil interests. I assume several thousand innocent civilians will die in the process. This and having starved the civilians for many years is likely to create more terrorists than we destroy.

That scenario is good for presidents, though; constant war keeps them in office without the inconvenience of that troublesome Constitution.

JERRY BITTS