VETO OF PEACE

By Rainer Rupp

[This article published in: Junge Welt, 5/3/2007 is translated from the German on the World Wide Web, http://www.jungewelt.de/2007/05-03/059.php?print=1.]




On the fourth anniversary of his imperial “Mission Accomplished” appearance on board the “Abraham Lincoln” aircraft carrier, President George W. Bush lodged his veto against the withdrawal deadline for occupation forces in Iraq. The commander-in-chief opposes an end of the war disapproved by a large majority of the US population and the US Congress. This war has already cost $500 billion according to the latest information. The budget law passed by the democratic majority in congress in the amount of $124 billion for temporary financing the war adventure was tied to the condition of a fixed plan for withdrawal from Iraq. This withdrawal should begin on October 1 at the latest. Bush rejected this condition as completely “irresponsible.” In a brief TV address on May 1, the president called the budget law “a recipe for chaos and confusion.” A withdrawal deadline meant “fixing a date to admit defeat.” “The terrorists only need to mark the day on the calendar and gather their forces,” Bush said.

In his first reaction, the democratic majority leader in the Senate, Harry Reid, who had repeatedly described the president as a “liar,” said he is wrong “if he thinks with this veto he can stop us from bringing the troops home.” To apply more pressure on republicans, the democrats play to only fill Bush’s war chest for another two months combined with a clause for an Iraq withdrawal deadline. In this way, the republican representatives given the ever closer election will be forced to follow suit in congress. The democrats alone cannot override the Bush veto; they do not have enough votes. However the patience of some republicans is also limited. They only want to give Bush and his escalation strategy in Iraq until the fall. If no successes are shown by then, a turn of many republicans to democratic positions can be expected.

Bush offered to negotiate with the democrats but his stubbornness is increasingly mocked in the US media. Bush’s idea of compromise is “that the democrats do what he tells them.”. The democrats derided Bush and set up a huge photo of the inglorious appearance of the war president May 1, 2003 on the “USS Abraham Lincoln.” At that time Bush under the “Mission Accomplished” banner announced the end of the main fighting in Iraq. Up to that moment, 139 US soldiers had been killed in the Iraq campaign. Since Bush’s victory speech, over 3100 more soldiers and several hundred thousand more Iraqis have died.