White House war-makers masquerading as peacemakers A message from Ramsey Clark

Once again President Bush has deceived the American people to open the way for a war of aggression, this time against Lebanon. Had it been successful, regime change in Syria and Iran were next on his agenda. It is now clear that the assault on Lebanon was agreed on and planned by the U.S. and Israel long before Hezbollah, reacting to Israel’s brutal assault against Palestine, captured two Israeli soldiers on July 12 of this year which was claimed to justify bombing all of Lebanon. After his tragically criminal war in Iraq and the emerging failure of the U.S. invasion of Afghanistan, President Bush apparently believes he can fool most of the people all of the time.

While Europe and the Arab world overwhelmingly called for an immediate cease fire, President Bush and his administration declared Israel "has the right to defend itself," supported the invasion and rejected a cease fire. The world watched in anguish as Israeli aircraft destroyed villages, towns and civilian facilities throughout Lebanon. Hezbollah fighters stopped a massive Israeli invasion of southern Lebanon and rained thousands of missiles into northern Israel. Every belligerent utterance of George W. Bush, our “War President,” and his war seeking assistants, referenced Hezbollah, Syria and Iran in the same breath. All received their special insults, as did the Muslim world, called “Islamic Fascists” by the President of the United States.

After it became clear that Israel had failed to achieve any of its proclaimed military objectives and U.S. officials had acknowledged that Israel was losing the war, the U.S. reversed its position and contributed to a negotiated cease fire to protect Israel. President Bush praised Israel as the Victor and claimed credit for the cease fire. The Lebanese people, Hezbollah, Syria, Iran and the world that watched the month of mayhem knew better. Israel did not even obtain the release of its two captured soldiers. Israel is withdrawing from Lebanon. People are returning to their villages. Hezbollah is leading the rebuilding of Lebanon, its prestige at an all time high in Lebanon, the Muslim world and beyond.

Israel is in turmoil. Former Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has decried the “mismanagement of the War” in the Knesset, and vowed that Israel will learn from its mistakes.
The fear and hatred generated by this brutal war of aggression makes peace more remote.
Probably 1200 Lebanese were killed, 75 percent civilian, and 140 Israelis, 80 percent military, with thousands injured, and an estimated $10 billion in property damage in Lebanon, 99 percent civilian.

How long can the American people accept a President who places himself above the law, who repeatedly wages wars of aggression, authorizes excessive force, the targeting of civilians, indiscriminate destruction, collective punishment, torture, disappearance, unlimited, illegal detention and dismisses them all with lies? How long will our nation endure this war by and against terrorism that he is creating?

Lebanon had hurt no one. It will be decades before it recovers if let alone. Like Palestine and Iraq it is a land of diverse and wonderful peoples of ancient and modern cultures. Beirut is one of the most glorious cities of the Mediterranean with snow capped mountains an hour's drive away. There are still stands of virgin cedars from which Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem was built in peaceful commerce. Two thousand six hundred years ago, the prophet Ezekiel wrote of Tyre as a place “of perfect beauty... Thy borders are in the midst of the sea... Thy builders have perfected thy beauty...” truth that millions of people have observed over the millenniums. Today Tyre lays in ruin once again from Israeli assault as the world has witnessed by television.
Can we doubt that President Bush will attack yet another country, if We, the People, fail to do our duty? Can he learn that you make more friends by helping feed children than by killing them?

We must act to Impeach George W. Bush and his criminal cohorts now.

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Sincerely,
Ramsey Clark