Bad Outcome

There was scant media coverage of a vote the week of June 18 in the U.S. House of Representatives requiring the president to get prior congressional approval before carrying out military actions against Iran. The measure was defeated with the help of U.S. Reps. Frank LoBiondo, R-Ventnor, and Jim Saxton, R-Mount Holly. It is inconceivable anyone would again give this president the power to wage war without proper constitutional approval. President Bush has shown he cannot be trusted to exhaust diplomatic means to achieve solutions before taking us into an armed conflict. He proved this in his haste to wage war upon Iraq, which never posed an imminent threat, regardless of the many changing reasons given by the president. At a time when Afghanistan faces a strong resurgence of the Taliban and 1,000 Iraqis are dying each month from insurgent and coalition action, we can ill-afford to take on a third front. Iran has three times the population of Iraq and might totally deplete our military resources if attacked. I wonder if LoBiondo and Saxton have given any thought to how many more Muslims throughout the world would be eager to join the fight against another American invasion. It is clear to me that support for the Bush agenda has replaced reasoned judgment in the minds of our representatives. The logical solution seems to be to fire them this November and hire people who don't think of diplomacy as a four-letter word. Bettie J Reina, Milmay Published July 9, 2006 in the Courier Post