Scott Miller
News Assistant
In a recent speech, President Bush proposed sending an additional 21,500 soldiers to Iraq, a tactic referred to as a “surge.” Luckily for the interests of the military, and the American and Iraqi people, both parties in the newly Democratic-controlled Congress are opposing the President’s myopic plan. This kind of bi-partisan oversight is exactly what is needed to regain some of the usurped legislative powers from the president.
The surge speech came on the heels of Sen. Edward Kennedy’s, D- Mass., announcement that he will introduce a piece of legislation that will create a new level of congressional oversight over the force levels used by Bush. Kennedy told CNN that, “no additional troops can be sent and no additional dollars can be spent on such an escalation unless and until Congress approves the president’s plan.”
This is a great piece of legislation that should be supported by all of Congress; moreover, it should be supported by the general public. Congress is the only of the three branches of the federal government that has officials directly-elected by the public, thus giving more democratic power to the American people. Since the United States is so gung-ho about the power of democracy as to wage a costly war in its name, it should also practice democracy at home.
The White House’s response?
Not only the surge speech, but in the face of bi-partisan opposition, Bush said Sunday on “60 Minutes,” “Frankly, it’s [the oversight of troops and funds] not their responsibility.”
Basically, the vice president and the president want the only directed-elected portion of the federal government to merely bend to their whim and allocate funds and more human lives to their reckless, shoot-from-the-hip style of foreign policy.
This administration has become a sort of junta, in the sense that it has become the most powerful of the three branches, despite congressional and judicial efforts. The administration must be put in check.
The practice of checks and balances has been crucial to our government’s survival since its inception 230 years ago. It intuitively disperses power between the branches of the government so as to avoid any sort of dictatorship.
However, since Sept. 11, the Bush administration has slowly eroded away some of those blocks through legislation like the USA Patriot Act, which gives the president extended powers to protect the country from terrorism. The Patriot Act has been bastardized to the point of legitimizing the practices at Guantanamo Bay prison camp and electronic eavesdropping on citizens that are “suspected” terrorists.
It is time that the American people had their voice represented, and Congress struck back at the Bush administration with Sen. Kennedy’s bill. It is time that truly elected officials had the power of oversight to check and balance a reckless administration in the midst of an ever-worsening military debacle that it has created and sustained to this point.
01-18-2007