July 21, 2003
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"Why are they cheering?" my Martian friend Yyuran asked as we watched
the British Prime Minister Tony Blair speak to a joint session of the
U.S. Congress.
"Well why wouldn't they? He got his country to support our war with Iraq. He's a great statesman," I said. "But he admitted that the basis of that war, the weapons of mass destruction, may never be found." "You're back on that kick? Who cares? Like he said, it was still right to rid the world of a brutal and murderous dictator. Look at that, they're giving him another standing ovation." "He's in a lot of trouble in his own country where they think he deceived them about those weapons." I chuckled. "Yeah. They heckle him a lot in Parliament about that. How did he put it? Oh yeah, he said the applause was 'more than I deserve and more than I'm used to, quite frankly.' They're a little nutso about that over there." "Congress thinks that's all right?" "Well, why shouldn't they? Over here we don't worry about such little things... So he and Bush fudged a little. Big deal. No one cares." "A lot of people do," he said. "A bunch of our own wackos. You can see how Congress loves him. Just like they love Bush, even if he told them a little fib or two about the war." "At least one senator doesn't," he said, and then paused. "I wonder if he applauded Blair?" "Who? What senator? What are you talking about?" "Senator Graham. He's talking about impeachment." "Oh him. What do you expect? He wants to be president himself. He'll say anything to make Bush look bad. What did he say anyway?" "He said there are grounds to impeach President Bush if he was found to have led America to war under false pretenses." "Bosh. Maybe he over spoke a little. He wouldn't lie to us." "Senator Graham said if the president lied about the reasons for going to war with Iraq it would be more serious than former President Bill Clinton's lie under oath about his sexual relationship with Monica Lewinsky." "It's that uranium nonsense," I said. "A few words in a speech. No biggie." "And the missing weapons of mass destruction?" "Yeah, yeah." Congress was giving Blair another standing ovation. I hoped it was a good sign. "We've been over this. Nobody is going to impeach Bush." "If you say so," he said. · · · · · ·
Related Internal Links: The Yyuran Series They Impeach Presidents, Don't They? (June 2003) Landing A Campaign Visual (May 2003) It's Just Good Business (Oct. 2002) Untangling The Mideast For A Martian (July 2002) The Wrong Stuff (May 2002) We Are A Peaceful People (March 2002) A Famous Victory (Jan. 2002) Explaining Nukes to a Martian (Feb. 2001) Iraq on Swans Humor on Swans Deck Deckert has spent nearly two decades as copy editor, wire editor and news editor at several metropolitan newspapers, including the Miami Herald and Miami News, before becoming a freelance writer. His articles and stories on everything from alligator farming to UFOs have appeared in numerous U.S. publications. He has written two young adult novels under a pen name, and co-authored a novel about the NATO war on Yugoslavia, Letters from the Fire, with Alma Hromic. Do you wish to share your opinion? We invite your comments. E-mail the Editor. Please include your full name, address and phone number. If we publish your opinion we will only include your name, city, state, and country. Please, feel free to insert a link to this article on your Web site or to disseminate its URL on your favorite lists, quoting the first paragraph or providing a summary. However, please DO NOT steal, scavenge or repost this work without the expressed written authorization of Swans. This material is copyrighted, © Deck Deckert 2003. All rights reserved. No part of this material may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. |
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