COLUMN OF THE AMERICAS

WITHOUT AMNESTY & WITHOUT ANIMOSITY. YES!!!
BY ROBERTO RODRIGUEZ
MAY 7, 2007


"Without Amnesty & Without Animosity."

When I heard the president utter those words, I said to myself,
""Yes!!!"

Apparently, I had not been paying attention too closely because when
he gave his rehearsed punchline, I thought he had been giving a sober
assessment of how to approach the issue of lawbreakers within his own
administration – of how to treat them: fairly, but firmly.

"Yes," I had said, "That's how Impeachment has to proceed."

Instead, it turns out he was speaking about the hardest working sector
of the economy. On the issue of immigration, his cute phrase makes
about as much sense as his "Mission Accomplished" banner of four years
ago.

Truthfully, if anyone needs amnesty, it's the career criminals within
his own administration, not people working double time to feed their
families. And in regards to animosity, he is the one who has made it
socially acceptable to blame all the nation's problems on those whose
sole crime is to be working in a country that begs for their labor,
exploits them, and refuses to treat them as full human beings (this
can be accomplished through a simple accord).

Again, I thought he had been talking about Impeachment as its case has
already been made in regards to the waging of an illegal war against a
nation that has never posed a threat to the United States… a war that
has caused the death of tens of thousands of Iraqis and close to 3,500
U.S. military personnel. Arguably, his entire War Cabinet could also
be subjected to such proceedings, as well as many members of Congress
that continue to green-light this criminal war. And yet, is it
possible to also impeach the journalists and pundits that functioned
as stenographers or cheerleaders for the administration's falsehoods,
and the media outlets that heavily censored dissenting views?

One thing about criminal behavior; there is no statute of limitation
for waging an illegal war. The war does not become legal or moral
simply because Congress refuses to properly investigate. Virtually
everything about the war is illegal; from how it was sold, to how it
has been conducted (in disregard to the Geneva Conventions), to how
the administration has waged a war on the rights and privacy of its
own citizens. In fact, the administration's current smearing of his
opponents with a brush of disloyalty and even treason – itself
arguably constitutes an impeachable offense. Yet the mainstream media
continues to facilitate the war by failing to question the
administration's current propositions, that:

• Failure to support the president's war funding means failure
to
support the troops.
• Failure to support the troop surge is to hand victory to the
enemy.
• A call for the withdrawal of U.S. troops is a call for defeat
and surrender.
• Disagreement with the president is an act of disloyalty and
brings
aid and comfort to the enemy.
• Disagreement with the president is to go against the
commanders on the ground.
• The troops cannot leave until their mission has been
accomplished.
• The president's detractors are simply tax & spend
liberals
who have
no interest in protecting the homeland.

The mainstream media could respond in this manner:

• Supporting the troops has nothing to do with where they are
stationed; bringing them home is a sign of support.
• Failure in Iraq corresponds and falls squarely on the
shoulders of the
president's failed policies.
• Similarly, defeat and surrender correspond to the
administration,
not to those who call for the war's end.
• Disagreement is not a sign of disloyalty; it is a
Constitutional duty.
• The commanders on the ground take orders from civilians, not
the
other way around. Also, the ones who disagree with this president have
all been purged.
• The mission, whatever it may be, is not sanctioned or
supported by
the United Nations nor the vast majority of Americans.
• The war is the biggest tax upon Americans in a generation.


Tens of thousands continue to die in an immoral war; and the
President, Congress and the media would rather get tough on
lawbreakers? Yes. Let's begin with the ones that attacked the
immigrant rights' marchers in Los Angeles and the ones waging that war
in Iraq: Without amnesty and without animosity.

(c) Column of the Americas 2007

Rodriguez can be reached at: Column of the Americas PO BOX 5093
Madison WI 53705 -- XColumn@gmail.com or 608-238-3161
It is archived at: hometown.aol.com/xcolumn/myhomepage/