When President Bush was asked in September 2003 about the leak
that identified CIA agent, Valerie Plame, he responded with the
following: “I welcome the investigation. I’m absolutely
confident that the Justice Department will do a very good
job.”
I guess he probably didn’t think, or at least he hoped
that this probe and subsequent prosecution of I. Lewis
“Scooter” Libby wouldn’t uncover evidence that
Bush himself authorized leaks of classified information about Iraq
prior to the invasion.
This new accusation sounds a familiar ring over the White House
and reminds me more and more of the Nixon administration and the
Watergate Scandal.
Both Presidents Bush and Nixon crossed constitutional boundaries
for political gain and both chose vice presidents nobody wants to
see promoted. But there’s one big difference between the
Watergate Scandal and the corrupt conduct that has emerged from the
Bush Administration since the invasion of Iraq. That difference is
the cost associated with the behavior.
The Department of Defense reported 2,356 U.S. casualties from
Operation Iraqi Freedom as of April 10. Add to that tens of
thousands of Iraqi fatalities and the cost for this
administration’s conduct is much higher than the Watergate
break-in and subsequent cover-up. I’m reminded of that bumper
sticker that says, “When Clinton lied, no one
died.”
The evidence of false motivations for war has continued to mount
for the last couple of years. First, we never found any weapons of
mass destruction, then the Downing Street memo surfaced, which
suggested that intelligence reports had been doctored to display
evidence of WMD. And now there’s evidence that Bush leaked
information, some of which was knowingly false, in order to drive
the war with Iraq.
I’m among the group of people scratching their heads
wondering why we decided to go to war in the first place. The only
people who have seemed to benefit from any of this are stockholders
of military and oil industries.
If only I had invested my college tuition money in Halliburton
before we invaded Iraq, I would be sipping margaritas on the Coast
of Acapulco right now instead of sharing a tiny bedroom in
Westwood. But alas, I’m still a broke and curious college
student.
These new allegations have certainly added a few questions to my
list. How deep does this all go? Who really made the decision to
oust the identity of Valerie Plame? And was it in retaliation to
her husband’s public challenge to Iraq’s possession of
WMD?
The trial of Scooter Libby isn’t scheduled to start until
January 2007. I’m a little too impatient to wait until then
to see what unfolds, so I became a citizen co-sponsor of House
Representative John Conyers’ House Resolution 635 to
establish a Congressional Committee to investigate the possible
misconduct of President Bush and Vice President Cheney.
If this administration is indeed as similar to the Nixon
administration as it appears to me, it may also face a similar
fate.
Springmeyer is a fourth-year sociology student.