The Naked Truth
columnist: EJ Moosa

Topic: Constitutional Issues
A Lack of Absolute Faith

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Bush lacks Absolute Faith in our Constitution. Ron Paul does not. Could the Iraq war had a different conclusion?

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by EJ Moosa
(Libertarian)
Monday, December 24, 2007

Do you ever stop to ask why didn’t George W. Bush ask Congress to declare war against Iraq? How might things have been different today if Bush had just followed the steps spelled out in the US Constitution, which Bush swore to uphold when he took is oath of office in January of 2001? I have.

But before I get there, think about the following types of people you have seen in your life: the backyard auto mechanic who would never trust a dealer to work on his car, the shopper who watches ever item scanned for fear of being ripped off by the store, the doctor who tells his patient that they need to lose weight(while they themselves are heavier), and the parent that says they trust their child yet suffocates their kid with control. I feel all of these individuals have one thing in common: Lack of faith in what they should believe.

The thing is, none of those mentioned above have sworn an oath to the American people to show such faith and do his job as spelled out by the Constitution. And George Bush is not the first President to exercise his lack of faith while President, only the most recent.

George Bush should have asked for a Declaration of War against Iraq rather than the Joint Resolution to Authorize the Use of United States Armed Forces Against Iraq. Using all of the information that he still had available to him to justify the action, he had the opportunity to follow the Constitutional procedures. Remember that Congress was controlled by the Republicans at that time. Bush did not trust Congress to debate upon this issue and reach the same conclusion that he had. Bush could not take the risk that things might not go the way that he wanted. Bush did not have faith in the system we call government because it was more important to him to have the outcome he wanted than to have faith in our government and suffer a setback. Bush was afraid to lose control of the outcome, and in the end has he not done just that?

We tell our children all the time that losing in a fair situation builds character. We tell our children that they will be better prepared next time because of what they have learned. We as adults must not believe this because when we can, we attempt to circumvent the rules to insure the outcome. Where is our character?

George Bush did two specific actions by not following the Constitution that have weakened his Presidency to the point where it is today. First, he let Congress forego their responsibility in this matter. Had Congress been allowed to declare war, and allowed Bush and his generals to execute it, then Congress could have ended the war when it was over, and prior to our nation-building exercise of today. Instead, he suffers from a Congress taking shots at him for a war running longer than anyone in Congress really desired. The American Civil War was shorter.

Second, the American people would have had the chance to end the war as well. Every two years, Americans elect each member of the House of Representatives and one/third of the Senate. Had Congress declared war, and the people wanted the war over, they would have had the chance to send new people to Washington DC in 2004, 2006, and 2008. Looking at the election results, I think it would be safe to say that we would have ended the war with the 2006 election process.

But we, the American people, did not have that chance. The American people were denied their true responsibility to do their part as citizens. Because the men who have occupied the White House the past 50 years or so have not had absolute faith in the system. The evidence is that they have not trusted the system to make the most important decisions, as it should. In fact, at the very point that they should trust the system the most, they wrest away the control of the system. Just as at the very moment that we need our freedoms the most, they limit those same freedoms. This is another sign of the Lack of Absolute Faith.

The election cycle we are in today has had many discussions about Faith on both the republican and democratic sides of the aisle, Not Absolute Faith in our government, but in their God. The reason to me is clear. They do not have it faith in our government, in our procedures, in our laws. Not even close. They just know they must have faith in something to do this job.

Only one candidate has expressed an Absolute Faith in our government, and that would be Ron Paul. Paul trusts Congress to declare war and end war. Paul trusts the American public to remove from office those that are no longer doing what the people seek.

The rest of the candidates on the republican side have endorsed Bush and the Iraqi War. They have confused the support of our brave men and women who have fought this war with the notion that saying it has been wrongly handled is unpatriotic. For me, saying that this war has been handled wrongly and unconstitutionally is probably the most patriotic thing a person can do.

Without Absolute Faith in our form of government, we are doomed to repeat the same errors again and again. If we tell our children we trust them, and yet they never experience that we really truly trust them, they will no longer believe us, even when we are telling the truth. This is where we are today. No one trusts anyone any more.

Had Bush had Absolute Faith, Congress would have declared war, and at the end of 2006 the war would likely be over with certainty. Our troops would have been headed home.

Restore Absolute Faith in the White House. Restore it before it is too late. Absolute Faith in God will not protect our nation from ourselves. Absolute Faith in our Constitutional form of government will. If we do not have Absolute Faith in our constitutional government, then we should end it now.

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2007 EJ Moosa, all rights reserved.
Published: Monday, December 24, 2007
Last modified: Monday, December 24, 2007

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