The 'Stop Loss' Scam

[pberq]

http://antiwar.com/justin/

The 'Stop Loss' Scam

<snip>
The legal basis of the "stop loss" scam is contained in an executive order issued by George W. Bush invoking "the authority vested in me as president by the Constitution" – yes, but of what country? Venezuela?

<snip>
According to our putative Attorney General, Alberto Gonzales, Bush is empowered to violate laws against torture and immunize his underlings from prosecution for war crimes on account of the military aspect of the presidential persona, which comes into special prominence in wartime. Having long since wrested away from Congress the power to make war, American presidents since Truman have used their "emergency" wartime powers to slowly build up the grand legal edifice of an imperial presidency. Until, today, we have the towering achievement of the Bush II White House – a political theory and self-conception explicitly rooted in the principle of militarism.

The CCR suit is an obstacle in the path of this Trojan horse as it barges through the gates, trampling the Constitution and the rights of those pledged to fight – and die – for our swiftly vanishing republic. It is a direct challenge not only to the imperial presidency, but to the entire rationale for this war: that we're fighting "the enemy" over in Iraq so that we don't have to fight them over here. But how does extending Specialist Quall's tour of duty beyond what he contracted for, and sending him over to Iraq, defend the country from another 9/11? The answer is: it doesn't.

<snip>
The great problem for this administration is that four more years of this war against a burgeoning insurgency can only succeed in spreading the conflict beyond the borders of Iraq. The unspoken implication of Rumsfeld's prognosis is escalation into a regional war, pulling in Syria, Iran, Saudi Arabia, and eventually inciting an Islamist insurrection throughout the Middle East.

[Skink]

1. Gonzales did so well with the torture situation

isn't it only natural for him to ascend to AG.