Constitution Takes a New Hit From Senators at Gates Hearing

http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/120706J.shtml

Click above to go to original. The following is a collection of excerpts. Sad. Very sad. May our beloved Constitution rest in peace. 1789-2006

At Tuesday's Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the nomination of Robert Gates to be secretary of defense, I felt as though I were paying last respects to the Constitution of the United States. But there was none of the praise customarily given to the deceased. Rather, the bouquets were fulsomely shared round about among the nominee.....

In other news, "A series of particularly brutal attacks across Baghdad Tuesday resulted in at least 54 Iraqis killed and scores wounded," according to the New York Times. The US military announced that three more American soldiers were killed Monday, adding to the 13 killed over the weekend. Ten more US soldiers were killed on Wednesday. And five Marines are expected to be charged today with the killing of 24 Iraqis, many of them women and children, in the village of Haditha in November 2005.

No such bothersome details about this misbegotten war were allowed into evidence yesterday by the stuffed shirts sitting in stuffed seats in a hearing room stuffed with 80 stenographers from our domesticated press. Rather, the hearing room seemed to serve as a kind of funeral parlor for the Constitution. There were plenty of bouquets, but none smelled very genuine...

In one moment of genuine - perhaps unintended - candor, Gates indicated he thought there were no new ideas to be had in addressing the conflict in Iraq. The suggestions made public today by the Iraq Study Group tend to substantiate that sad conclusion.

How about old ideas? Like dispatching more training teams to work with Iraqi security forces. Gates said, "That certainly is an option." And he vowed to show "great deference to the judgment of generals." New emphasis on the training mission is what General John Abizaid told the committee less than three weeks ago is a "major change." Is that the "new" strategy? It is a feckless exercise, as we know from Vietnam. Been there; done that; should have known that....

This makes me wonder what may be in store for Iran, if Cheney solicits help from Gates in making the case for bombing.