November 2, 2018
Vice President Joe Biden
Chairman of the Board of Trustees
National Constitution Center
Independence Mall
525 Arch Street
Philadelphia, Pa 19106
Dear Vice President Biden,
Florida Veterans for Common Sense (FLVCS) believes veterans have a duty to help forge the future of our country. We support our nation’s founding principles of liberty, equality, human rights, and democracy. Our oath to uphold The Constitution of the United States is sacred. Furthermore, we believe that service to country does not end when we leave the military.
We understand the National Constitution Center views itself as America’s Town Hall for civic education and we support the National Constitution Center’s Liberty Award, which has been awarded to men and women of “courage and conviction who have strived to secure the blessings of liberty to people around the globe.” Nelson Mandela, Vaclav Havel, Sandra Day O’Connor, John Lewis and others are exemplary Liberty Award recipients.
Unfortunately, President George W. Bush does not fit the criteria for the Liberty Award.
President Bush bears responsibility for creating a false and dishonest case for going to war against Iraq in 2003. Many consider his decision to be the worst national security decision ever made by a U.S. President.
Brave soldiers fought and died in an unnecessary and counterproductive war. Iraq War veterans by the thousands now suffer from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI), and numerous other afflictions. Many are psychologically broken due to the moral injury from fighting in Iraq. Whatever good President Bush can do for veterans will never match the horrors he has caused them. In the words of Pulitzer Prize winner Thomas E. Ricks, “President Bush’s decision to invade Iraq ultimately may come to be seen as one of the most profligate actions in the history of American foreign policy.”
The Bush Administration advanced a dishonest case for war. Those efforts included a strategic disinformation campaign to convince Congress, the American people, and the international community of the need to invade Iraq. The Bush Administration’s charges concerning Iraqi weapons of mass destruction, Iraq’s involvement in the 9/11 attacks, and Iraq’s relations with al Qaeda were lies and distortions central to President Bush’s case for war.
In our opinion, President Bush initiated aggressive war in violation of the United Nations charter and the Nuremburg precedent. As Chief Justice Jackson made abundantly clear at the Nuremberg trials prosecuting Nazis for war crimes after WWII, “To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole.” And, “…we must not allow ourselves to be drawn into a trial of the causes of the war, for our position is that no grievances or policies will justify resort to aggressive war. It is utterly renounced and condemned as an instrument of policy.”
Furthermore, President Bush’s Iraq war did not advance liberty, but weakened it. We are now in a perpetual state of warfare. As James Madison said, “Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other…”
In our view, our country faces a crisis of integrity as a lack of basic honesty and trust is ripping our institutions apart and weakening our nation. President George Bush’s deceitful case for war now stands as a precedent that deception and misinformation justifies favored policies. The National Constitution Center compounds the damage by awarding the Liberty Medal to President George Bush, which will forever stand as a reward for dishonesty and diminishes the value of the award for all other recipients.
The National Constitutional Center should not award President George W. Bush the Liberty Medal.
Sincerely,
Gene Jones
President, Florida Veterans for Common Sense Inc.
contact@flvcs.us
I completely agree with this, as I have been from the beginning. I hold Dick Cheney just as responsible because, from what I have read, he was the momentum behind Bush’s
decision. What an abuse of power..
Awarding the Liberty Medal to George W. Bush is as preposterous as Obama getting the Nobel Peace Price. There isn’t much we can do about the latter award, which was bestowed by a foreign country (Sweden), but we certainly can stop the former which is entirely generated in our own country.
I heartily agree with this letter of protest. I would only add that in my view VP Dick Cheney was the prime mover for this aggression in the interest of Haliburton. I refer To this invasion as “Haliburton’s War” in the quest for petroleum, which ultimately failed and left Iran the benefactor.
I agree completely
Please tell me what liberty is. Sadam Hussein was harsh and ruthless in keeping his power, but I believe he kept the lights on and water flowing. Change should have been started by iraquis if that is wanted,
The US has been messing in internal politics at least since 1953 in my memory. This may be due to self appointed evangilism or misguided self i nterest. In any case how many of these missions have gone well? 1?
The human costs of the Iraq adventure are detailed in the FLVCS letter. The $$$ costs are still adding up and will continue as long term care for war injuries continues.
Personally I was activated in 1991. In 2003 I deceidsd not to seek reappointment in the USAFR. This was in part because I did not want to be involved in any George W Bush policies.
Frederick Varricchio, LtC USAFR, MC, SFS