Neither a Champion of Freedom at Home or Abroad

To expect President Bush like Fred Hiatt or Jim Hoagland to be the champion of freedom, is to expect Easter and Christmas to fall on the same day. He has neither shown a full commitment to freedom at home or abroad. His talk of bringing freedom is just that: talk. In the US, freedom has been undermined from wiretapping, spying, secret investigations, arrests without warrant, the Patriot Act, and an almost enigmatic justification, the now almost mythic September 11th and abroad the US has cooperated with countries that have not shown any inclination to freedom, from Russia to Saudi Arabia, while castigating others such as North Korea or Cuba and even attacking and forcing regime change in Iraq where the ultimate outcome remains unclear. Iraq may yet become a theocracy much like its neighbor Iran.

Democracy is a great thing and it needs to be protected. I really hope that the American Congress will finally step in to preserve American democracy from the dictatorial rule of executive privilige and make it clear that the Constitution intended a balance of power. Those powers not specified within the Constitution should be defined by Congress and not the President. And to make it clear: Only Congress has the right to declare war and therefore only Congress should be able to decide whether the President can use war time powers or not!