Last week, this paper endorsed John Kerry in the presidential race. We enumerated any number of President George W. Bush's failings, and came to the conclusion that his re-election would be a disaster for the United States of America.
In the intervening week, however, a couple of new things came to light that make this election even more important.
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To begin with, nearly 370 tons of the high explosive HMX went missing in Iraq after the U.S. invasion. A pound of this stuff is what brought down Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, killing 270 people.
While the dissembling Bush spent the last week blatantly lying that the material was gone when U.S. forces arrived, news footage from various sources shows that it was, indeed, there, and left unguarded as our undermanned units made their way to Baghdad, where they knocked over a statue of Saddam Hussein.
It's kind of ironic, when you think about it. Bush invaded Iraq to keep weapons out of the hands of terrorists and now his ill-advised adventure has caused an incredible amount of weapons-grade explosive to fall into the hands of terrorists.
In the meantime, brave American men and women are getting killed over there on a daily basis. More than 900 since July 2, 2003, when Bush taunted the enemy with his "Bring 'em on" idiocy.
Also this week, the Federal Bureau of Investigation announced that it was launching a criminal probe into a no-bid contract worth billions of dollars for the rebuilding of Iraqi oilfields. The contract was awarded to Halliburton, the corporation formerly headed by Vice President Dick Cheney.
Cheney still receives hundreds of thousands of dollars a year from his former company in the form of stock options and other perks.
The FBI investigation is an expansion of an ongoing probe into whether Halliburton overcharged for fuel it delivered into the war-torn but oil-rich country.
Cheney's attorneys have fiercely defended the vice president's "executive privilege" regarding the task force on energy policy he formed shortly after Bush took office. It is certain, however, that representatives from Enron, Halliburton and other criminal organizations took part in the discussions.
George W. Bush likes to make people believe he's the "pro-life" president. In reality, he's been responsible for more death and misery than any president since Nixon.
| Niagara Falls Reporter | www.niagarafallsreporter.com | Nov. 1 2004 |