THE WAR PARTY

Twentieth century Republicans called Democrats "The War Party." Senator Robert Taft repeatedly referred to the war in Korea as, "Truman's War." Senator Barry Goldwater called the war in Viet Nam, "Johnson's War." Neither president had asked Congress for a declaration of war.

The Goldwater campaign printed campaign advertisements with photos of wounded American soldiers lying on the battlefield. The message was that our wars were the result of international interventions and meddling in other nation's business. Vote Republican and get peace.

If Korea and Viet Nam were Democrat wars, then how about the two World Wars? Democrat President Wilson meddled, for sure. He won re-election in 1916 boasting that he had kept us out of war. A year later Wilson chose to go to war and whipped the nation into a fervor about it. Senators who opposed the war were censured by the U.S. Senate. These included the great Wisconsin Senator Robert La Follette. Many people went to jail for resisting the war.

The situation leading to our entry into The Second World War was not much different. Democrat President Roosevelt was criticised by Republicans for violating our neutrality laws. FDR had ordered blockades on Japanese shipping in the South Pacific, sent American volunteers (paid) to fly warplanes in defense of China, and had U.S. destroyers chasing German submarines to protect British shipping in the North Atlantic. Our nation had taken sides and was active militarily months before Pearl Harbor.

Since the Democrat Presidents led us into the four big wars mentioned above, we have had the undeclared wars on Grenada, Panama, and twice against Iraq. Those were under Republican presidents, but you never heard of Reagan's War or Bush's War. And we should not forget Republican President Nixon's little wars on Cambodia and Laos.

We notice that this century's Republicans are at least as warlike as the Democrats. If turnabout is fair play, then Democrats can now scream "War Party" with adequate justification. We have an American administration that blockades a nation's food and medical supplies for 1o years, sends CIA agents to stir rebellion and make maps of bombing targets in another nation, and arbitrarily launches the brutal Shock & Awe. The Bush government is meddling, intervening and making war unconstitutionally.

The Republicans are The War Party. And like in WWI, you'll support it or else.


ITS ALL SO SIMPLE.