Philosopher George Santayana was right, when he wrote that "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it." The Bush administration appears to be fulfilling this sobering statement in many ways. If only President Bush had paid attention to the lessons of the 1960s & 1970s, he would not be taking the nation down a misguided path we have traveled before.
First, the involvement in Iraq and the saber rattling against Iran are reminiscent of the divisive Vietnam War and the expansion of hostilities into Cambodia and Laos. Now we have a Nixonesque incident involving the erasure of White House tapes.
This time, it is the recycling of email archival tapes that were a record of White House communications over eight months in 2003. This should be considered destruction of evidence, as the time period in question would have email related to both the military action in Iraq, but also the unmasking of CIA agent Valerie Plame. One has to wonder if this is not accidental, but rather done to protect those involved in the outing of Plame, including Scooter Libby and possibly others in the administration.
If our senators fail to impeach Bush and his cronies, the nation owes an apology to President Nixon. In this writer's humble opinion, the current president has committed acts far worse than those allegedly done by RMN. This in no way excuses President Nixon for the Watergate cover up, but merely points out the fact that if his actions deserved impeachment, then certainly those of this administration deserve no less.
It get back to the Watergate-era question . . . "What did the President know, and when did he know it?"
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