One Sane Politician Resigns, Any more Sanity out there?

by Jim Moore

03/14/2003

If you will allow me, I am going to give most of my space in this article to Mr Jack Walters, Boone County Republican Chairman in Columbia, Missouri. 

There are two reasons why Mr. Walters deserves more space in my column that I do. First, because he had the perception to see that the administration's foreign policy is terribly wrong, and consequently dangerous.

Second, he had the courage to resign his GOP chairmanship when he saw the threat to America that the foreign policy was causing.

The local newspaper wanted to run Mr. Walters' letter of resignation and he accepted, but ONLY if they agreed not to change, censor, or omit a word of it.

The newspaper agreed and the letter appeared as written. Although it is too long to print here in its entirety, I have taken the liberty of editing his letter and extracting its salient points, because every American citizen deserves to know why an important politician in the president's own party felt he could longer, in good conscience, chair Missouri's GOP.

The letter:


"As the Bush administration moves toward certain war in the Middle East, which I believe no good will come from, including placing our nation in dire peril, I have made a decision regarding my position as Boone County Republican Chairman.

"Wars are easy to get into. But very difficult to get out of. Anytime ground troops are deployed, serious questions must be asked, and real answers demanded. The jingoistic rhetoric we are receiving does not constitute legitimate answers.

"The Pentagon has announced that we will hit Baghdad with a force almost equal to the bombing of Hiroshima. Obviously many thousands of civilians will perish, with untold thousands maimed. And for what? Freedom? Democracy? To secure the world's second largest oil reserve? To use the cover of war to forcibly relocate the Palestinian population (as has been stated by some members of Israel's current government)?

"We must lay the blame squarely on our congress. For congress to cede its war-making power to the executive branch is unconstitutional on the very face of it, and effectively destroys our three branches of government.

"What we are about to do in the Middle East is abhorrent to me. It is doubly so since this is a contrived and fraudulently justified war with hidden objectives. And by remaining Boone County Republican Chairman I would be giving tacit approval to the belligerent and reckless language coming from the White House.

"I therefore resign as Chairman of the Boone County Republican Central Committee effective at noon, March 10, 2003. I do not wish to be Chairman when this tragedy starts. I grieve for our nation and the untold suffering that will be wrought "As history has shown, you can possess the greatest armaments in the world, but if your cause and motives are not right, only catastrophe will result."

As I mentioned before, much of Mr. Walters' original letter has had to be omitted because of the space limitations allowed for this article. But the essence of what he said---and how he feels about what he said---has been carefully retained.

I made a point of bringing Mr.http:// Walters' letter of resignation to your attention because the American people should know that at least one concerned man in the president's party sees the administration's war with Iraq for what it is, and has the courage and good sense to end his participation in it.

Jack Walters can be contacted at rapid.press@verizon.net
P.O. Box 512, Columbia, MO 65205
573-474-4449

Jim Moore
Jmoore1819@aol.com