The news about the state of our republic is very bad. Gradually, imperceptibly over the last six decades, Republicans and Democrats, Congress and Presidents have weakened our republic in an ill-advised drive to establish a world-wide empire. History shows us that republics which embark on the course of empire do not remain republics for very long. From Vietnam to the preemptive wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, our leaders have lied to the American people. Members of Congress like Norm Dicks, who voted for war in Iraq, have subverted the Constitution of the United States, violated international law and set the United States on a course to moral and financial bankruptcy.

The Constitution of the United States in Article I, Section 8 gives the sole responsibility for war-making powers to the Congress. The founders understood that in a republic founded on a revolt against the corrupt, arbitrary executive power of King George III, no one man should hold the power of war in his hands alone. Yet in October 2002 when the Republican led House and the Democratic controlled Senate faced their "Gulf of Tonkin" moment, members abdicated their most awesome responsibility by voting grandly, gloriously, and egregiously wrong to give President Bush a blank check to conduct a preemptive, war of choice against Iraq.

Gary Murrell has opposed the war in Iraq even before the disastrous vote by Congress in October 2002. Since the summer of 2002 he has worked with others to organize community action in Grays Harbor against the war, against any continued funding for that war and in favor of House Judiciary Committee impeachment hearings for Bush and Cheney. In letters to the editor, at anti-war demonstrations, in community meetings, and on his daily radio program Dr. Murrell has spoken out continuously about the dangers to the republic of imperialism, militarism and preemptive war.

Some members of Congress, like Norm Dicks, have said that they would have voted against the war "if I knew then what I know now." But those members of Congress should have known. After forty-three years in Washington, D. C. Norm Dicks should have known that presidents lie, secretaries of state lie, secretaries of defense lie, national security advisors, the CIA, a spy agency, by definition, lies. While much of the evidence of those lies was not available to the American public, we now know that the evidence, such as the National Intelligence estimate on Iraq, was there for members of Congress but Norm Dicks did not have the good judgment to seek it out. Why did Norm Dicks ignore the repeated warnings of the U.N. and IAEA inspectors then diligently searching throughout Iraq for non-existent weapons of mass destruction? The answers are complex but it is clear that Norm Dicks' judgment is clouded by too close attachment to the military-industrial-congressional complex through too many years immersed in the insularity and herd-mentality of Washington, D. C. Dicks is more focused on welfare for generals than in promoting the general welfare. His experience has led him, again and again, to the wrong conclusions, disastrous conclusions that should bar him from another term in Congress.

Dr. Murrell, whose minor field of study was the modern Middle East for both his Masters and Ph.D. degrees, found the testimony of Mohammed el Baradai and Hans Blix, that Iraq had no weapons of mass destruction, both credible and compelling. Did Mr. Dicks listen to the testimony of these two weapons experts when they pleaded for information to back up the mendacious testimony of Secretary of State Powell at the U.N.? Or was Mr. Dicks, like fellow captives of the military-industrial-congressional complex, primed and eager for war in Iraq?

Dicks' record in Congress shows us that from the very beginning he lacked the judgment to see the ramifications of his enthusiastic support of secret CIA wars and terrorist actions around the world. Dicks sought out and won a position on the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. He served there with fellow war-hawks Representatives Randy "Duke" Cunningham [now serving a prison sentence for soliciting and receiving bribes from defense contractors], John Murtha, and the infamous Charlie Wilson [memorialized in a movie in 2007]. From that position, Dicks and the others doled out large sums of public money with little or no input from their colleagues or constituents. In the early 1980s Dicks backed top secret, classified budget appropriations to fund the disastrous scheme of Congressman Charlie Wilson and the CIA to funnel a half-billion dollars a year in money and weapons to Afghanistan's holy warriors, tens of thousands of fanatical Muslim fundamentalists, to use in waging a war of urban terrorism against a modern superpower. With no public debate or oversight, Dicks and the others sent Stinger missiles, helicopters and an incredible array of extremely dangerous weapons to terrorists, including Osama bin Laden. When the Soviet Union left Afghanistan in 1989, the mujahedeen merged with the developing Taliban movement to terrorize the devastated Afghani population whom Dicks' actions supposedly "liberated." Those same terrorists killed nineteen American airmen at Dhahran, Saudi Arabia in 1996, bombed U. S. embassies in Kenya and Tanzania in 1998, blew a hole in the side of the U.S.S. Cole in Aden Harbor in 2000, and on 11 September 2001 flew hijacked airliners into New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Dicks showed scant concern recently when he acknowledged that Osama bin Laden's forces may now be attacking Americans with some of the same weapons sent by the CIA and willingly approved, in secret, by Norm Dicks. [Alicia Mundy, "Dicks played role as backer of Wilson's crusade, Seattle Times, 25 December 2007.]

There is a clear choice between Gary Murrell and Norm Dicks on the War in Iraq and on issues of war and peace. Dr. Murrell served four years in the U. S. Air Force from 1966 to 1970. The college football star Norm Dicks avoided the chance to serve his country in the military during the Vietnam era. Dr. Murrell has been a vociferous opponent of the war in Iraq and of U. S. militarism. Norm Dicks has been an outspoken proponent for militarism throughout his career in Congress. He has been an indispensable enabler for the military-industrial-Congressional complex. He never met a weapons system he didn't like. He never met a military budget he didn't like. Dr. Murrell would not have voted for war in Iraq. Unlike Norm Dicks, he would have voted against every resolution providing continuing funding for the Iraq war. As Representative Dennis Kucinich reminds us, "It is simply not credible to maintain that one opposes the war and yet continues to fund it. If you oppose the war, then do not vote to fund it." Rather than voting as Mr. Dicks did to table the bill, Dr. Murrell would have joined the resolution calling for impeachment hearings for Bush and Cheney.

In January of 2009, if he were a member of Congress, Dr. Murrell would work with any other congressperson who would support an immediate withdrawal of all American forces form Iraq. He would vote against any further appropriations for Iraq that were not specifically tied to bringing all U. S. forces home within six months. He would oppose any permanent U. S. bases in Iraq or anywhere else in the world. He would support bringing all American military personnel back to the United States and for closing all overseas military bases. He would vote against any deployment of American military forces, anywhere in the world, without a declaration of war by Congress. He would restrict the ability of the CIA to interfere in other sovereign nations when the U. S. is not involved in a declared war. He would end torture as a national policy and punish all torturers to the full extent of the law. He would vote to close Guantanamo and all other U.S. military prisons around the world. He would vote to make the policy of "extraordinary renditions" illegal. He would vote to repeal the Military Commissions Act that stripped habeas corpus from the Constitution. He would vote to repeal "Don't Ask, Don't Tell." He would end agreements with all private military contractors and disband Blackwater and other mercenary forces at home and abroad. He would vote to end the Strategic Missile Defense initiative, the "Star Wars" missile shield that has cost the United States billions of dollars. He would vote to do away with all nuclear weapons. He would vote to fully fund veterans health care and benefits. He would vote to reducing military spending. He would vote to rename the Defense Department the War Department to provide truth in advertising. He would vote to require an audit of the War Department every two years.