I have to take my hat off to the Americans.

For the first time since 9/11 a majority of eligible voters (millions didn’t vote and thousands more were rejected for lack of ID and other non-sequiturs) have acknowledged that the U.S. invasion of Iraq was wrong, that the subsequent handling of Iraqi re-construction was a debacle, that multi-trillion dollar deficits are unacceptable, that scandal and corruption are not acceptable, that the "Military Commissions Act" is non-American and inconsistent with the American Constitution and American values and most significantly that their president is accountable to them for all of the above.

Finally, we witness the first step on a return to the feted American democracy.

At this writing, the Democrats have gained at least 25 seats and a clear majority in the House of Representatives. Early Wednesday, the Senate was tied at 49/49 with two seats undecided in Montana and Virginia.

By Thursday afternoon, the two Republican incumbents had conceded defeat. The Democrats had wrested control of the Senate from Republicans, giving the party complete domination of Capitol Hill for the first time since 1994. The Democrat’s victory in Virginia ended Republican hopes of a 50-50 split that would have given Vice President Dick Cheney tie-breaking authority.

So where do we go from here?

The House of Representatives votes on money bills and thereby can exercise influence over how that money is spent. Neither the House nor the Senate can dictate foreign policy or war policy but they can influence policy by virtue of how they allocate money and how they challenge a presidential decision.

The Senate must approve judicial and cabinet appointments so that gives the Democrats say over who goes to the Supreme Court and who sits in the President’s cabinet.

There is opportunity for the House to introduce legislation that would repeal Mr. Bush’s “Military Commissions Act” (an act that allows the president to arbitrarily declare anyone, including an American citizen an "unlawful enemy combatant."

An Act that permits the president to imprison designated enemy combatants without charge or trial, for the duration of the "War on Terror"." An Act that permits the president to subject captives to "strenuous interrogation techniques" that by any rationale constitutes torture. The Act provides amnesty for U.S. officials, including Bush and others who might have authorized torture, murder or other violations of human rights).

The problem is that even if such repeal legislation passed the House and the Senate, the President would not be inclined to sign it and the bill could sit moribund for the next two years waiting for a new president.

Where else can the Democrats go?

There are a ton of issues that come to mind from minimum wages, to healthcare, funded pensions and the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions but the public’s first expectation will be that power in the hands of Democrats will lead to a withdrawal of troops from Iraq.

That’s a double-edged sword because total withdrawal or quick withdrawal would likely result in total chaos and civil war in Iraq. To compound the problem, withdrawal of war funds by a Democratic majority would be seen as an abandonment of the U.S. troops in Iraq.

In my opinion, the Democratic leadership should quickly and publicly acknowledge to the world that the invasion of Iraq was a misguided catastrophe. They should apologize, on behalf of the United States to the people of Iraq and to the world for that travesty. They should acknowledge America’s responsibility and they should commit to a realistic reconstruction program and a phased withdrawal program that would be undertaken in partnership with the people of Iraq and the government of Iraq.

Democrats should move quickly to marginalize their president, not in terms of the significance or prestige of his office but by reviving the U.S. Constitution and restoring the powers of oversight vested in Congress and the U.S. judicial system.

Democrats should publicly consider an investigation into the Administration’s practices over the last six years, including but not limited to the awarding of reconstruction contracts in Iraq. They should consider an investigation into how the Administration manipulated facts to justify its decision to invade Iraq. T

hey should hold public consultations to determine how the Bush Administration has contravened the U.S. Constitution and how those contraventions could be over-turned. They should mandate a non-partisan commission of election reformists to determine how the United States of America could implement an impartial, bullet-proof ballot system that would withstand the manipulations of those who would defraud democracy and the American public.

Tuesday’s elections were mid term in the President’s four year mandate. The elections turned out to be a referendum on George Bush and his war policies. Interesting in the result was the number of small ‘c’ conservative Democrats elected. They are fiscal conservatives and not big spenders but they oppose the war in Iraq.

First casualty in the post-election blame game was Donald Rumsfeld, U.S. Secretary of Defense and one of the architects of Bush’s invasion of Iraq. The back of the "Neo-conservative Revolution" has been broken, perhaps not forever but for a long time to come.

The ideology foisted upon an unwilling populace by Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Wolfowitz, Perle and others, the ideology that produced slaughter in Iraq and ravaged America’s reputation abroad, has been exposed and eviscerated.

There is a lesson for Stephen Harper and Liberal leadership candidates in the outcome.

George W. Bush’s right wing, Christian based republicanism is no longer in vogue.

Americans will likely downsize their involvement in Iraq. They may lose interest in Afghanistan.

Canadians may be abandoned or weakened in Afghanistan by an American nation that wants out of war.


W.E. (Bill) Belliveau is a Shediac resident and Moncton business consultant. He can be contacted at bill.bellstrategic@nb.aibn.com Atlantic Insight is a published Blog inventory of opinion articles published weekly in New Brunswick's print media as written by W.E. (Bill) Belliveau, who is a resident of Shediac, New Brunswick, and small business owner, operating his Moncton-based marketing consultancy, Bell Strategic. He can be reached by e-mail at bill.bellstrategic@nb.aibn.com