Forget Resolutions Against the War -- It's Time to Impeach the President

And don’t forget Dick Cheney

Last weekend in the Los Angeles Times, in what may be the clearest description to date of the U.S. War in Iraq, former national security advisor Zbignew Brzezinski writes, “The War in Iraq a historic strategic and moral calamity undertaken under false assumptions. It is undermining America's global legitimacy. Its collateral civilian casualties, as well as some abuses, are tarnishing America's moral credentials. Driven by Manichean impulses and imperial hubris, it is intensifying regional instability.”

I’d say that about sums it up.

Brzezinski goes on to outline four clear steps for the United States to extradite itself from this debacle and avoid  “a head-on conflict with Iran and much of the Islamic world.  Brzezinski’s description of the situation is downright scary, and his advice is worth listening to.  But it was another nugget in the article that really caught my attention.

In the second paragraph Brzezinski writes, “major strategic decisions in the Bush administration continue to be made within a very narrow circle of individuals — perhaps not more than the fingers on one hand. With the exception of the new Defense secretary, Robert M. Gates, these are the same individuals who have been involved from the start of this misadventure, who made the original decision to go to war in Iraq and who used the original false justifications for going to war. It is human nature to be reluctant to undertake actions that would imply a significant reversal of policy.”

Now that’s scary, and the article does not offer any four point plans on how to do anything about it. But one thing is becoming increasingly clear, President Bush and the “narrow circle of individuals” in the Bush administration who are calling the shots are hell bent on staying the course, and ominously, threatening to expand the war. As Vice President Cheney said in an interview with ABC news a few days before the election, “its full speed ahead.”

To quote Brzezinski again, “ from the standpoint of U.S. national interest, this is particularly ominous.” And it’s time for the United States Congress to hold the President accountable. I’m not talking about a House resolution opposing the “surge.”  That’s a nice little message, but it clearly won’t stop an administration that seems to have become a bit unhinged.  And there seems to be little stomach for a Congressional effort to halt funding for the war, an effort the administration has equated with “not supporting the troops.”

So maybe its time to up the anti.  Maybe the best way to “support the troops” (not to mention prevent all out war in the middle east) is to remove the President from office for falsely justifying a rush to war and then once there, conducting the war in a manner that borders on the criminally negligent. 

The new Congress would be well within its rights to do so. The United States Constitution Article II, Section 4 states, "The President, Vice President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors."

The newly elected Congress should move immediately to impeach President George W. Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney.  We can’t afford to wait another two years.

Comments

[Royce]

It's like this song I just ran across today, "Cheney's Toy." Check it out on myspace.com/jamesmcmurtry

[LAWRENCE H. BERRY JR.]

HELLLLLLLL....YEAH!