A Case From Impeachment Against George W. Bush
by Frank A. Jones
1/29/07

The recent election spoke clearly to Congress. Because George Bush has two long years before his term ends the people could not get to him; instead, they got to those who had virtually given their check and balance authority to him: the Republican Congress was thrown out dramatically. A new Congress was elected  that  had campaigned on a platform of stopping the Bush War on the people of Iraq and the raid on the US treasury.

Now elected and seated, this Congress has taken an interesting, yet  familiar political turn. They are doing less than the people sent them to Congress to do. These Democrats are showing this nation that the two party system is an ineffective and blunt political instrument for effectuating the decisive actions mandated by the people; they are backing off their promises to stop this war and wiggling out of their campaign pledges, even as  Americans clamor for an end to this meaningless war that wreaks havoc on Iraq and harms this nation.

In the midst of a new Congress specifically sent to check an out-of-control president, this president has decided to ignore the will of the people and the power of Congress by escalating the fighting force in Iraq and possibly open new fronts into Iran and Syria; he has decided to increase the troop force by 21,000 additional troops. And this new Congress is only debating a nonbinding resolution that states they disapprove of the president's actions.

If this newly elected Congress can only muster the strength to pass a nonbinding resolution that merely disagrees with the president's actions, they are showing us that they are afraid to use the constitutional authority within their hands. Such behavior is equivalent to a sinner who claims a new birth of salvation, but while loudly touting that new status, he is still lying, stealing, and exercising all his former behavior. Being a fraud, he attempts to use rhetoric to disguise the fact hat there is no new birth and instead of exercising the principles and practices of that supposed new birth, he continues on with old behaviors and practices, as he claims an impotence to do that which he says he believes.

The Democrats in Congress are the new born Christian hypocrites who claim they are too weak to carry out the commandments of their God, even though they have powers to slay this satanic dragon in the White House.

That dragon is killing innocent people; playing havoc with this nation's finances; 2.) Lying to the nation and Congress as he takes this nation further into the heart of darkness, declaring that everyone, small and great to be a threat to this nation when, in fact, we have become the biggest and most dangerous threat to world health, peace, and stability through thoughtless actions that destroy a people; 3.) He has destroyed the once good name of this nation throughout the world; 4.) He has misused the nation's resources and finances for miscreant, misguided, and personal purposes; 5.) this unrepentant leader has vaunted himself in war, while putting our young men/women of our military in harms way needlessly; 6.) Has no ignored prosecuting the real threat to the nation; 7.) He has allowed members of his administration and their associates to profit in the unlawful war he has inflicted on the Middle East; 8.) He has caused to be hired over 100,000 mercenaries to fight in an unlawful war that violates treaties signed by this nation, by laws passed by this nation; 9.) He and his administration have falsified facts, cooked intelligence, obscured the truth to carry this nation into a war in which we have been shamed and disgraced by its lost and by our soldiers having committed atrocities and crimes against humanity; 10.) He has violated the sovereignty of independent nations through  extraordinary renditions, torture, and other violations of international laws; 11.) He has violated the duly legislated laws of this nation by spying on its people in violation of those laws; 12.) He and his administration intentionally leaked the name of an undercover CIA spy to the media in violation of well established laws; 13.) He and his administration have corrupted the language with an Orwellian diction and contortions of meanings and speech so that Americans cannot distinguish right from wrong; 14.) He has engaged in other yet untold acts that are in circumvention of the laws of this nation.
[See the Declaration of Independence]

These are acts that constitute high crimes and misdemeanors in that the president is sworn to faithfully execute, uphold, and abide by all laws of this nation. This category of crimes, capable of removing a president from office, is defined as bribery, treason, and others the US Constitution stipulates as “high crimes and misdemeanors.” Certainly abuse of power and serious misconduct in office are high crimes and misdemeanors.

This administration has taken this nation into an illegal war that has caused the lives of over 650,000 Iraqis; over 3,000 American lives, over 120,000 physical and psychologically wounded American boys and girls; it has already cost American taxpayers over $350,000,000,000 (billion) and it is projected to cost this nation a needless $2.2 trillion before it is over. Also, as a result of this wanton president having declared the world is a dangerous place for all  Americans and that we must arm ourselves against them, military expenditures are more than ever before and even greater than all  nations of the world military expenditures combined. Consequently, this president and his administration  have reinstituted the Military-industrial complex Eisenhower warned against, and war profiteers and mercenaries, with the blessings of this president and his vice-president, are mining the US treasury as if it were a gold mine. And for them it is!

In the light of these abuses, the newly elected Congress cannot or will not stop this White House's war machine. Yet there are two clear ways to stop this president's war by a Congress that has both the power of the purse and impeachment powers.

The Vietnam war was not stopped by words and nonbinding resolutions; it was stopped by Congress exercising the power of the purse. Stop funding the war and the war will stop; the 100,000 mercenaries will go home; the 200,000 American and "coalition" troops will come and go home. That is a clear choice for this new Congress.

I agree with columnist Robert Scheer, as he addressed his remarks to Congress, "Stop him [Bush] before he kills again."  Congress must do more than pass nonbinding resolutions. The power of the purse is in the hands of Congress: Stop Bush from committing more troops to Iraq and make him bring our young boys and girls home now. The remedy to this situation is of necessity hash because the situation this president has misled us into is harsh. We made a mistake; we need to apologize, get us out of that country, and face the music of our mistake whatever that may be. But to continue our brutal invasion and occupation of another people's homeland is a crime against humanity.

The other thing within this Democratic Congress's authority is to impeach the president and his vice president for high crimes and misdemeanors. A Republican controlled Congress impeached Bill Clinton for a far less egregious offense--the Monica Lewinsky sexual affair and the lies associated in trying to keep that secret. Seemingly, as this Congress merely debates whether it will pass a nonbinding resolution, which is little more than Congress opining on the president's malfeasance, there is a failure of our trust in these new crop of politicians who are acting as the old crop of politicians--self-willed, blind, and deaf to the voice of America.

Maybe the case for impeachment is not just against the president but also against Congress that is an enabler to this unpredictable president who seems to see the responsibility of prudent leadership laid upon him as some type of sadistic war game that little boys play on their video systems.

This Bush War must be stopped, but from all indications it will not, and the American people must go into the streets again to force this government to stop its war machine. Haven't we have killed enough innocent people; haven't we burdened our children enough with an outrageous future debt; haven't we have wreaked enough chaos on this world with our military stationed in over 144 nations around the world?

Is the world that dangerous to America; or are we ourselves the evil danger that we see?

Home