THE CASE FOR IMPEACHMENT: The Crimes of George Bush

With the latest revelations of a forged document ordered by the White House to press a fallacious case for war with Iraq, the case for impeachment has become so compelling that congress should prosecute its own leaders for dereliction of duty if they fail to act.

Moreover, as the Iraqi government makes it absolutely clear they will demand a set timeline for American military withdrawal, we can safely peel away yet another phony rationale for the continuing occupation: It is not for the Iraqi people; it never was. It is not to assure the stability of the Iraqi government; it never was.

What remains in the equation for the Bush Neocons, John McCain and General David Petraeus to cling to as a cause for staying and fighting at any cost? Certainly not Al Qaeda in Iraq. Not only was the connection to the Al Qaeda of Osama bin Laden always remote, they were always only a marginal force and never a serious factor in Iraqi politics.

No. The only surviving reasons for a continued occupation against the expressed will of the people and its government are: One, as always, the oil contracts and two, the permanent military bases we have erected all across Iraq at a cost of untold billions for no other purpose than to assert American dominance for as long as the oil lasts.

The essential history of the Iraq War is already written. It was the product of warped minds. It was a betrayal of confidence so complete that a president thought nothing of ordering the Central Intelligence Agency to fabricate a document to prove what he knew was false.

For those who are yet unaware (it is astounding how little coverage is given to the high crimes of a president compared to the sexual misconduct of a failed candidate), the Bush White House had an inside man in Saddam Hussein’s ruling circle. Iraq’s Chief of Intelligence Tahir Jalil Habbush was in little George Bush’s pocket. He informed the White House that Saddam had no weapons of mass destruction in January 2003. Instead of calling off the invasion, our government gave the informant five million dollars and safe haven in Jordan. Knowing that his primary rationale for war would not hold water, the president or his minions then ordered the CIA to create a forged letter from Habbush to Saddam ostensibly documenting a connection to Al Qaeda and Nigerian uranium.

In retrospect, this helps to explain why little George and Dick Cheney were so incensed that former Ambassador Joe Wilson exposed the Iraq-Niger fraud involving another forged document. Their carefully constructed shroud of deception was already down to its last thread and Wilson clipped it.

Never in the history of this nation has there been a more compelling case for the impeachment of a sitting president.

Never before has an executive branch so blatantly and callously discarded the truth, evaded the law and conspired to deceive the American people in order to launch a war against an innocent nation. (It is largely for this reason that the international community is notably unimpressed by our protestations regarding Russia’s violation of sovereign Georgia.)

Never before has an American president openly defied the law of the land and announced his intention to continue breaking the law as this president did in ordering surveillance on tens of thousands of citizens without a warrant or judicial review.

Never before has an executive branch attempted to redefine crimes against humanity (i.e., torture) so that his agents could defy the Geneva conventions as well as a federal prohibition.

Never before has the Department of Justice been so politicized that attorneys were openly hired and fired on the basis of political views and party affiliation.

Never before has a CIA operative been deliberately exposed at the pleasure of the president and his vice president for a political vendetta.

Never before has an American president been so deaf and dumb to the suffering of his own people (Katrina and New Orleans).

Not since the days of Jim Crow has any administration done so much to disenfranchise the black community for political gain.

Now we can add forgery to the growing list of high crimes and misdemeanors committed by the worst president in history and yet our congress cannot and will not act.

George Bush is not the first president to commit acts worthy of impeachment. Our history is haunted by presidents who committed such offenses but were never called to justice.

Ulysses S. Grant ought to have been impeached and removed from office for a policy of extermination against the indigenous peoples of this continent.

Andrew Jackson should have been impeached for defying the ruling of the Supreme Court granting sovereignty to the Cherokee nation. On his order the Trail of Tears was paved.

Lyndon Johnson should have been impeached for the Gulf of Tonkin incident – a fabrication used to escalate America’s intervention in Vietnam.

Ronald Reagan should have been impeached for defying the law of congress and arming our enemies in the sordid Iran-Contra affair.

The list could certainly go on and on but never has a single administration committed so many offenses under the glaring light of public scrutiny.

Had we prosecuted those former presidents for their crimes, perhaps this president would have thought twice before allowing the crimes of his administration.

In fact, not even Richard Nixon was brought to trial for conspiracy to cover up a criminal enterprise.

This is why it is not too late to act. This is why it would be negligent not to act. We have given lip service to the notion that no man is above the law but we have never served notice to any president that he or she will be held to account.

This is why we must act: Failure to do so will give license to future presidents to commit whatever crimes they conceive.

Jazz.

[See: "The Way of the World" by Ron Suskind.]

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