Happy A28!
Impeachment is getting a lot of traction lately. www.a28.org is the latest web roots attempt at creating a notional movement to oust our ineffective leadership. Their tagline is that today, April 28th, is the first day of Impeachment Summer. I hope their right.
But I’m skeptical. The time for preparation for impeachment was last year. Gathering evidence takes time, and to begin now would only result in an outcome determined only a few weeks before the natural ending of Bush’s term. What benefit is that?
What is the current value of impeachment? The republican congress of Newt Gingrich has forever cheapened the role of impeachment in the way they used it as political leverage to lynch Bill Clinton. What he did was a personal matter, it was not a national disaster. Hurricane Katrina is a national disaster. Our misbegotten war in Iraq is a national disaster, as is the regression of stability within Afghanistan that is currently taking place. The hubris and arrogance, cheating and dishonesty of the Bush administration is a national disaster. The selective amnesia of our Attorney General (no doubt a side effect of extended use of party-line Kool-ade) is a national travesty, if not yet a disaster. These things matter far more than the sexual adventures of consenting adults.
I ponder if it wouldn’t be better to gather all possible records toward the goal of impeachment, but to delay until the administration is out of office. Then we might go after these former public diservants as the war criminals they truly are. To my mind, the charge of war crimes, held in an international arena, has more weight than a mere presidential impeachment process.
A war crimes tribunal hosted by the UN would be better. Freezing the monetary gains made by war the profiteering of Dick Cheney and pals would get their attention: money is central to their thinking. After all, this whole Iraq disaster is "just another business deal" to secure an oil sharing agreement from Iraq. Our administration will not willingly withdraw from Iraq until the fledgling government there agrees to our terms regarding the sharing of oil with the United States. Republicans have said so as recently as last week during the debate in the Senate on troop withdrawal timelines.
So I reservedly back the growing impeachment movement, unconvinced it will do any good. At the same time, I believe we must "prepare for trial" regardless of possible outcome. Please support this growing movement. It is the only way average Americans can regain a voice in our own destiny between election cycles. Even if you think, like I do, that it may be in vain. While the time is running out on impeachment, there is no statute of limitations for war criminals. We can take all the time we need.