It's criminal

Impeachment is the only recourse that can bring a halt to the madness
in Iraq, and the insanity being planned in Iran and elsewhere.

http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/ritter/33788/

Scott Ritter March 20, 2006.

As America reaches the third anniversary of President Bush's decision
to invade and occupy Iraq, there is for the first time the unsettling
realization brought about by the clarity of acts that emerges only
after the passage of time that something horrible has happened.

This awakening of collective awareness on the part of the American
people is reflected not only in the numerous polls which show
President Bush's popularity plummeting to all-time lows, largely
because of the war in Iraq, but also the collective shrug of the
shoulders on the part of the one-time cheerleaders for the war in Iraq
-- the mainstream American media -- when covering the hollow rhetoric
of the President as he tries to rally a nation around a cause that has
long since lost its allure.

No amount of flowery language and repeated pulls at the patriotic
heartstrings of America, no repeated assault on the senses and
sensibilities through repetitious referral to the events of 9/11 can
jump start a second phase of the kind of mindless nationalistic fervor
that greeted the erstwhile Cowboy President when he first herded a
compliant America down the path of war with Iraq three years ago.

Looking back on the string of unfulfilled objectives, broken promises,
squandered dreams, shattered bodies and eviscerated lives that was and
is the war in Iraq, one thought emerges plain and clear. This isn't
simply a result of bad governance. This is criminal.

Bad governance is telling the American people that a war with Iraq
would be concluded in a manner of months, and would cost the American
taxpayer less that $2 billion, when in fact the war has gone on for
three years now, with no end in sight, and over a quarter-trillion
dollars have been expended, with untold billions more to be spent.

Criminal governance is the fabrication of a justification for war
(weapons of mass destruction), hiding the President's true intentions
from the American people and the Congress of the United States (Bush
signed off on the Iraq war plans in late August 2002, and yet
continued to publicly state that no decision for military action had
been made), and shredding international law by waging an aggressive
war of pre-emption void of any United Nations Security Council
resolution authorizing such actions.

Bad governance is manipulating war planning on the part of military
professionals so that we enter into a conflict with far too few troops
for the task, with no plan for how to proceed once the fighting ended
and the reality of occupation set in.

Criminal governance is violating every principle of the laws of war in
the conduct of the occupation of Iraq, manipulating the economic and
political direction of Iraq, suppressing its population, and engaging
in wanton acts of widespread murder, torture and abuse of the Iraqi
people.

The fact is the war in Iraq has degenerated into one giant hate crime.

American soldiers and Marines are being thrown into a cauldron of our
own making, scalded by a conflict with no purpose or direction, with
the end result being that in order to survive these fighting men and
women have dehumanized the totality of the Iraqi people.

The ancestors of ancient Babylon have become nothing more than "sand
niggers", "rag-heads", "camel jockeys", "ninja women" or "haji" in the
hearts and minds of American fighting men who are now killing Iraqis
in ever increasing numbers. Gone is any talk of rebuilding Iraq. We
are there to destroy it. The criminal nature of the war in Iraq is
starting to become common knowledge among observers of the war.

It has long sense been common knowledge on the part of those waging
it. In Vietnam Americans were shocked by the revelations of Mai Lai
and the murder of innocent Vietnamese civilians by American fighting
men. But Mai Lai is repeated in bits and pieces every day in Iraq,
with the American military occupation slaughtering family after family
of Iraqis in the name of bringing peace and security.

The realization that something has gone horribly wrong in Iraq,
however, has not translated into any kind of discernable action on the
part of the American people. While pundit after pundit breaks ranks
with the Bush administration on Iraq, often repudiating their own
pre-war chest beating and encouragement of the war, the fact is that
the manifesto which manifested itself in the invasion of Iraq -- the
2002 National Security Strategy of the United States -- continues to
dictate the manner and nature of America's interfacing with the rest
of the world in unquestioned fashion.

Indeed, President Bush has, on the eve of the third anniversary of the
Iraqi war, promulgated a new, improved version of this manifesto, the
2006 National Security Strategy of the United States, which re-affirms
America's commitment to the principles of pre-emptive war. In short,
the President has re-certified America as the greatest threat to
international peace and security in modern times, especially when one
considers that even as America is engaged in the brutal rape and
occupation of Iraq, President Bush has his eyes firmly set on another
war of aggression in Iran.

What are the American people doing in response? There is a huge
difference between becoming aware and taking action. While poll
numbers on Iraq reflect a growing unease about the war, this unease
has not manifested itself into any discernable reaction of
consequence. The Democratic Party has remained largely mute, largely
because of the culpability on the part of much of its membership in
facilitating and sustaining the Iraqi war and its underlining doctrine
of global domination by the United States.

But in the face of the near total subservience on the part of the
Republican Party in supporting the policies of President Bush no
matter how illegal and harmful they are to America and the world, the
Democratic Party must shake itself free of the doldrums it currently
finds itself stuck in. The time for passive recognition that the war
in Iraq has gone bad is long past.

The time for concrete political action has arrived. The Democrats need
to recognize that the political struggle in America today is not a
trivial extension of the partisan Red State-Blue State nonsense the
American media likes to bandy about, but rather a far more serious
struggle of national survival, if one in fact defines the American
nation as being reflective of the ideals and values set forth by the
Constitution of the United States.

The Iraq War, if anything, is a reflection of the total abrogation of
constitutional responsibility and process by the Congress of the
United States. As a result, the President has led a nationdown the
path of illegal war of aggression which has damaged America's
reputation abroad, and its very fabric here at home. The
Republican-controlled Congress has done little to stop this collective
march towards national self-destruction, rubber-stamping the
president's illegal actions with little regard to either the rule of
law or Congress's status as a second but equal branch of government.

This must end.

The fact is that America today stands on the brink of having
everything we stand for as a nation being swept away by a power-crazed
President and a compliant Congress, both of whom are Republican.
Whatever direction the Democratic Party takes in the future, it must
be with the recognition that the hopes and dreams of saving the United
States as a nation of laws founded in the words and principles of the
Constitution rest heavily on their shoulders. The Democratic Party
must become laser-like in its rejection of the war in Iraq, resolute
in condemning this war for what it is, an illegal war of
aggression,and determined in fighting for the concept of a nation
governed by the rule of law by holding President Bush accountable for
his illegal actions.

In short, the rallying cry of the Democratic Party must become
impeachment. Given the magnitude of the crimes committed by the United
States in Iraq under the direction and leadership of President Bush
and his administration, there is simply no other recourse that can
bring a halt to the madness in Iraq, and the insanity being planned in
Iran and elsewhere.

The remedy is clear. The question now is whether the Democratic Party
is up to the task.

Scott Ritter served as chief U.N. weapons inspector in Iraq from 1991
until his resignation in 1998. He is the author of, most recently,
Iraq Confidential: The Untold Story of the Intelligence Conspiracy to
Undermine the U.N. and Overthrow Saddam Hussein (Nation Books, 2005).

http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/ritter/33788/


This article linked from: antiwar.com


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another choice:

www.lp.org

It's criminal

Impeachment is the only recourse that can bring a halt to the madness
in Iraq, and the insanity being planned in Iran and elsewhere.

http://www.alternet.org/bloggers/ritter/33788/

Scott Ritter March 20, 2006.

As America reaches the third anniversary of President Bush's decision
to invade and occupy Iraq, there is for the first time the unsettling
realization brought about by the clarity of acts that emerges only
after the passage of time that something horrible has happened.