THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX!
The United States of America is engaged in a war against terrorism; to impeach a President at this time must seem to most people the height of folly; to seriously consider such a course of action must seem to many a doomed and foredoomed attempt to scale the heights of insanity. To actually attempt this must risk splitting the nation asunder and invite the recurrence of attacks similar to the September 11 catastrophe.
During the long impeachment process the conflict between those for impeachment and those who support the President would be almost certain to embroil members of the Armed Forces serving in Iraq and distract and divide them to a degree that would place them at an even greater risk than the dangers they confront today.
Yet I suggest that for the common good it is necessary to impeach the President. I intend to prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that to save this nation’s soul it is necessary to impeach the President.
I wish to confess that on the first occasion that I considered this alternative I was angry. I was completely outraged because twenty six more children had been killed in Iraq lured on to the killing ground by US soldiers who were handing out sweets. This was the second incident of this nature, the first occurred on the eve of the first Presidential debate when thirty five children were killed by a suicide bomber after being enticed on to the killing ground by US soldiers handing out confections.
There is a strong tradition from previous wars of soldiers handing out chocolates and other confections to children. This tradition had its genesis in the compassion of individual soldiers confronting hungry children the involuntary hostages of fate, the innocent victims of war. Over the years it has become, like many other acts of altruism, a public relations gimmick.
The issue is whether this tradition should be continued - if it results in the carnage and painful deaths of the children that gather to partake of the munificence of American soldiers. Many important officials in the American Government, notably President Bush, andDefense Secretary Rumsfeld have visited Iraq without suffering any physical harm because of the efforts of the Armed Forces responsible for their safety.
Should the soldiers handing out sweets care less for the lives of children who gather because they present them with a treat irresistible to them? Should American soldiers value the lives of these children to the degree that they should either provide immaculate security for these minors as they would for a visiting dignitary, or refrain from this practice given the possibility that these young lives could be callously and brutally terminated?
It is clear that to the insurgents there are no non- combatants in this conflict, they are prepared to kidnap, blow to bits and find other means to brutally murder indiscriminately anyone and everyone, children, women, fellow Iraqis, foreign journalists and diplomats, and whomsoever else that falls into their clutches - unless they are offered a lucrative deal.
Can the Allied Forces adopt a similar callous, completely insensate disregard for human life? Can the electorates in the United States of America and the United Kingdom submerge all feelings of justice, compassion and fair play in the heat of this battle and condone by their passive silence atrocities involving Allied Forces?
I strongly suggest that my outrage and anger was justified in the circumstances. I suggest that all human beings, especially those who profess to be Christians, should experience revulsion, deep disgust and anger when children are blown to bloody bits and expire, whether these are American children, or British children, or Iraqi children.
The most potent threat to human civilizations precipitated by the 911 attack was that to counteract this odious menace the majority of human beings on Planet Earth would lose ever semblance of civility and become in precept as nihilistic and suicidal as the terrorists.
There are those who claim that they could never support impeachment of the President because that would mean that he would be succeeded by Vice President Cheney, the former CEO of Halliburton, a potentially more monstrous and dangerous alternative. This position is yet another example of the intellectual incapacity of Americans, of the American penchant for being unable to connect the dots.
In constructing his Cabinet for his second term of office President Bush has excised all those who dared to take a stand, privately or publicly, against his bellicose, belligerent and unrealistic agenda. By so doing he has created a cancer that must be surgically removed from the body politic to prevent it from spreading and destroying its host.
When President Nixon began to be aware that the votes for impeachment existed, he speedily divested himself of his Vice President, Spiro Agnew. I was well aware of this precedent. Despite my anger at the untimely death of the Iraqi children, I would never allow any emotion to reduce my objectivity and my commitment to function and the common good.
To save America’s soul and to preserve the hope that humanity will one day create functioning democracies, governments of the people, by the people, for the people we must tie a can on President Bush’s tail and run he, and all of his ilk, out of Washington - but this operation if it is not to cause further damage to this great Republic must be done by meeting the requirements of its Constitution, without riot or disturbance, without bloodshed. We must mobilize the vote by creating the realization in the American people that by the laws and customs of this nation they have the power to shape reality closer to that which they desire. They have the power to create a certain minimum standard of living for all those living within the borders of the Republic, they have the power to overcome poverty, to create adequate levels of education, housing , nutrition and health care for all citizens.
Once the votes exist in the Congress to impeach the President adeal must be struck, not clandestinely or behind closed doors, but publicly in the light of day; that the President be allowed to resign quietly, and, avoid prosecution for his high crimes and numerous misdemeanors - if he will do what is necessary to create a Cabinet that has the best chance of repairing the damage and havoc he has wreaked.
He must force the resignation of Vice President Cheney and replace him with Senator John McCain, who in turn, after the resignation of the incumbent, criminal President, must agree to appoint as his Vice President, John Kerry. Together they would create a Cabinet that would extricate the nation from the quicksand of the war in Iraq, resuscitate the economy, and restore the tarnished reputation of the this nation abroad.
It is clear that we confront a President who is eminently impeachable. A Congress that was prepared to impeach a President because of the Watergate scandal should have no trouble finding the evidence to impeach a President who contrived justifications, which have since proved completely without foundation, to declare war and occupy a country, Iraq, which posed no threat. A war in which one hundred thousand Iraqi citizens have perished, as well as more than eighteen hundred American soldiers.
The question is not whether there is justification to take this extreme course of action, but whether anything less would return peace and stability to the Middle East?
The current instability in that region is the engine driving the price of crude oil to record levels, a major factor in the stagnation of the American economy, in the decline of economies worldwide.
If President Bush indicated his unshakable intention to resign, and prior to the date when he was due to demit office, he addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations, and laid bare his culpability and the real reason why he invaded Iraq; would this act not be certain to inspire trust and belief in the most rabid Muslim Fundamentalist, or terrorist, or insurgent in Iraq that the United States of America had divested itself of the ‘might is right’ attitude and that it was about to embark on a new era of relations with other nations, during which its actions would be based on simple justice?
If he were to state further that it was his intention to right the wrong he had done by restoring Saddam Hussein to power, would not the shock of this sudden, dramatic reversal in policy be sufficient to facilitate the return of this weakened and hopefully chastened dictator to power - and deny control of the second largest pool of oil on Planet Earth to Muslim Fundamentalists?
On the heels of the criminally stupid, hopelessly demented policies and actions of a President who claims to acting on the articulate directions of God there is no course of action that is not fraught with danger, but any viable alternative must be seriously considered that destroys the option that locates a Shia majority government in Iraq, beleaguered by an insurgent Sunni minority. A course that must precipitate a destructive civil war, a conflict which the Shia government cannot win without aid from Iran, a situation likely to create a Crescent of Muslim Fundamentalism that would very likely cause this brand of extremism to engulf the entire region.
The reason why the human race can make no headway in the solution of social and political problems is because we are not applying intelligence and our higher mental processes to these problems. Actions prompted by 'interests' have always for all of human history resulted in tragedy, suffering and chaos. Is it not time to remedy this lack, to think, even think outside the box, if this results in FUNCTION?
William E. Virtue
ALL RIGHTS RETAINED, COPYRIGHT RESERVED
During the long impeachment process the conflict between those for impeachment and those who support the President would be almost certain to embroil members of the Armed Forces serving in Iraq and distract and divide them to a degree that would place them at an even greater risk than the dangers they confront today.
Yet I suggest that for the common good it is necessary to impeach the President. I intend to prove beyond the shadow of a doubt that to save this nation’s soul it is necessary to impeach the President.
I wish to confess that on the first occasion that I considered this alternative I was angry. I was completely outraged because twenty six more children had been killed in Iraq lured on to the killing ground by US soldiers who were handing out sweets. This was the second incident of this nature, the first occurred on the eve of the first Presidential debate when thirty five children were killed by a suicide bomber after being enticed on to the killing ground by US soldiers handing out confections.
There is a strong tradition from previous wars of soldiers handing out chocolates and other confections to children. This tradition had its genesis in the compassion of individual soldiers confronting hungry children the involuntary hostages of fate, the innocent victims of war. Over the years it has become, like many other acts of altruism, a public relations gimmick.
The issue is whether this tradition should be continued - if it results in the carnage and painful deaths of the children that gather to partake of the munificence of American soldiers. Many important officials in the American Government, notably President Bush, andDefense Secretary Rumsfeld have visited Iraq without suffering any physical harm because of the efforts of the Armed Forces responsible for their safety.
Should the soldiers handing out sweets care less for the lives of children who gather because they present them with a treat irresistible to them? Should American soldiers value the lives of these children to the degree that they should either provide immaculate security for these minors as they would for a visiting dignitary, or refrain from this practice given the possibility that these young lives could be callously and brutally terminated?
It is clear that to the insurgents there are no non- combatants in this conflict, they are prepared to kidnap, blow to bits and find other means to brutally murder indiscriminately anyone and everyone, children, women, fellow Iraqis, foreign journalists and diplomats, and whomsoever else that falls into their clutches - unless they are offered a lucrative deal.
Can the Allied Forces adopt a similar callous, completely insensate disregard for human life? Can the electorates in the United States of America and the United Kingdom submerge all feelings of justice, compassion and fair play in the heat of this battle and condone by their passive silence atrocities involving Allied Forces?
I strongly suggest that my outrage and anger was justified in the circumstances. I suggest that all human beings, especially those who profess to be Christians, should experience revulsion, deep disgust and anger when children are blown to bloody bits and expire, whether these are American children, or British children, or Iraqi children.
The most potent threat to human civilizations precipitated by the 911 attack was that to counteract this odious menace the majority of human beings on Planet Earth would lose ever semblance of civility and become in precept as nihilistic and suicidal as the terrorists.
There are those who claim that they could never support impeachment of the President because that would mean that he would be succeeded by Vice President Cheney, the former CEO of Halliburton, a potentially more monstrous and dangerous alternative. This position is yet another example of the intellectual incapacity of Americans, of the American penchant for being unable to connect the dots.
In constructing his Cabinet for his second term of office President Bush has excised all those who dared to take a stand, privately or publicly, against his bellicose, belligerent and unrealistic agenda. By so doing he has created a cancer that must be surgically removed from the body politic to prevent it from spreading and destroying its host.
When President Nixon began to be aware that the votes for impeachment existed, he speedily divested himself of his Vice President, Spiro Agnew. I was well aware of this precedent. Despite my anger at the untimely death of the Iraqi children, I would never allow any emotion to reduce my objectivity and my commitment to function and the common good.
To save America’s soul and to preserve the hope that humanity will one day create functioning democracies, governments of the people, by the people, for the people we must tie a can on President Bush’s tail and run he, and all of his ilk, out of Washington - but this operation if it is not to cause further damage to this great Republic must be done by meeting the requirements of its Constitution, without riot or disturbance, without bloodshed. We must mobilize the vote by creating the realization in the American people that by the laws and customs of this nation they have the power to shape reality closer to that which they desire. They have the power to create a certain minimum standard of living for all those living within the borders of the Republic, they have the power to overcome poverty, to create adequate levels of education, housing , nutrition and health care for all citizens.
Once the votes exist in the Congress to impeach the President adeal must be struck, not clandestinely or behind closed doors, but publicly in the light of day; that the President be allowed to resign quietly, and, avoid prosecution for his high crimes and numerous misdemeanors - if he will do what is necessary to create a Cabinet that has the best chance of repairing the damage and havoc he has wreaked.
He must force the resignation of Vice President Cheney and replace him with Senator John McCain, who in turn, after the resignation of the incumbent, criminal President, must agree to appoint as his Vice President, John Kerry. Together they would create a Cabinet that would extricate the nation from the quicksand of the war in Iraq, resuscitate the economy, and restore the tarnished reputation of the this nation abroad.
It is clear that we confront a President who is eminently impeachable. A Congress that was prepared to impeach a President because of the Watergate scandal should have no trouble finding the evidence to impeach a President who contrived justifications, which have since proved completely without foundation, to declare war and occupy a country, Iraq, which posed no threat. A war in which one hundred thousand Iraqi citizens have perished, as well as more than eighteen hundred American soldiers.
The question is not whether there is justification to take this extreme course of action, but whether anything less would return peace and stability to the Middle East?
The current instability in that region is the engine driving the price of crude oil to record levels, a major factor in the stagnation of the American economy, in the decline of economies worldwide.
If President Bush indicated his unshakable intention to resign, and prior to the date when he was due to demit office, he addressed the General Assembly of the United Nations, and laid bare his culpability and the real reason why he invaded Iraq; would this act not be certain to inspire trust and belief in the most rabid Muslim Fundamentalist, or terrorist, or insurgent in Iraq that the United States of America had divested itself of the ‘might is right’ attitude and that it was about to embark on a new era of relations with other nations, during which its actions would be based on simple justice?
If he were to state further that it was his intention to right the wrong he had done by restoring Saddam Hussein to power, would not the shock of this sudden, dramatic reversal in policy be sufficient to facilitate the return of this weakened and hopefully chastened dictator to power - and deny control of the second largest pool of oil on Planet Earth to Muslim Fundamentalists?
On the heels of the criminally stupid, hopelessly demented policies and actions of a President who claims to acting on the articulate directions of God there is no course of action that is not fraught with danger, but any viable alternative must be seriously considered that destroys the option that locates a Shia majority government in Iraq, beleaguered by an insurgent Sunni minority. A course that must precipitate a destructive civil war, a conflict which the Shia government cannot win without aid from Iran, a situation likely to create a Crescent of Muslim Fundamentalism that would very likely cause this brand of extremism to engulf the entire region.
The reason why the human race can make no headway in the solution of social and political problems is because we are not applying intelligence and our higher mental processes to these problems. Actions prompted by 'interests' have always for all of human history resulted in tragedy, suffering and chaos. Is it not time to remedy this lack, to think, even think outside the box, if this results in FUNCTION?
William E. Virtue
ALL RIGHTS RETAINED, COPYRIGHT RESERVED
posted by voiceofpeace at 9:58 PM
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