A couple of weeks or so ago, a poll was taken revealing that 50% of the American public
believed that if Bush lied about the reasons for going to war in Iraq, he should be impeached.
To those of us in the anti-war movement, it has been obvious for quite some time now that
the Bushies have been lying all along. The Downing Street Memo proves, in case more proof
were needed, that the Bush and Blair administrations were lying about the reasons for going
to war against Iraq.

Even a war hawk such as John Murtha (D-PA) has now called for bringing the troops home
now. With Bush's approval ratings down to about 36%, his solid right-wing wall of support
is showing signs of some cracks. So, why has Congress not started procedures to adopt
articles of impeachment against George W. Bush, Richard ("Dick") Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld,
Condoleeza Rice and others who made the phony case for war against a sovereign nation
that posed no threat to the USA?

Juxtapose the current situation with that of several years ago when Congress voted for a
Bill of Impeachment against Bill Clinton. The reason for that Bill of Impeachment was for
lying under oath about receiving sexual favors from an intern in the Oval Office. While
many of us may find that loutish behavior unseemly, it hardly compares in substance to
starting a war based on lies, causing the deaths of over 100,000 Iraqis, over 2,000
deaths of US soldiers, countless hundreds of thousands of Iraqis seriously maimed
and wounded and at least 15,000 US soldiers seriously maimed and wounded. And, for
what? For a bunch of lies used to start a war in which Bush's buddies would make a
financial killing?

At the time of the Clinton impeachment, most Americans were opposed to it, but the
Republicans persisted in spite of public opinion. While a President's perfidious peccadilloes
may be repugnant, they are not what the public should consider weighty matters of high
crimes and misdemeanors that would justify a call for impeachment. These are a matter
of real concern only for the President and his/her spouse.

To be sure, there are things for which Bill Clinton could have, and even should have, been
impeached. These would include the continued bombing of Iraq, his cruel welfare reforms
that were an attack on the poor and his pushing through the NAFTA trade agreement,
which has contributed to the flight of jobs from the USA and exploitation abroad.

Now that there is a true reason for impeachment of the members of probably the most
corrupt administration in US history, why are the bi-partisan cowards in the Congress so
reluctant to do their duty?

In 2002, former US Attorney General Ramsey Clark began calling for impeachment of
George W. Bush and those in his cabinet who were promoting an imperialist war based
upon lies. As Clark points out war is the greatest act of terrorism and the crime of
starting an unprovoked war is the greatest of all crimes.

The fact that both houses are dominated by the Republican Party is no excuse for at least
the Democrats not to try. The Republicans fight even when they are wrong, which is almost
all, if not all, of the time. While my interest here is not to promote or to strengthen the
Democratic Party, this craven cowardice on their part may explain why they keep losing
ground to the rogues of the Republican Party. My only interest here is to see justice done.
That requires the impeachment of Bush and his co-conspirators in promoting a preemptive
imperialist war against Iraq, a sovereign nation which posed no threat to the USA or any
other nation outside its own borders. If the Democrats grew a spine and fought, even if
they lost, they could at least say they tried. So far, they can't even do that.

The time for impeachment is now! The time to bring the troops home is now! Call or write
to your congressional representatives to demand impeachment of Bush and company for
promoting a war based upon lies and that the troops be brought home now!

Dave Schraeger