Senator Russ Feingold, a respected and decent man, wants to censure the President (http://www.dailykos.com/story/2007/7/22/1077/74921). Only one President has been censured in 200 plus years and that accomplished absolutely nothing. That guy is on the $20 bill. There was a time when I thought voting out the Republicans would resolve most of our important problems. I no longer think so. I don't believe that we can get our troops out of Iraq and stop killing people without diplomatic efforts that Bush, Cheney and Rice will never make. Do we keep on killing and spending billions, do we wait until polls tell us that impeachment is guaranteed to be successful?
I. President Bush has repeatedly defied Congress. He has issued hundreds of signing statements, claiming that he can decide which laws apply to him. He tries to keep any member of the executive branch from testifying before Congress and the People- that’s the mean of his offer for secret testimony, without oath or transcript. He and toady Gonzales have carried out a systematic policy of voter suppression, deciding who gets to vote. They have corroded the federal justice system. Congress has ignored Mr. Bush’s transgressions. They came slowly; you have acted like the frog in slowly boiling water. Censure is frankly ridiculous. To paraphrase the old saying "enforcement of the Constitution can bring me down, but names will never hurt me".
II. Consider the Middle East today. We are stuck on a tar baby, which goes beyond Iraq. At least five countries (The US, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Israeli, Turkey) are involved in undercover guerrilla actions to destabilize and hurt governments that they don’t like. We dismembered Iraq. The largest number of foreign fighters in Iraq, according to the US military, are Saudis, not Iranians. The Saudis have armed guerrillas within Lebanon, a shaky country after last year’s US-encouraged Israeli invasion. Those guerrillas will attack Hezbollah. The US and the Saudis armed Sunni desperadoes in the 1980s. That produced bin Laden and 9/11. Now we are doing exactly the same thing again , driven by our fear of the Iranians, who also meddle in the affairs of other countries. Removal of American troops without some understanding between all of these governments and the Afghan and Pakistani governments is crazy. However, Bush. Cheney and Rice want to negotiate only with friends. Bush will disregard Congressional action to defund the war. And, by the way, who will pay for the trillion-dollar reconstruction of Iraq? The cost is rising every day.
III. Censure ignores these complex issues, which resemble the problems facing Europe after the 1914 assassination of Archduke Ferdinand. Barbara Tuchman wrote about the actions of the European governments as collective insanity. That applies to the big five meddlers and the ridiculous assertions that the US or Israel could resolve our problems by knocking off Syria, Iran, Pakistan, you name it.
This mess will be much harder to end than the Vietnam War because of
- oil
- Israel and its special place in American politics
- The fear of a terrorist attack
Congress is paralyzed with fear that you may be held responsible years from now if there is another terrorist attack. Yet, you do nothing about our government’s criminal actions in the Middle East, which waste lives and money and create more jihadis every day. You can’t lead unless you accept risk.
IV. Congress has passed many resolutions lately- one of the worst IMHO was the resolution demanding that Iran stop interfering in Iraq. Now, it is true that Iran is interfering in Iraq. But there are far more Saudis interfering in Iraq than Iranians. Why didn’t you pass a resolution against the Saudis? Your resolution against Iran strengthened the hand of idiots who want to bomb Iran. We are already carrying out sabotage inside Iran. Should we start similar sabotage inside Saudi Arabia? Truly, a March of Folly.
V. You say, "We need to get our brave troops out from the middle of what is largely an Iraqi civil war. " Conservatives are partly right - we can’t just pull our troops out if multiple countries in the Middle East are on fire and the five meddlers keep pouring gasoline on the fires. We must work out a deal such that all the big five meddlers- US, Israel, Iran, Saudis, Turks pull back their sabotage, guerrillas and undercover agents inside other countries. The big five are all guilty. Congress cannot send new diplomats to the Middle East to negotiate peace. You can’t even compel Bush to follow the tepid recommendations of the Iraq Study Group. Bush will not take the necessary diplomatic steps to permit a sane troop withdrawal. The government, our government, must be changed or change its ways. If Bush decides in the middle of impeachment proceedings to alter our terrorist ways, then maybe Congress will pull back on impeachment.
VI. Impeachment is a long and messy procedure. It can only remove people from office and it might take until January 2009 to do that. I’m interested in restoring the balance of power and saving the Republic. That’s more important than punishing individuals. Even if impeachment finishes one hour before the next President is sworn in, the important balance of power will have been restored. Resolutions, censure, talk about accountability- it’s too late for this frivolity. If you don’t care about Bush’s corruption of the DOJ, his unitary executive, what do you care about?
VII. We laugh, we cry, we live, we die. If we can’t stand up for our freedom, if we must take more polls before we take a stand, we are in the toilet. Again I say, who pays to rebuild Iraq? The day is over when the US can knock over other governments with impunity. We must not start any more wars. Impeachment proceedings belong in the House. I have suggested in another diary that they might best begin with Gonzales, www.dailykos.com/comments/2007/7/21/152048/000/61#c61 in that way the case for impeachment can grow and others ( B/C) will be drawn in.
Stop complaining about impeachment interfering with your resolutions. Those who resist Congressional subpoena must be arrested. The hour is late.