The spectacle of Congressional Republicans forced to remove their Kabuki makeup and flee backstage offers me no comfort; their disgrace is a distraction and I have little patience for smug levity right now. We need to steel ourselves - things are about to get a lot worse.
That BUSHCO will try to invade Iran should be beyond controversy. What seems to be less clear is the catastrophic effect it will have. An Iran invasion represents much more than yet another blunder or even another war crime - it is an attempt to destroy our ability to indict. That's why they are taking such a risky and ostensibly bewildering step this late in the game. It's not about fanaticism, or even money, anymore. Now that the fog of Iraq is clearing, they need another smokescreen to make their escape. Iran is it.
Here's what Congress must do:
BEGIN IMPEACHMENT PROCEEDINGS AGAINST BOTH BUSH AND CHENEY. RIGHT NOW.
That's it. There is no other choice. The Framers gave Congress that power for exactly this reason. A few of them even predicted our current crisis with astonishing accuracy. All our talk about Iraq progress reports, budgetary options, even "criminal" investigations, is absurdly beside the point. These vital issues are tomorrow's errands. Even admirable constitutional warriors like Patrick Leahy appear to have fallen for this feint. The Germans have already entered Paris and they're still trying to fortify the Maginot Line. Stop. Enough.
Any hope of a true recovery (already a long shot considering the scope of self-examination and legal action such a recovery would require has never occurred in American history) critically depends on what happens during the next three months. Not fourteen. Not six. Three.
Potemkin Village USA is on the edge of collapse. Whether and when the dollar fails requires a grasp of complex systems that eludes even our best trained minds. It was pretty clear, pretty quickly, that BushCo's basic strategy was to exploit this fundamental human weakness. So, commit one crime and you will be punished, they realized. Commit a thousand, and no one will know what happened.
That means we must now try to simplify, reduce the variables.
Or, instead, we can attack Iran, who, thanks to us, is now the region's only true power: populous, well-armed and full of rage. Iran's neighbors, meanwhile, again, thanks to us, are fragmented, confused, terrified, furious, and well-armed. We begin bombing while we deploy ground forces depleted beyond modern precedent and "supported" by an unknown number of private mercenaries. Meanwhile, the rest of the Eurasian continent (except for the pathetic Sarkozy, who doesn't seem to realize he has hitched his wagon to a bomb), watches as we begin yet another adventure, years after they objected to the first one, whose sinister design and unconscionable execution seem obvious to everyone but the American people. (This wouldn't be the first time - we were the last to find out about the beginning of the ground war in Vietnam and the invasion of Cambodia). At the same time, add a crumbling infrastructure at home, a global economy teetering on the edge of collapse, and an environmental reckoning lying in wait. Now stir.
Any guesses?
Once the smoke clears, BushCo will be long gone - there will be too much work ahead to bother with the villains. "History," as it has in our past, will be used as an anesthetic, not a real treatment. All in the name of "moving on." We Americans just don't seem to be very good at pain.
Or, we can fight through:
BushCo doesn't need future money to wage present war. Nor does it need "legal" authority to invade Iran. In BushCo's collective mind, that authority already exists. Read the Executive Orders, the Directives, the Signing Statements. What is Congress going to do, sue to enjoin the Executive from invading? Ridiculous. Besides, consider the legislation they themselves passed - even the Warren Court would have trouble with this one.
We should also forget about "War Crimes" tribunals or international response. The fact that we were able to disregard international opinion in the first place is the very reason foreign nations cannot help us now. Not even Russia, the only other entity whose stockpile even approaches our own, could spearhead an international intervention. Russia is simply too corrupt, and their recent military muscle-flexing indicates nothing more than an intent to resume their own imperial adventures. (Well, BushCo did cut the Kremlin out of Iraq.)
Nor can we fall for the "but Iran is a real threat" trap. It doesn't matter. Until we restore sanity to power, that response is not even wrong. (If Congress signs off on an Iranian action under the guise of "terrorism, WMD and Middle Eastern stability," in the middle of a U.N. Investigation, no less, then I will know that I have fallen through a hole in space/time. In that case, there is nothing to do but try to drown out the screams and find a way home).
And shame on us if we try to rely on the better angels of our military. We got them into this mess, we cannot now have the contemptible audacity to ask them for deliverance. They've tried the best they can, the same way the majority of Hitler's generals tried to oppose their maniacal leader. We don't need an American Von Stauffenberg - unlike the Third Reich, we have a way to preserve constitutional legitimacy AND rid ourselves of this danger. What are we waiting for?
Congress must begin drafting articles of impeachment right now. We are already late and there is much work to do. Enough evidence of widespread impeachable conduct exists in the public record to make any prosecutor salivate, and to drag a trial out for months. And that doesn't even include the smoking guns and rotting corpses that subpoenas are likely to uncover from beneath bogus security stamps and man-sized safes.
We Democrats must reach out to Republicans with desperate honesty. Partisan squabbling is a luxury reserved for healthy democracies, and only now serves to deny the illness. Major surgery is required. So what if Nancy Pelosi ascends to the Presidency? It's temporary. Neither Pomp nor Circumstance required. We need to stop the bleeding or we'll lose the patient. If, as is my deepest hope, fewer than one-third of the House is imprisoned by bad faith or irreconcilable denial, then we have a shot.
I'm an American. I love my country, warts and all, as do most of us, regardless of party. But when we concentrate on "cleaning house" while the roof collapses around us, love becomes well-meaning folly. This Administration is capable of anything. Anyone who, in good faith, believes otherwise needs to spit out the Kool-Aid right now. This is a matter of National Security and, this time, the threat is real.
Bush and Cheney must go. This may be our last chance to fail.