End 'illegal occupation in Iraq'

[NNN0LHI]

http://www.siouxcityjournal.com/articles/2007/05/27/news_opinion/letters/171830ad4f94852d862572e6005ec17a.txt

SIOUX CITY -- A plea for the return of peace: I am pleading with Congress to not surrender to President Bush on Iraq. We must not bow down and let more Americans die for his illegal invasion and occupation. In addition, it is imperative we finally hold this administration accountable for their crimes, and impeachment is the only appropriate solution.

We are counting on you to do what we elected you to do, give us back our nation by ridding us of this administration, and end this illegal occupation in Iraq.-- Mary Henslee

[pat_k]

1. Wanna end the occupation? Forget Iraq. Fight to impeach. . .

. . .there is no magic solution to rule by signing statement. There is no bill or resolution -- other than a bill of impeachment -- that can end GWB's fascist fantasy of unitary authoritarian power.

We can trust one thing that Bush tells us. There will be no "end" to the occupation (or "beginning of the end) as long as he is "the decider."

The only way out is impeachment.

We will not see anything but impotent gesture and "politics as usual" as long as America's overwhelming anger at Bush is pigeon-holed and marginalized as the "anti-war left."

Thugs only respond to force. Only impeachment carries with it the threat of force -- removal from office. No bill has the "force of law" in a White House that regards law as mere suggestion.

The bushcheney syndicate could care less about being "exposed" by any of the 50 or so Congressional investigations underway. They've been committing grave violations the constitution and the law in plain sight for years -- torturing; spying without warrant; abusing signing statements to "interpret" law into oblivion. In the face of such violations, what does Pelosi do with her new shiny non-veto proof majority? She takes impeachment "off the table."

The moment she issued her pre-emptive surrender, all other surrenders became inevitable. Whether it takes the form of "compromise," capitulation, or meek submission to intolerable crimes against our constitutional democracy, we will see nothing but surrender as long as they refuse to immediately impeach.

Know-it-all declarations that "we don't have the votes" that emanate from the beltway and are echoed "out here" simply aren't grounded in reality.

When Republicans are forced to respond to real charges, there will be some (perhaps many) who find themselves unable to stand and fight for GWB's absolute power to nullify the bills they pass with a stroke of his (or her -- Unitary Executive Hillary anyone??) pen. They may find the choice between fighting for the pariah in chief and putting Pelosi in the WH so repugnant that they do everything in their power to force Bush and Cheney to spare them by resigning and handing the keys to somebody acceptable to the Democratic House and Senate (President Danforth?).

The declarations that impeachment would be political suicide -- declarations contemptuous of any analysis that that challenges the conclusions of the cocksure beltway brain trust -- are willfully ignorant of the moral and political risks of refusing to impeach and the enormous potential benefits of of impeachment, without which no "analysis" can be complete.

Outside the insular world of beltway groupthink and wrong-headed assumptions of the beltway we find shrewd analysis that recognizes that impeachment is not only the only moral course, it is an unprecedented political opportunity. Real experts like Curtis Gans, Director of the Director
of the Center for the Study of the American Electorate, who recognizes that the election was not "all about the War" -- it was "all about" Bush.

Politically Direct with David Bender, 10-Nov-06 (http://podcast.rbn.com/airam/airam/download/archive/2006/11/aapd111006.mp3">mp3 -- Interview start time approx 18:30)

Bender: Joining me now is Curtis Gans. He is the Director of the Center for the Study of the American Electorate at American University and he has just released a new study analyzing the turnout this past Tuesday, and there's some interesting and there are some very, very interesting shifts in the turnout from previous elections. Welcome to Politically Direct . . .

Gans: It's very good to talk to you David.

Bender: Curtis, I'm holding the study in my hand right now, and clearly one of the things that all the exit polls showed was that Iraq played a part and your own work bears that out -- that Iraq helped propel some degree of an increase in turnout in this last election.

Gans: I think that it is not simply Iraq, although Iraq started Bush's downhill. But it is a gestalt around George Bush. it's being a pariah to other countries; it's people dying in what they increasing find is a vain fight; it's massive budgetary imbalances; it's a lack of compassionate conservatism; it's insecurity in jobs; it's the feeling that people have not been leveled with. . .

Bender: You've been doing this for almost 30 years; studying the American electorate. And there is probably no greater expert than you. It's just a real pleasure to have you on this program. . .
Gans: Traditionally, at least for the last 30 years, they have essentially been very tactical; very programmatic. I don't think either one of those works. I think they have to have an articulation of Central American principles and what that means within a progressive Party.

. . .You know, what is a Democratic definition of liberty? What is Democratic definition of the common welfare? Etc.

Bender: This is a moment, clearly -- the people voted for accountability, there's no question about that. And the opportunity to show that the Democratic Party is the Party of the Constitution, I think will be a very popular position across the board, particularly with Independents, and maybe even some Republicans who still love this Constitution.

Gans: The concept of the Constitution and the People's Government is something that can unite the Democratic Party in ways it hasn't been united since the late 1960's
. . .

Impeachment is an opportunity for the Democrats to demonstrate strength and commitment to principle (and thus solve the Number 1 problem plaguing the party; the perception that Dems are wimps). It is an opportunity to become champions of the People's Government and the Constitution and finally articulate overarching principles that inspire and recapture their traditional base, so many of whom have opted out. It is an opportunity to capture the hearts of "Independents, and maybe even some Republicans who still love this Constitution."

Anti-Bush is not a subset of the Anti-War movement, it is the superset. There can be no sanity under Bush. Impeachment is the ONLY act that says "This is Intolerable." The USA cannot begin to find a way to extract ourselves from the quagmire in Bush World. It is the only act that can give America the wish that "GWB's presidency were over" (a wish expressed by 58% in Newsweek's Jan 27 poll; a number that has undoubted grown as Bush's numbers plummet).

You want to end the war? Forget the war. Demand impeachment. Period. Escape from Bush World and trust that the will of the American people will assert itself and we will find a way out of Iraq.