Impeachment is Not the Answer

There is a small but growing movement calling for the impeachment of President Bush. I strongly believe this is a wrong turn that we must avoid.

At the same time, I am sympathetic to those who look to this remedy. The constitutional circumstances for impeachment – high crimes and misdemeanors -- have perhaps never been better matched. The lies put forward to bring us to war in Iraq, and the continued misrepresentations of the truth on the ground as we remain there, are indeed crimes that have cost thousands of lives. Almost daily, more deceit and corruption are uncovered in the highest levels of the administration by individuals who retain the full confidence and support of the president.

Yet, impeachment would be a poor tool for repairing the engine of government at this point. For one thing, the process was badly trivialized by the Republicans in the political theater that was designed to embarrass President Clinton over his personal peccadilloes. For another, we simply do not have the votes in Congress to impeach. Finally, even if Bush was forced out, we would bequeath the executive office to Dick Cheney, perhaps the current de facto leader behind the scenes.

As it stands, Bush is ineligible for re-election, and Cheney is unelectable. That dynamic could change in the political civil war that would erupt in the beltway should an impeachment occur. We cannot risk a further strain on our already polarized republic.

What is the alternative? Wait it out. To paraphrase Chairman Mao – his wit, not his politics: “It is always darkest before it is completely black.” We have a tough eighteen months ahead, especially because the Democratic majority is not large enough to actually enact policy, only to obstruct.

So is it gridlock? In this case, gridlock is a positive strategy for the opposition. This administration has done more damage to American interests at home and abroad than any other that preceded it. Its ideology is egregious and it is hopelessly incompetent. These guys can’t make a cup of coffee without spilling it. I say block them in every policy initiative and implementation, and hold our collective breath till they are gone.

This is a great country. We have survived economic depression, world wars, a nuclear stand-off with the Soviets – if we play it the right way, we can survive the remainder of the Bush Administration.

Twelve Steps to Re-Make Iraq

Iraq has been likened to a shattered glass, and that is an apt metaphor. What once was can never be reassembled. In the last five years, US policy – guided by arrogance, ignorance and incompetence -- has turned a nation-state into so much wreckage. But that is history, and history cannot be altered. What about now?
There should be no doubt that the present course must be abandoned, yet few coherent alternatives have been advanced to replace it. What is needed is an entirely fresh approach. With that in mind, here are twelve steps that if adopted have a reasonable chance for success in re-making Iraq:

1. Suspend Iraqi sovereignty. It is not a functioning state and we must stop pretending that it is. Our initial rush to restore Iraqi sovereignty after Saddam, before the country was capable of self-rule, was but a political flourish by the Bush Administration. Much of the world views it as a fiction anyway as long as it remains under US occupation.
2. Suspend the Iraqi constitution, dismiss the ineffective al-Maliki government and declare martial law. The Iraqi “democracy” bequeathed so ineptly by the US is as much of a fiction as the country’s alleged sovereignty. It is a flawed system assembled from flawed assumptions and it simply cannot and does not govern.
3. Select a secular strong man and put him in power as a “king” with authoritarian powers for five years with the goal of evolving a constitutional monarchy in the years that follow. He must be a civilian and he must control the armed forces.
4. Abolish the death penalty. There must be a guarantee against judicial murder.
5. Declare a general amnesty. All political prisoners should be released without prejudice.
6. Exile leaders of violent factions currently in captivity to third countries. The period of exile should be ten years, with an appeal considered in five.
7. Declare that US troops will leave the country permanently in one year; in the meantime those troops should be utilized to support the king and his new government.
8. Set a date for a cease-fire by all parties and a surrender of arms. Declare that the new government will consider itself at war with any party that does not abide by this armistice.
9. Partition the country into three federal super-states where citizens can feel safe. The Kurdish north has been a de-facto state since the end of the Persian Gulf War. Two more must be created taking into account the on-the-ground realties of Shiite and Sunni domination. Baghdad, the seat of government, should be a neutral entity that is not incorporated into any of the three federal states. Partition in this sense will be utilized to unite the country, rather than divide it.
10. Draw up a new interim Iraqi constitution, under the aegis of the justices of United States Supreme Court and the International Court of Justice. The new constitution should declare absolute supremacy of secular rule – as in Turkey – and enshrine human rights such as religious tolerance, civilian rule, a death penalty prohibition, freedom of speech, press and association, and political neutrality in regional and international conflicts. A constitutional monarchy should be constructed to permanently govern the nation after the initial five years of direct rule by the king.
11. Invite UN peacekeepers and troops from third countries to seal the borders of Iraq with all of its neighbors to guarantee the security and eventual sovereignty of the new Iraqi nation.
12. Convene a regional council of neighboring countries including Syria, Iran, Turkey and Pakistan, under the auspices of the Secretary General of the United Nations. Russia should be brought into the process to ensure its interests in the region are not threatened and to help enforce the settlement. The council should work towards establishing a treaty that guarantees the security of all, including the new Iraqi state.

These steps can only hope to succeed if adopted as a uniform blueprint: each part of this program is dependant upon all of the others. Of course, there are no guarantees, but it can offer hope for a new beginning for Iraq and a respectable way out for the United States. The current course, on the other hand, is an unmitigated disaster that portends only more of the same ruin for the Iraqis and the American people. It’s time to try a new way forward.

Independence Day

Independence Day is our nation’s greatest secular holiday. It is a commemoration of the birth of our country as we severed ties with England and set our own course as a free people.

It is not a celebration of war, and don’t let the right-wing hijack it for that purpose.

Each Fourth of July, President Bush uses the occasion to talk about the war in Iraq, usually before a military audience. It is yet one more instance where those who have led us into this unjust, illegal conflict effectively commandeer our natural patriotism and turn it into an ugly endorsement of the debacle that has resulted in the deaths of 3567 American soldiers and countless tens of thousands of Iraqis.

This not-so-subtle takeover of the Fourth of July provides the Bush/Cheney regime with another opportunity to smear those who are against the war -- since we all know that in their world if you are in opposition you must be unpatriotic. And, by extension, there is an implication that you don’t support the troops. They will wave their flags on July 4th, and you had better wave yours with them or your very loyalty may be called into question by loudmouth lunatics like Rush Limbaugh and Anne Coulter.

Well, not on my front lawn!

On the Fourth, I’ll be waving my flag, but I’ll be waving it for this great Republic for which it stands: not the war and violence the Bush crowd celebrates, but the peace and freedom and civilization that is the foundation of the United States of America. I’m not letting them take my holiday away from me.