Bruce Fein says that impeachment is necessary to the cause of full disclosure. The public has a right to know what the Bush Administration has been up to!
link to original video
[June 22, 2008: Bruce Fein says that those members of the Bush Administration who knowingly distorted the supposed threat, and presented false evidence to suggest the existence of a threat, from Iraq are not culpable for crimes (in his opinion) - though these actions and many others are worthy of impeachment.
I am confused, because it seems that intentionally misleading the American people for the purpose of launching an act of military aggression should be, and would be, and in my much less expert opinion, definitely qualifying for consideration of criminal prosecution. One only has to look at the outcome. (Well over) 4,000 dead U.S. soldiers (and how many suffering permanent and serious war-related injury?). Over 1,000,000 Iraqi dead and millions more forced to flee their homes due to destabilization and violence.
I agree with Bruce that there is ample evidence to pursue impeachment. This President is so guilty that an impeachment trial could probably be completed in one day. That is, of course, if our leaders took their oath and their responsibility to the Constitution seriously.
But I also think that the President's crimes warrant more serious consequences than impeachment and removal from office. This President's actions are worthy of prosecution for murder. He knowingly and deliberately placed U.S. soldiers in harm's way, resulting in thousands of deaths, for the purposes of an unnecessary (and unconstitutional) war (of aggression.) /June 22, 2008]
I came to your blog via your Flickr page. I don't agree with your opinions on Iraq - that it is basically analogous to Vietnam and is a case of "imperialism".
ReplyDeleteYou place far too much importance on securing oil supply as a motive to invade. The truth is "war for oil" is propaganda disseminated by the US war machine. The war has a lot more to do with Zionism than it does with fossil fuel supply. Indeed, the origins of the Iraqi conflict can be found in the Israeli-funded "Clean Break" document (predecessor to the more well known "Rebuilding America's Defences").
The theory of "imperialism" is a product of leftist thought. Like so many other leftist doctrines, I don't buy it.
While there was a large element of military expansionism to Vietnam, I think the Iraqi invasion (and ongoing occupation) is fundamentally different. You can't equate the motives to engage in war as being the same.
The use of Monsanto's Agent Orange and others as herbicides was despicable, however that's a different point to the "imperialist motives" one.
US Global Dominance and National Interest
ReplyDeleteAnonymous, I disagree with you. Probably not surprising. I do believe that what we have in Iraq is an imperial maneuver; it is venture capitalism taken to the extremes of violence, militarism and conquest.
The oil is not the ultimate goal. Although it is a necessary ingredient toward achieving the ultimate goal, which is global dominance.
Basically the US government is under the control of these massive corporations. In the case of the invasion of Iraq it was oil companies and the military industrial complex, which led the push for invasion (and continue to push for ongoing occupation - ref. permanent bases being built.)
As far as propaganda disseminated by the US war machine, it's not about oil. The US war machine would have you believe that it's about terrorism. It's about fighting them there so that we don't have to fight them there. Oil is just a side-dish, at best. Just coincidence, really.
But it's obvious that oil is a major factor. It's not propaganda. It's just the way it is.
Imperialism a product of leftist thought. You're way over my head on that one, sorry buddy.
What we have is imperialism. It's not quite the classical imperialism of Britain in the previous centuries.
It's more of an economic imperialism. It's the installation of Western Big Business Capitalism as a socio-political structure. The idea is to colonize the globe with profit driven, growth dependent big business capitalism. That way, corporations can come more and more to abrogate the duties traditionally afforded to governments. It's a form of tyranny.
What we have now in the United States is taxation without representation. Shame on us!!!