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Time For Impeachment

There is a law George W. Bush desperately desires to change. He has sent a proposed amendment to the law to Congress. As it is, he has violated the law; however, nobody has called him on the carpet in the manner of President Clinton after getting a blowjob in the Oval Office and lying about it and in the manner President Nixon was called upon after concealing the Watergate break-in, which, when you think about it, were pretty minor affairs compared to what is going on now. Of course, Bush claims that everything is in the interest of national security; and if in the interest of national security, it's secret. Stuff that wasn't secret before is secret now. And it's not necessarily important stuff that is re-classified, probably at great taxpayer expense; but what's a few dollars when it comes to national security. Or a few hundred billion dollars?

The law was enacted by our representatives in Congress and signed by the President. The reader need not even be a Philadelphia lawyer to understand it. It's very easy to look up the Geneva Conventions, paying particular attention to Article III, and the Hague Convention IV. In addition, the fundamental guarantees outlined by Protocol 1 of the Geneva Convention are pretty clear; and it is likely that our President and a number of high ranking officials have violated the law.

Here's the law passed by the People, which the President seeks to amend and has ignored for the past three or four years:

18 United States Code Section 2441. War Crimes.

(a) Offense.— Whoever, whether inside or outside the United States, commits a war crime, in any of the circumstances described in subsection (b), shall be fined under this title or imprisoned for life or any term of years, or both, and if death results to the victim, shall also be subject to the penalty of death.
(b) Circumstances.— The circumstances referred to in subsection (a) are that the person committing such war crime or the victim of such war crime is a member of the Armed Forces of the United States or a national of the United States (as defined in section 101 of the Immigration and Nationality Act).
(c) Definition.— As used in this section the term “war crime” means any conduct—
(1) defined as a grave breach in any of the international conventions signed at Geneva 12 August 1949, or any protocol to such convention to which the United States is a party;
(2) prohibited by Article 23, 25, 27, or 28 of the Annex to the Hague Convention IV, Respecting the Laws and Customs of War on Land, signed 18 October 1907;
(3) which constitutes a violation of common Article 3 of the international conventions signed at Geneva, 12 August 1949, or any protocol to such convention to which the United States is a party and which deals with non-international armed conflict; or
(4) of a person who, in relation to an armed conflict and contrary to the provisions of the Protocol on Prohibitions or Restrictions on the Use of Mines, Booby-Traps and Other Devices as amended at Geneva on 3 May 1996 (Protocol II as amended on 3 May 1996), when the United States is a party to such Protocol, willfully kills or causes serious injury to civilians.

Isn't it time to call Bush the Lesser upon the Congressional carpet, or is impeachment too drastic a measure for trampling on other countries, the rights of U.S. citizens, and the U.S. Constitution?

Posted by Bill at September 10, 2006 10:30 PM