What if. How many times have you heard that? What if something terrible is about to happen and you are the only one who can stop it? What if you have to skirt the law to avert an imminent catastrophe? These days the what ifs often involve terrorists and nuclear catastrophes.
Look, if you find out one morning that we now have five terrorists in the U.S. who are part of an active network who want to destroy New York City or Buffalo or Atlanta
The threat is terrible. Time is short. Only swift and decisive action can save the us. What ifs has been used to justify everything from illegal wiretaps to torture.
This is the choice. We’re going to have a nuclear weapon some day or a biological weapon that could kill millions of Americans. We have the technical ability to stop it. Now do you want us to be able to stop it or not?
Well I have a what if for you. What if you knew that a small group of evil men were in position to threaten the peace and stability of the world? Not just a city or two, but the entire world? What if you knew they had access to a nuclear arsenal and the means to deliver terrible destruction to any city on the planet?
What if you knew they were obsessed with provoking a regional confrontation in the Middle East? What if you knew they were doing everything in their power to provoke armed conflict with Iran? And what if you knew that such a conflict would almost inevitably draw in other global nuclear powers like Russia and China? What if you knew the conflict might swiftly escalate beyond our ability to control it. What if one of those men actually alluded to the imminent danger of a “World War III?”
What if you knew the nominal head of our government was an incompetent buffoon, hardly able to complete a sentence, wracked by insecurity and self-delusion? What if you knew the real source of power was a sociopath driven by maniacal fantasies of unlimited executive power, of tyranny and hegemony? What if you knew those same men believed themselves to be above the law? Above the Constitution?
And what if the only thing you needed to do to stop them was to uphold the law? What if you knew they had already committed impeachable offenses? What if you knew they had lied to Congress, to the UN, to the American people and the world, to justify their actions? What if you knew they had violated the Constitution many, many times? What if you knew they had broken many American laws, from FISA to the IIPA, from habeus corpus to torture and probable war crimes?
The gravest, most imminent threat to the security of our nation, to the peace and stability of the world, is not al Qaeda or Iran, bin Laden or Ahmadinejad. It is Richard B. Cheney and George W. Bush. They have made it quite clear that as long as they remain in power they will not stop. They will not heed the will of Congress or the American people or the world. Every day they are allowed to proceed with their plans the threat to the peace and stability of the world grows more dire. For the good of our nation and the world they must be removed from power.
Impeachment is the only remedy. Pass another resolution? They’ll just ignore it like they’ve ignored all the others. Subpoenas? Executive privilege. Limitations on war powers? Unitary executive. Cut off funding? Continue the fight until the troops are out of ammo and out of gas then blame Congress for what follows.
This is the choice. Impeachment or World War III. Cheney and Bush are hell bent on provoking a conflict they cannot control and no one can win. Do you want to stop them or not?
