Debra Sweet / The World Can’t Wait – Drive Out the Bush Regime – 2008-06-11 23:15:57
On June 9, Dennis Kucinich introduced 35 articles of impeachment for President Bush. He read them all into the record over four hours. Robert Wexler co-sponsored. Kucinich introduced articles of impeachment on Vice President Cheney in April 2007.
I am not asking you to barrage Congress with pleas to listen to our demands, which by now are well established, documented, and represented in the blood of 1.2 million people in Iraq, in the crimes done against humans, American and not, in our name.
I do propose that you contact everyone you can about the need to repudiate these criminals.
We want a situation where no president, and no government can get away with what the Bush regime has done, because people living in this country will not accept it!
Here are a few comments from leaders of the movement:
“The situation today is more serious than the conditions that provoked the American Revolution. If we stand by now and allow this government to openly torture, abrogate habeas corpus, carry out unjust, illegal and immoral wars, and spy on all Americans, may we be damned by history.”
Dr. Loo, co-editor/author of Impeach the President: the Case Against Bush and Cheney, Associate Professor of Sociology at Cal Poly Pomona, serves on the National Steering Committee of the World Can’t Wait.
“In light of the illegal war in Iraq, the systematic torture of prisoners in US custody, the illegal surveillance of Americans, and George W. Bush’s refusal to carry out his constitutional duty to faithfully execute the laws, impeachment proceedings should be initiated immediately and a criminal investigation launched against the President of the United States.”
Marjorie Cohn, President, National Lawyers Guild
No Attack on Iran Resolution.
Press Release from Chicago Activists
“Knowing what the people of this country now know, it is with great hope that we await the Council’s passage of this resolution, not allowing the Bush administration to proceed unopposed on its drive to war.”
• WHAT: Chicago City Council resolution: No War on Iran
• WHEN: June 11, 10 am
• WHERE: 2nd floor, City Hall
• WHO: Bob Bossie, SJR, 8th Day Center for Justice (for ID purposes only); Neighbors for Peace; World Can’t Wait, Chicago chapter; M. Ali Khan, National Director, American Muslim Council (for ID purposes only); Rev. Taigen Dan Leighton; Assoc. Prof. Norma Clair Moruzzi, UIC (for ID purposes only); Nick Egnatz, Vietnam Veteran, Vince Emanuele, Iraq Veteran, Derek Giffin, Iraq Veteran, (Northwest Indiana Veterans For Peace, for ID purposes only), anti-war and social justice voices of conscience.
The signs are growing that the Bush administration is going ahead with plans to launch a military attack against Iran. Voices are being raised against this disaster-in-the-making, including Scott McClellan, Bush’s own former press secretary.
This administration went to war against Iraq based on lies, we can’t let it happen again. At tomorrow’s City Council meeting, we look forward to Chicago’s aldermen joining that message and passing a non-binding resolution against such an attack. (text of resolution here)
At last month’s council meeting, following hours of comprehensive hearings the day before, the resolution was unexpectedly deferred to this month’s meeting at Mayor Daley’s behest. At those hearings, Scott Ritter, Stephen Kinzer, John Mearsheimer, Doug Cassell, Norma Claire Moruzzi, and Farrah Hassen testified to the urgent need to prevent this attack on Iran from happening. Hopes are that since the deferment, negotiations have taken place between the Mayor and aldermen that support the resolution.
In any case, this resolution is more timely than ever and Chicago’s elected officials are called on to lead on this most fundamental question of war and peace. The third-largest city in the country taking this stand will inspire others, including the US Conference of Mayors, which will consider a very similar resolution at its meeting June 20-24.
In Chicago, a Democratic Party stronghold and hometown of the Party’s new Presidential nominee, this resolution clearly represents public sentiment (more than 70% by a recent poll) opposed to an attack on Iran. More than 5 years ago, Chicago passed a similar resolution against going to war in Iraq. As people of conscience seek ways to voice with moral clarity their opposition to another war of aggression, non-binding city council resolutions amplify that message.
Knowing what the people of this country now know, it is with great hope that we await the Council’s passage of this resolution, not allowing the Bush administration to proceed unopposed on its drive to war.
Former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter said, after speaking at the city council last month, “The Bush administration violated every legal principle the United States claims to represent, internationally and domestically, when it pre-emptively invaded Iraq in 2003, without provocation and void of any Chapter VII authorization.”
One unintended consequence of this illegal invasion has been to strengthen the influence of Iran in the region, and this is one reason why the Bush regime proceeds with its plans to attack Iran before leaving office. However, a military attack will only “compound our grief,” as Prof. Doug Cassel stated last month, with incalculable humanitarian, political and economic ramifications.
Members of social justice organizations and anti-war groups will be at the City Council on June 11 to observe whether and how the council votes. Local activist Dave Trippel says, “We are being led to an attack yet again, this time on Iran; on the basis of one lie after another. The consequences of this war are certain to be even more disastrous to millions of innocent people.”
Debra Sweet is the Director or The World Can’t Wait – Drive Out the Bush Regime
