November 4, 2006 at 16:29:02

Ed Asner on Illegal War and Impeachment

SAVE AS FAVORITE

VIEW FAVORITES

By David Swanson (about the author) Page 3 of 6 page(s)

opednews.com Permalink

Ed Asner: Well, when you talk about investigations, then you talk about resulting in actual criminal assessment and prosecution. I'll give you a very good example. Whether you believe in conspiracy theories of 911 or not, is it not fantastic that after a supposedly bipartisan sanctioned commission met, and examined 911, that still not one person has been demoted or defrocked or decapitated in punishment for the routine miscarriage of duties in protecting the government on that day, and protecting the people?

David Swanson: Yes, it's obscene. It's a "Heck of a job Brownie" with Katrina. It's obscene, and now we're hearing, well maybe they'll attack Iran next, and in this play, there is this notion that maybe they can bring the people around to the side of the defendants, the president, vice president, secretary of defense, by attacking another country, and yet my impression in reality is that Americans don't want to attack Iran, and doing so would not......

Ed Asner: All right, let's take a flight of fancy here. Suppose in their wildest deliberations, to save their last two years, if the election does not go well for them, that to maintain their hold on power they can't stage another 911, can't thereby threaten Americans with he terrorist threat "they're at the door, they're at the door", so instead they cook up, "let's go into Iran, let's bomb the shit out of Iran", and they do it, and there are enough officers and pilots and ships willing to carry out these commands and they nuclear bomb the hell out of Iran. What will the American people do then? Who will lead them to say, "You must leave, get out of office immediately. We are ceasing all war. We will stop this right now." Do you think that would happen?

David Swanson: If it doesn't, I don't know where we'll be.

Ed Asner: We are an unmotivated, cowering people. We will say, "Shame on you, shame on you, shame on you", but teachers are dying in the streets in Mexico from the federales. Do you think teachers would be dying in the streets in....

David Swanson: Washington, DC? No.

Ed Asner: ....Peoria?

David Swanson: Not yet, and I don't know what it'll take.

Ed Asner: I know not yet, and there may never be a yet....I mean, look at the farce that was perpetrated on habeas corpus. John McCain, 3 great Republican soldiers, politicians, were facing down the president on habeas corpus, and what happened in the end? They all caved. They all said no, now it's okay. They put some dimples in it or something, but the removal of habeas corpus was accepted.......

David Swanson: It's done.

Ed Asner: .... by them, and became the law of the land.

David Swanson: Yes, as with torture.

Ed Asner: As with torture.

David Swanson: If these elections are stolen next week and if that evidence is clear...

Ed Asner: Yeah, what do you think the American people will do then?

David Swanson: I don't know. I'm holding out some hope that maybe that will be what finally gets people to act like citizens. I don't know.

1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6

Take action -- click here to contact your local newspaper or congress people:
Demand Impeachment

Click here to see the most recent messages sent to congressional reps and local newspapers

David Swanson is the author of the upcoming book "Daybreak: Undoing the Imperial Presidency and Forming a More Perfect Union" by Seven Stories Press and of the introduction to "The 35 Articles of Impeachment and the Case for Prosecuting George W. (more...)

The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author
and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.

Contact Author

Contact Editor

View Authors' Articles

Book Recommendations for "Impeachment"

Grand Inquests: The Historic Impeachments of Justice Samuel Chase and President Andrew Johnson
by William Rehnquist

$12.00
Lowest New Price $5.50
Number of pages: 304
Publisher: Harper Perennial

Impeach the President: The Case Against Bush and Cheney

$17.95
Lowest New Price $3.00
Number of pages: 326
Publisher: Seven Stories Press

The Impeachment and Trial of Andrew Johnson
by Michael Les Benedict

$12.95
Lowest New Price $7.80
Number of pages: 224
Publisher: W.W. Norton