Veterans For Peace will deliver a petition supporting the impeachment of President Bush to Rep. John Conyers on Wed., June 11, and intends to conduct a sit-in in his office until he agrees to meet with them.
"By invading and occupying Iraq, the Bush administration every day violates legally binding international treaties and domestic laws," VFP Executive Director Michael McPhearson said in a written statement. "Congressman Conyers and his colleagues must hold them accountable and our Constitution prescribes how: impeachment. It's not enough to simply watch the Bush administration retire. Unless we hold them accountable we and Congress are complicit in their war crimes and put U.S. soldiers at risk of retaliation."
VFP collected 22,000 names on a petition supporting the impeachment of Bush. Members said they tried for two months to get a 10-minute meeting with Conyers, who chairs the House Judiciary Committee.
VFP members from New York, North Carolina, New Jersey, Ohio and the District of Columbia will take part in the sit-in. VFP President Elliott Adams cited numerous impeachable offenses committed by the Bush administration including: violating domestic laws; binding international treaties and the U.S. Constitution by condoning torture in Iraq; and violating the Geneva Conventions, U.N. Charter and resolutions, the Nuremberg Principles and the Laws and Customs of War on Land.
Adams, a former Army paratrooper and Viet Nam combat vet, provided Conyers a copy of the VFP "Case for Impeachment" that documents claims of war crimes, crimes against humanity and crimes against peace committed or encouraged by the Bush administration. He also included a video CD of testimonies selected from the Iraq Veterans Against the War's "Winter Soldier" hearings held in March.
Adams asked Conyers to "not sit on the sidelines or be a keeper of the status quo like those who stood in your way when you demanded action for what is right. The time for justice is always now.”
"Having taken an oath to defend the Constitution 'from all enemies foreign and domestic,' our members take the obligation to impeach George W. Bush most seriously. We must hold this administration accountable for waging a war of aggression against Iraq."
Adams reminded Conyers of his own oath to uphold the Constitution. "You have taken the same oath, Congressman Conyers, and we expect you will hold it just as sacred as we do and begin impeachment hearings at the soonest possible moment. To do any less is to disgrace the memory of the thousands of U.S. troops killed and wounded in this illegal war, and mocks the millions of Iraqis who have died and suffered in George Bush's war of aggression."
Veterans For Peace is a national organization including as members men and women who served in the Spanish Civil War (1936-39), World War II, the Korean, Vietnam, Gulf and current Iraq wars as well as other conflicts "cold or hot." Veterans For Peace is an officially recognized Non- Governmental Organization (NGO) represented at the U.N.
