Bush's veto is the last straw. His delusions about this war now border on insanity and he must be removed from office before he does any more damage. The issue is the Constitution and our way of life. Civilian control of over the military is our tradition and belief. Americans have expressed their opinion, and Bush and Cheney's disdaining of our wish to be done with Iraq is unacceptable! They must be removed now!

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I slipped out of town last weekend to clear my head and look for some new adventures.  I noticed a pall over the land that was not there six months ago, a real sense of annoyance tinged with bitterness and fear.  Fear is a constant companion of humankind, but this fear was not of terrorism or cancer or unemployment particularly.  It was a deeper fear of losing one's moorings and verities, you know, those things that we learn to depend on being true whatever the current news, even collegetown massacres and even violent storms churned up by unfamiliar patterns of weather. The inchoate fear I noticed was that the country seems to be headed into uncharted waters with an untrustworthy captain at the helm.  Nowhere did I hear a confident remark about George Bush, and the word "Cheney" was spat, rather than said.  All the people with whom I spoke were visibly pulling in their normally expansive moods and preparing for an ordeal of some kind.

Well, the ordeal is pretty easy to see.  The President has just vetoed the appropriations bill with strings because he wants no strings on his war.  He says that strings send a bad message to the insurgents and the Iraqi in the streets that America's interest in Iraq has limits.  He says that politicians on Capitol Hill have no business telling professional military guys what to do.  He says that Democrats are walking a fine line between responsible behavior and treason ... or at least his minions and Cheney say so.

The inchoate fear out there among the people is because of Bush.  The word is out and like a gestalt shift, the rugged cowboy is seen for what he really is—a deluded and confused man without a clear idea of what he is doing, but a sure sense that it is not going well and that he must continue to do what he is doing until it does begin to happen for him.  This is precisely the definition of insanity!

The inchoate fear is that we are losing America while Bush fiddles in Washington.  The fear is that one of those background sureties has proven to be incapable of saving our skin.  Everyone grows up knowing that the Constitution provides for getting rid of incompetent and dangerous individuals.  But, now, it seems that politics is interpreting the Constitution so that the necessary remedy cannot be brought to bear to save the country from itself and its incompetent, leadership.

Impeachment is the way out of this mess before it is too late.  We are like a senior citizen come to the doctor with too many ailments.  Our colon may be cancerous, but our back hurts and our vision is blurry and our teeth are long and falling out.  Where do we start with the repairs, or is it too late as some in the religious fringes already believe.  We start with Dennis Kucinich's bill of particulars on VP Dick Cheney, despite the feckless answer of all seven of the other Democratic candidates.  Impeachment of Cheney is way overdue and is based on Constitutional grounds which are already apparent in the historical record of this amazingly ruthless administration.

Impeachment of Bush should follow.  He is guilty and everyone knows it.  The question is just whether the Constitution will be obeyed or not.  If it is not, then the worst fears of the people are realized.  The social compact is torn assunder and the reliability of anything and everything that we hold dear is up for grabs.

This is the time we need the best of our Constitution and of our leaders and people, not the time to toss it all out and hope for the best or to hope that God will save American because he likes us best.  Nancy Pelosi must be turned around.  We understood her initial position, but the landscape has changed.  We now see a President and Vice President in the full flower of their insane delusions about Iraq and about terrorism.  They are no longer competent to lead or manage this country.  They have done so much damage already that it will take a generation to bring the pieces back together into a smoothly functioning government that SERVES its people rather than serving a few rich who care not at all for the rest of us.

I urge you to write to Pelosi when you get her next email "House Call."  Tell her that her oath of office does not give her the right to misinterpret the Constitution.  Tell her that it is time to remove Bush and Cheney and Gonzales, for the very life of our country depends on it.

JB

Authors Bio:

James R. Brett, Ph.D. taught Russian History before (and during) a long stint as an academic administrator in faculty research administration. His academic interests are the modern period of Russian History since Peter the Great, Chinese History, the history of science, and the history of ideas, including psychology and consciousness studies. He is retired and living on the Left Coast.