The Corpus Callosum

Ron Paul was interviewed by Bill Moyers last Friday (1/4/2008).  Paul Responded to Moyers' observation that the media have been complicit in keeping the War out of the public eye as the campaign is heating up.  

But, you know, isn't it amazing at the end of last year they turned this into almost like another mission accomplished, you know. It was our worst year, you know. If you go by years, it was our worst year. We lost 900 men in Iraq, over 100 in Afghanistan. Afghanistan is blowing up. It's coming unraveled. We're involved in two countries they are trying to nation build. At the same time, it looks like we'll be in Pakistan. So, this whole idea that there's some type of victory going on over there, and it's a disaster.

That is certainly true.  It is a disaster, and the media portray it as a victory.  It hasn't made us safer, it hasn't secured access to strategic resources, it has not promoted democracy.  Instead, it has created an enormous refugee problem, worsened child poverty and hunger, and it has diverted resources from critical domestic priorities.  

So it is refreshing to see a senior statesman call for a solution. Granted, it won't really fix the problem, but it could keep the problem from getting worse.  In general, like the war, the media have downplayed this issue.  But today it was featured in the Washington Post:

Why I Believe Bush Must Go
Nixon Was Bad. These Guys Are Worse.
By George McGovern
Sunday, January 6, 2008; B01

As we enter the eighth year of the Bush-Cheney administration, I have belatedly and painfully concluded that the only honorable course for me is to urge the impeachment of the president and the vice president.

After the 1972 presidential election, I stood clear of calls to impeach President Richard M. Nixon for his misconduct during the campaign. I thought that my joining the impeachment effort would be seen as an expression of personal vengeance toward the president who had defeated me.

Today I have made a different choice...

McGovern then lays out the case in general terms, before moving on to specifics:

In a more fundamental sense, American democracy has been derailed throughout the Bush-Cheney regime. The dominant commitment of the administration has been a murderous, illegal, nonsensical war against Iraq. That irresponsible venture has killed almost 4,000 Americans, left many times that number mentally or physically crippled, claimed the lives of an estimated 600,000 Iraqis (according to a careful October 2006 study from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health) and laid waste their country. The financial cost to the United States is now $250 million a day and is expected to exceed a total of $1 trillion, most of which we have borrowed from the Chinese and others as our national debt has now climbed above $9 trillion -- by far the highest in our national history.

All of this has been done without the declaration of war from Congress that the Constitution clearly requires, in defiance of the U.N. Charter and in violation of international law. This reckless disregard for life and property, as well as constitutional law, has been accompanied by the abuse of prisoners, including systematic torture, in direct violation of the Geneva Conventions of 1949.

I have not been heavily involved in singing the praises of the Nixon administration. But the case for impeaching Bush and Cheney is far stronger than was the case against Nixon and Vice President Spiro T. Agnew after the 1972 election. The nation would be much more secure and productive under a Nixon presidency than with Bush. Indeed, has any administration in our national history been so damaging as the Bush-Cheney era?

He goes on.  No need to repeat it here; most readers probably know the litany.  Those who do not, are encouraged to visit the National Impeachment Resource Center. (Enjuiciamiento en español)