For their own sake, they need to impeach him

The Osterley Times: Impeach him!

There are times when it’s hard to describe Bush’s stubbornness and
sheer pig-headedness in the stark terms that it deserves. The Baker
Report has offered him a way out of Iraq, but he seems determined to
ignore the advice given to him by that bipartisan committee and seems
to think one last push will bring him the victory that has so far
eluded him.

Let’s look at this carefully. James T Baker, the man
who is as responsible as any other for getting Bush elected after he
guided him through the Florida recount, has said enough is enough. Bush
is planning on ignoring him.

Colin Powell,
Bush’s former Secretary of State, has said the US is losing the war in
Iraq and that the sending of more troops is no longer the answer. Bush
is planning on ignoring him.

Gen. John P. Abizaid, his top Middle East commander, has announced his retirement and other generals have signalled that they do not agree with Bush’s plans to increase troop levels. Bush is planning on ignoring them.

The
change in tactic here is staggering. This is the same President who, up
until now, has hidden behind these same Generals insisting that he is
following their lead and that they are in charge of the military
campaign. Now that they are saying something that he doesn’t want to
hear, Bush is planning on ignoring them.

Even Blair and Bush now appear to be showing cracks
regarding the way forward as Blair has embraced the Baker report that
Bush seems determined to ignore. Bush will now ignore Blair.

Astonishingly,
Bush appears to be still in the thrall of the neo-conservatives who
have led him into his present quagmire, and he appears to be still
listening to them as they promise a way out through victory. Indeed,
they have even prepared a paper on the subject entitled: Choosing Victory: A Plan for Success in Iraq.

The
clear implication being that victory is there for the taking if the US
simply apply themselves more. The old arguments surrounding Vietnam are
once more being dusted down.

At this juncture we are looking at
a President more isolated than any in recent memory. His Generals, his
ex-Secretary of Defence, has father’s friends and the British PM who
has supported him to such an extent that he has earned himself the
sobriquet “poodle” all now oppose what he plans to do next. And yet
Bush, a man who has never served in any military capacity, now plans on
ignoring them all.

Of course, if one reads Frederick W Kagan’s
paper one will find that, like most neo-cons, he is scathing about the
way their plan for world domination was carried out rather than finding
any fault with the grandiose plan itself.

The truth, of course,
is that neo-conservatism died in Lebanon this summer. The idea that the
US could shape any region it wanted through the application of military
force was laid bare with Hizbullah’s victory over Israel.

However, these buggers are not for lying down. They are certainly not for admitting defeat. A defeat that all but the most stubborn of conservatives now accepts as fact.

What
does one do when a President ignores the advice of everyone around him
and insists on sending more troops into harms way? Troops enlisted from
the poorest quarters of his nation that do not include his children or
the children of the elite neo-cons who support his insane new policy?

We
are looking at a President who simply will not accept defeat and is
willing to allow the children of others to die rather to admit what
even his own supporters have admitted. He has lost. Even Ralph Peters has conceded that fact, although his reasoning for why they lost is simply garbage.

The state of affairs is truly grim:

But
the president has not only lost the “battle for hearts and minds”
across the Arab world, he’s lost it across the United States. The
people of Bapchule and Oxford no longer believe his words or trust his
judgment. Virtually everything he ever said to them about the war —
from “Mission Accomplished” to “absolutely, we’re winning” — has been
wrong.

Once,
Americans might have shared his vision of a free, self-governing Iraq,
but not any more. He has squandered their trust and betrayed their
patriotism. The parents of Thibodaux and Cheektowaga no longer want to
sacrifice their children to a lost cause.

Bush
is now insisting, despite his defeat at the polls, that more young
Americans must die for a cause that all but he can see is lost.

There is only one thing to do when faced with such stubbornness. Impeach him.

For the sake of young soldiers being asked to die for a lost cause, impeach him.

The
US now has no other choice. This is an isolated President embarking on
a suicidal course, who has lost the support of even his own side and
who has nothing to lose as he will never again face re-election.

Polite
intervention from Baker and his colleagues has not worked. Blair
distancing himself from the project has not worked. Powell speaking out
has not worked.

There is only one course left open. Impeach him.

The
most incompetent President in living memory needs to be saved from
himself. This should now be done if Republicans are to hold on to any
chance of re-election for the next decade. The party that allows this
man to do what he is planning to do deserve the disapprobation of the
entire nation.

For their own sake, they need to impeach him.

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