DETROIT FREE PRESS, Sunday, Jan. 7, 2007


Impeach now to end war
BY ROCHELLE RILEY
FREE PRESS COLUMNIST

Now that Washington has installed new representatives and elected its first female speaker of the House ...
Now that Democrats have seized control of Congress away from a Republican Party, whose leader has run amok for six years ...
Now that it is apparent to even a 6-year-old that President George W. Bush's strategy for the Iraq war is based on a fairy tale ...
Now that 3,000 American soldiers have died ...
Now that the majority of the American people have said: Enough! ...
Now it is time for Congress to quit singing "Kum Ba Yah" and stop treating impeachment as if it's a bad word.

Beyond politics
It is past time for Congress to begin impeachment hearings against the president, proceedings that have nothing to do with party politics and everything to do with truth, justice and the American way.

America should not be deterred by how such an investigation might look outside America. America can't look any worse to countries watching us run roughshod over weaker countries, the law and common sense.

Regardless of how much we pretend we weren't involved, America is being partly blamed for the juvenile handling of last week's execution of Saddam Hussein.

And if I hear one more Republican apologist say that Bush's behavior is vindicated by the absence of a major terrorist attack, I will scream. The global terrorists are biding their time. But our internal terrorists have been attacking us for two years.

Enough already
Between seeking access to Americans' mail, listening to Americans' telephone conversations, ignoring prisoner torture and holding potential suspects at Guantanamo Bay for months or years -- while suspending their rights to challenge their imprisonment -- the president has used the Constitution for nothing more than to wipe his behind.

He does not care that the only beneficiaries of the Iraq war have been defense contractors, not Iraqi citizens or a government he dreams of instituting, but which Iraq will never be able to sustain.

Bush refuses to listen to the military advisers whose duty is to make him smarter. He refuses to listen to constituents who have tired of flag-draped coffins for a cause they can't explain to their neighbors.

Bush's arrogance, stubbornness and incessant need for war mean that the American soldiers' death toll that we never believed would reach 3,000 may hit twice that before our soldiers are allowed to leave Iraq.

When is enough enough?

After years of laughable sound bites and impossibly naive mottos -- "Win the day!" "Stay the course!" "Can't cut and run" -- the president is on the verge of greater disaster. Only Congress can stop him.

Rep. Nancy Pelosi made history once this month. She must make history again. If America is lucky, perhaps she can lead her government to demand answers, end American involvement in a war we shouldn't have begun, get our troops home -- and send the president back to Texas.

Contact ROCHELLE RILEY at 313-223-4473 or rriley99@freepress.com.

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