In conjunction with hearings held by U.S. Rep. John Conyers on June 16, 2005, AfterDowningStreet.org held a rally in Washington D.C. to demand a House Resolution of Inquiry into impeachable offenses of George W. Bush. Mike Ferner, representing Veterans For Peace, was one of the speakers.
Rally to Support Rep. John Conyers and AfterDowningStreet.org
June 16, 2005 Washington, D.C.
Remarks by Mike Ferner, Veterans For Peace
As a Hospital Corpsman during the Vietnam War, I took care of hundreds of young men who came home minus their arms and legs and sight and sanity. The working class youth of that generation were not able to claim “other priorities” to keep them out of the meat grinder. Many learned too late how to quit being good soldiers. So if my words, spoken as young men and women again die for empire sound a little sharp, I hope you’ll understand.
Not long after the last election, you’ll recall a reporter asking Bush about accountability for the disaster in Iraq. The presidential reply, in that trademark, lipless smirk was “we just had an accountability moment. It was called the election.”
In a growing number of cities across the nation, Veterans For Peace chapters are creating mini Arlington Cemeteries – neat rows of white crosses or tombstones – one for each U.S. soldier killed in Iraq.
My wife and I worked on “Arlington at Toledo” and painted about 300 tombstones in our kitchen. A few Saturdays ago, we started putting labels on them with the name, age, and rank of each G.I. killed. As we sat on our living room floor, surrounded by stacks of tombstones representing so many young men and women, we listened to an old Dire Straits album. The track titled, “Brothers in Arms” came on with these telling lines: “Every man has to die/But it’s written in the starlight/And in every line on your palm/We’re fools to make war on our brothers in arms.”
Sue looked at the tombstone she was holding, with a 19 year-old’s name on it, and dissolved into sobs crying, “He was someone’s baby…”
We are here today to salute the work of the congressional patriots who participated in Congressman Conyers’ hearing earlier today. We are here to congratulate and expand the work of the AfterDowningStreet.org Coalition as it publicizes the truth about this administration’s invasion of Iraq. We are here today to tell George W. Bush and his gang of criminals that their day of accountability for slaughtering someone’s baby – Iraqi or American – is yet to come!
Veterans For Peace is part of the AfterDowningStreet.org Coalition because we agree that the truth contained in the Downing Street minutes and other documents must be exposed and publicized. We agree that the logical next step is for the House of Representatives to consider a Resolution of Inquiry into possible impeachable offenses.
We believe that these are important steps. But Veterans For Peace also believes these are only preliminary steps. That’s why, on the second anniversary of the U.S. invasion of Iraq we sent a letter to every member of the U.S. House and Senate demanding that George W. Bush be impeached!
VFP is calling for Bush’s impeachment because – and this is important to understand – Article VI, par. 2 of the U.S. Constitution clearly states that when the Senate adopts an international treaty it becomes part of the supreme law of the land, the same as an Act of Congress. This means that as Bush cavalierly violates treaties and international laws he violates the Constitution.
We are calling for George Bush’s impeachment for violating treaties such as the Nuremberg Principles thereby committing what are clearly defined as “crimes against peace…crimes against humanity…and war crimes.”
…for initiating two years ago and continuing to this day what the U.N. Charter –also legally binding on the U.S. – defines as a war of aggression…
…for clearly and specifically violating the Geneva Conventions – also legally binding on the U.S. regardless of what Mr. Bush says about them – by torturing and killing prisoners, purposely targeting and killing civilians, preventing delivery of medical relief…ALL of which are violations of Article VI of the Constitution and violations of the U.S. War Crimes Act of 1996.
Veterans For Peace is calling for impeachment because it our responsibility as citizens to do so. The words of a village sheik I spoke with in Iraq last year haunt me every day. Even as he assured me that he recognized the difference between the government and the people of the United States, he asked, “But you say you live in a democracy. How can this be happening to us?”
It is our responsibility, and as one VFP member stated, our sworn duty, to uphold the Constitution and impeach this criminal president. As citizens, every one of us is complicit in his crimes. By virtue of that complicity, we are compelled not only by the law but by morality and history to do whatever we can to stop this war of aggression and these crimes against humanity. The Nuremberg Tribunals following World War II did not favorably judge the first nation the world determined had waged a war of aggression, nor its “good citizens” who obeyed their government.
If we refuse to be silenced and frightened by the high-class thugs across the street; if we stop being stereotypically good soldiers and “good Americans;” if we do what history demands in this critical hour we can get our troops home now. We can put an end to the suffering and the war crimes. We can begin to absolve our complicity. And we can give George Bush an “accountability moment” that he will never forget!
