"The Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pusuance thereof, and all Treaties made, or shall made, under the Authority of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of the Land." - Article VI, the United States Constitution.

This clause of the Constitution has a number of implications for the Bush administration in its current pursuit of war against Iraq.

Firstly, the United States is signatory to the UN Charter. Therefore, this treaty is a part of the "supreme Law of the Land". Any violation of the UN charter then, constitutes a violation of the supreme law of the land. the clauses in question here are:

Chapter 1, Article 2, Para 3: All Members shall settle their international disputes by peaceful means in such a manner that international peace and security, and justice are not endangered.

Chapter 1, Article 2, Para 4: All Members shall refrain in their international relations from the threat or use of force against the territroial integrity or political independence of any state, or in any other manner inconsistent with the Purposes of the United Nations.

Chapter VI, Article 33: The parties to any dispute, the continuance of which is likely to endanger the maintenance of international peace and security, shall, first of all, seek a solution by negotiation, enquiry, mediation, conciliation, arbitration, judicial settlement, resort to regional agencies or arrangements, or other peaceful means of their own choice.

Under the Principles of the Nuremberg Tribunal, adopted by the International Law Commission of the United Nations in 1950, Principle VI states:

The crimes hereinafter are set out are punishable as crimes under international law.

a. Crimes against peace:
i. Planning, preparation, initiationor waging of a war of
aggression or a war in violatio of international
treaties, agreements or assurances.
ii. Participation in a common plan or conspiracy for
the accomplishment of any of the acts mentioned in
(i).

The Bush administrations preparations for war against Iraq represent violations of all of these provisions of a treaty to which the US is a signatory, and are thus violations of the "supreme Law of the Land".

Which brings us to Article II, Sec. 4 of the US Constitution: "The President, Vice-President and all civil Officers of the United States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Conviction of, Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes and Misdemeanors."

Notice, it says "shall be removed", not "might be" or "maybe". It is the duty, then, of the US Senate to begin proceedings leading to the impeachment of George W. Bush.

"When George W. Bush ran for President in 2000, he said the United States must be "humble" in the world. Now he has cast humility aside and replaced it with hubris. Supremely confident in his gut instincts, wrapped up in a fundamentalist belief system, endowed with the most powerful military of all time, and unchecked by Congress, Bush feels he can "rid the world of evil"--at the barrel of a gun.

A picture emerges from the President's public statements--and even from such adulatory accounts as Bob Woodward's Bush at War and David Frum's The Right Man--of a President on a divine mission.

f!Call it messianic militarism." - The Progressive , February 2003

President Bush feels compelled to bring peace to the world...at the point of a gun. I don't know about anyone else, but this little creep is startin' to scare the shit outta me. I mean, here is a man who claims Jesus Christ as his "role model", then he goes and presides over the executions of nearly 150 people in Texas. I don't think Jesus would have approved. I know the Bible says "...Blessed are the peacemakers..." but I don't think what Bush and his merry band are up to is what Jesus had in mind.

Howdy's mindset here is like unto that of the Southern Baptist Convention, "Kill 'em all...Let God sort 'em out!" Fortunately most of the rest of the Christendom seems more of "...the meek shall inherit the earth..." mindset, with the exception of the Christian Identity movement and the KKK.

What a fucking creepshow.

For the full text of the editorial, goto:

http://www.progressive.org/feb03/comm0203.html