[NYTr] Crimes of Complicity: Treason of the Democrats

[All the News That Doesn't Fit]

Counterpunch - Nov 12, 2007
http://www.counterpunch.org/behan11122007.html


Treason of the Mainstream Democrats

The Political Crimes of Complicity

By RICHARD W. BEHAN

    Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying
war against them, or in adhering to their enemies, giving them aid and
comfort. -Article III, Section 3, United States Constitution 


The mainstream Democrats-represented, say, by Harry Reid, Nancy
Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, John Edwards, Joe Biden, and
Christopher Dodd-have not levied war against the United States. Their
treason lies instead in committing the second offense: they adhere to
enemies of the country, giving them aid and comfort.

The enemies are President George W. Bush and Vice President Richard
Cheney. Like no other president and vice president in history, these
men attacked their country.

It was not our geography George Bush and Richard Cheney invaded.
Instead they abandoned and subverted the bedrock institution of our
Constitutional democracy: the rule of law. By word and deed, Mr. Bush
repeatedly and arrogantly sets himself above the law, claiming
obedience to be a matter of Presidential choice. Mr. Cheney
orchestrates, coaches, applauds and iterates.

This cannot stand if the country we know and cherish is to survive.
George Bush and Richard Cheney are literally enemies of the state; long
before now and by any measure of Constitutional justice they should
have been impeached and removed from office.

Abjectly, continuously, and stubbornly refusing to hold them
accountable, however, the mainstream Democrats adhere to this criminal
president and vice president: nothing they have asked for has been
denied, no barriers placed in their way. That is giving them aid and
comfort, and that is treason.

George Bush and Richard Cheney took the country to war illegally, with
a deliberate, carefully designed and executed package of fear-mongering
propaganda: lies, distortions, and deceptions. No informed citizen
entertains the slightest doubt about this.

Lying to the people and the Congress was the most despicable violation
of the rule of law by Mr. Bush and Mr. Cheney, but many more followed:
torturing prisoners, denying habeas corpus, spying on U.S. citizens,
nullifying new laws with "signing statements," and so on and on. The
litany of impeachable offenses is long and painful, but the so-called
"War on Terror," these men insist, makes all of it acceptable, even
necessary.

Nearly six years have elapsed since the Bush Administration first
defeated the rule of law. For most of these years a Republican Congress
saw fit not to intervene, or even to question this behavior, so
effective was the Administration's propaganda campaign, and so firm
were the bonds of partisanship. But now the mainstream Democrats
control the Congress.

Also during these six years the truth emerged, and now we can see the
"War on Terror" truly for what it is-an overarching mega-lie: an
untruth of such unimaginable scope and magnitude it recalibrates for an
entire nation the perception of reality. (Aryan supremacy was the
mega-lie of Nazi Germany.)

No one should be surprised that the threat of terrorism has increased,
not diminished, since 9/11: the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq were not
even remotely intended to combat it.

We know the Bush Administration, when it took office, was indifferent
to terrorism, brushing aside explicit warnings about al Qaeda and Osama
bin Laden; we know the President was planning instead, at least six
months before 9/11, to invade both Afghanistan and Iraq; we know of a
National Security Council memorandum dated February 3, 2001 speaking
about the "capture of new and existing oil and gas fields" in Iraq; we
have acquired with a lawsuit the maps of Iraqi oil fields Vice
President Cheney's "Energy Task Force" was studying a month later; we
have learned how the privatized structure of Iraq's postwar oil
industry was designed by the Bush Administration a year before the war
began; we know the Administration was negotiating pipeline
rights-of-way with the Taliban, unsuccessfully, until five weeks before
9/11; we know the final threat to them was a "carpet of bombs"; we are
aware of President Bush twice refusing offers from the Taliban to
surrender Osama bin Laden, before and after the carpet of bombs was
unleashed; we've read of the five "mega-bases" in Iraq, to house
100,000 troops for as long as 50 years; we've learned the U.S. Embassy
compound under construction in Baghdad will be ten times larger than
any other in the world; and we know Exxon/Mobil, Chevron/Texaco, Royal
Dutch/Shell, and British Petroleum/Amoco are poised to claim immense
profits from 81% of Iraq's undeveloped oil fields.

Are these the activities and outcomes of a "War on Terror?"

We also know President Bush, a month before 9/11 in August of 2001,
notified the governments of Pakistan and India he would launch a
military mission into Afghanistan "before the end of October."

Between the dates of the President's announcement and his order to
attack, the Trade Towers and the Pentagon were struck by the hijacked
airliners. Seizing in a heartbeat this spectacular opportunity to
disguise and launch the preplanned invasions, the Bush Administration
concocted the mega-lie, and the "War on Terror" was born.

The "War on Terror" is a conscious and ingenious masquerade for the
geostrategic pursuit and control of Middle Eastern oil and gas
resources. The facts place this beyond dispute. Mr. Bush's claim of
"taking the fight directly to the terroristsand the states that harbor
them" was yet one more intentional deception, as subsequent events
fully demonstrated. In Afghanistan the state was overthrown instead of
apprehending the terrorists-Osama bin Laden remains at large-and in
Iraq, when we invaded, there were no terrorists at all. But today both
"states" are fitted with puppet governments and dotted with permanent
U.S. military bases in close proximity to their hydrocarbon assets.

Only the Bush Administration continues to natter about a bogus "War on
Terror." Others are more candid:

    o Republican Senator Senator Charles Hagel: "People say we're not
fighting for oil. Of course we are. They talk about America's national
interest. What the hell do you think they're talking about? We're not
there for figs." (Speaking at Catholic University, 9/24/07)

    o Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan, in his book The
Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World: "I'm saddened that it is
politically inconvenient to acknowledge what everyone knows: the Iraq
war is largely about oil."

    o Democratic Senator Jon Tester: "We're still fighting a war in
Iraq and people who are honest about it will admit we're there over
oil." (Associated Press, 9/24/07)

    o General John Abizaid, retired CENTCOM commander: "Of course it's
about oil, we can't really deny that." (Speaking at Stanford
University, 10/13/07)

The criminal fraudulence of the "War on Terror" is fully documented ,
but the contemporary press has been derelict in failing to expose the
mega-lie and publicize it. The mainstream Democrats are equally
derelict in ignoring it.

Failing to hold President Bush accountable for his crimes constitutes
the most profound obstruction of justice. And failing to contradict his
hideous mega-lie clearly reinforces the President's hand: the
mainstream Democrats are now accomplices.

The damage done by the Democrats' treason is equally great in prospect.
Without exposing the lie of the war in Iraq and acting upon the
exposure, there is no credible and reliable way to stop the
Administration's insane intention of attacking Iran. The proffered
rationales-and the fraudulence-are identical, as the Democrats stride
toward complicity in yet another illegal and immoral war.

Why can't the mainstream Democrats speak sublime truth to demonic
power? Doing so, they claim, would be too "divisive" and jeopardize the
party's success in next year's election.

This strategy is politically suicidal. A Democratic sweep in 2008 grows
dimmer every day.

The rank-and-file Republicans who continue to believe Mr. Bush's lies
about the "war on terror" will not vote for a Democrat. The
rank-and-file Democrats who see through the lies are increasingly
enraged by the insipid waffling of their mainstream candidates. And
roughly half the American people don't bother to vote at all, repelled
by the tawdry attack ads and negativity of bitterly partisan,
superficial, sophomoric, and issue-avoidance politicking.

If the mainstream Democrats do nothing to change this, they will wind
up where they're headed-disappointed and defeated in 2008-and they will
deserve it. Only by exposing and acting on the truth about the war can
they change any Republican minds, regain the support of disenchanted
Democrats, and attract the politically inert, indifferent Americans. A
new style of politics needs badly to be engaged, one that is dedicated
not merely to winning elections, but to a genuine concern for truth,
for justice, for the rule of law, and for integrity in public service.

The most direct and honorable way of invoking such a style is by
impeaching George Bush and Richard Cheney. Never in our history have
the high crimes and misdemeanors been so flagrant, and the people of
our country know it.

Yes, Congressman Kucinich sought with a "member's privilege" motion to
initiate an impeachment proceeding on the floor of the House of
Representatives. But Democratic Majority Leader Steny Hoyer moved
immediately to kill the initiative, only to be thwarted by a Republican
trick. Finally Nancy Pelosi, desperate to avoid a floor debate, managed
to have the matter referred to the Judiciary Committee-where Chairman
John Conyers has been sitting on the original bill since last April.
The giving of aid and comfort to the enemies will, seemingly, continue.

But the mainstream Democrats now face a carpe diem moment of truly
historic measure: if they choose, they can foreswear their treason. It
was a majority, bipartisan vote that sent the impeachment bill to
Judiciary, and that is all the political cover the Democrats need to
take the next courageous and necessary step.

For the sake of the rule of law, for the sake of the integrity of the
Congress, for the sake of the country's future, and incidentally for
the sake of a potential Democratic victory in 2008, the politics of
truth and justice must be showcased. The Judiciary Committtee must hold
hearings immediately, to see if impeachment is in fact warranted-and
polls say the greater part of the country thinks it is.

If the mainstream Democrats will not do this, if their treason
continues, then decent and thinking citizens everywhere-concerned
patriots all-can only weep for their country.


[Richard W. Behan lives and writes on Lopez Island, off the northwest
coast of Washington state. He is the author of "Plundered Promise:
Capitalism, Politics, and the Fate of the Federal Lands" (Island Press,
2001) and he is working on his next book, "To Provide Against Invasions:
Corporate Dominion and America's Derelict Democracy." He can be reached
at rwbehan at rockisland.com.]

(This essay is deliberately not copyrighted: It may be reproduced
without restriction.)