Class act, MIBiH.

The Constitution places the power to raise an army, to commision its officers, to write its laws (Uniform Code of Military Justice), to issue letters of marque and reprisal, to set the military's size, and to allocate the funds to pay for it all, along with the ability to make war and to ratify all treaties and Executive appointments. Against this, the President is the "Commander in Chief." Big shit. So is Queen Elizabeth II. Constitutionally, British soldiers and sailors still take an oath of loyalty not to the nation, but to the Queen. So what. Nobody among the British ruling elite has let a monarch actually exercise those powers for 200 years. Even George III got skunked when his Tories lost control of Parliament in 1782 and the Whigs ordered an end to the war with the American colonies. The President struts around and makes these decisions because Congress and the American people let him. For people whose nation was born in a revolt against authority, we have no balls to take it on if it wears a flag in its lapel and not a crown on its head. Our monied elites no longer give a shit about what happens here so long as we keep their taxes low and maintain a "positive business environment." Most of our politicians are vacuous pretty boys and girls. America is slipping into an elective dictatorship because nobody has the guts to either take responsibility for the nation or stop the slide. I am scared out of my mind that this nut will start yet another vicious, illegal war. What are we to do?

I read it as there being a culture problem in your political elites; to wit, no testicles, except maybe for Webb.

There is plenty of evidence (including his own words) to impeach not only Bush, but Cheney as well. Wiretapping in the manner they've done it is criminal. Deferred compensation from Halliburton while Cheney is VP looks like it should be criminal if it isn't already... and the no-bid contracts that have been handed to Halliburton sure look like the influence has been well bought and paid for. So what if impeachment results in months of turmoil? It's a democracy, and things take time. It's the mania for effiency (everything in this life should be run like a business, like say your family doncha know) that is killing your democratic institutions as well as processes: "we can't impeach him; it might make the government less efficient for a while and that is a MUCH BIGGER PROBLEM THAN MASSIVE VIOLATIONS OF THE FOURTH AMENDMENT AFTER ALL" and "paperless voting machines are better because they're more efficient, even if it means that we have no way to actually count the votes if there is some error in counting the votes... but having the American people sit down without pay (GASP!) and actually count all the little pieces of paper is less efficient so if it's a choice between "labour intensive but almost impossible to defraud" system and a "holy grail of efficiency but closed, propriatary, and with no real knowledge of actual defences against those people that somehow manage to routinely compromise hundreds of thousands of personal computers into spam-spewing zombies, let alone people who are actual professionals in compromising systems like the NSA" then clearly making people work for their democracy is a MUCH BIGGER PROBLEM.

Hi Rand! That guy reminds me of one of the ugly American types that was up on a Quebecois CounterStrike server a few days back yakking it up about surrender monkeys. No class. He said he was a fan of Fox News. Imagine that, someone who likes Hannity and Colmes being a rude guest when in someone else's home. It all started because he demanded that all the people there speak English to him....

To get back to the original point... the real problem is that Congress lacks the stones to actually do what they need to do and impeach them both. Right now, most of the world thinks America is turning imperialist and fascist, and it's hard to argue; after all, the US tortures people, disappears people, and is busily throwing away centuries of hard won limitations on state power with the apparent approval of most of the American people (or at least their acquiescence when they bother to look up from their steaks and football games). The constitution is not to blame; the blame needs to be squarely laid at the feet of the people that are responsible for reigning in would-be tyrants in the executive branch, but are failing to do so. Impeachment was put into the constitution for a reason, and if there was ever a time to do it, now is that time.

Don't forget that the biggest limitation on Congress doing anything right now about Bush's war in Iraq is the veto power. If and when Congress does come up with an effective way of forcing us out of Iraq, it's going to involve "a bill of a law" of some kind. And, Bush will simply veto it. In theory, Congress could override it but the Republicans still have enough of a minority to prevent that from happening.

I served in Vietnam. We were in Vietnam under Nixon for the five years or so until Nixon and Kissinger figured a way out without taking any blame for it. Unfortunately, we're going to be in Iraq for at least two more years so that Bush doesn't take the blame for the carnage that's obviously going to happen when we leave. And, just like Vietnam, who is going to be the last to die for a mistake?

Bush has done incalculable damage to the US in both fiscal and diplomatic terms, and on top of all his bonehead policy blunders. But all of that pales in comparison to the wanton destruction of an entire country and the resulting destabilization of the Middle East.

At least in Vietnam we had the excuse that the war had begun before we got involved militarily. No such excuse exists for Iraq. Every action Bush has taken there has been criminal. It is likely that by the end of his 2nd term Bush will be responsible for the deaths of over a million people, most of them Iraqis, and for no good reason beyond the whim of his ego.

The World will remember Bush with nothing but contempt, as a fool and a war criminal. I fear the US will be paying the price for his violence and stupidity for decades to come. If the US loses all access to oil from a Middle East plunged into chaos in the next few years, most of the World will say "you reap what you sow" as our economy collapses. Few will shed any tears. We have Bush to thank for that sad fact.