11/11/06 Honor Our Veterans And The Rule Of Law

As we mark Veterans Day, our nation needs to think deeply about what we are doing in Iraq, Afghanistan and the world.

In Iraq nearly 3,000 of our military have died, and tens of thousands of our military have been wounded or hit by disease. By some estimates, more than 655,000 Iraqis have died since we "liberated" Iraq. Nearly 4,500 American children have lost a parent in Iraq, and hundreds of thousands of Iraqi kids have lost family members.

This is not the way to create peace. This is a blood bath causing hatred.

In our busy lives we may be able to pretend these things are not happening. But those soldiers and civilians dying and suffering horrible injuries in Iraq are real people. Their pain and anguish and that of hundreds of thousands of their family members are real.

On Veterans Day we honor those who have served and those who gave their lives. We need to work harder for peace than we do making war. We must continue to speak out!

Nearly 8.7 million voters in Wisconsin and across the nation voted Tuesday on bring our troops home and impeachment referendums. A majority of the troops-home referendums gained far more than 50 percent of the vote. Significant minorities of voters voted in favor of starting impeachment proceedings against President Bush.

Veterans must call for impeachment because of their oath to "support and defend the Constitution." Under the Constitution, all treaties entered into by the United States have the status of federal law. Thus, we are bound to uphold the United Nations Charter, which prohibits wars of aggression; the Constitution, which gives only Congress the right to declare war; and the Geneva Conventions and federal laws, which specifically prohibit torture of prisoners and civilians.

Our Constitution and laws have not been obeyed. The leaders of the Bush administration have engaged in an illegal retaliatory war of aggression in Afghanistan and in a "pre-emptive" war of aggression in Iraq. They have directed the illegal torture of prisoners and civilians.

We must restore the rule of law. Illegal wars and torture are each "high crimes" and impeachable offenses. We must call for an impeachment investigation. Most politicians do not have the courage to do this. Thus, we citizens must act. If we let these high crimes pass without demanding accountability, the next president, Republican or Democrat, will start out with all the abusive powers Bush has grabbed for himself.

* Today, Veterans for Peace is planning a "Veterans Day -- Fight for Peace and Justice" event from 1 to 4 p.m. at the Madison Labor Temple, 1602 S. Park St. We will honor living veterans and honor those who have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

We will watch and discuss a poignant 78-minute documentary, "The Ground Truth," about combat in Iraq and its effect upon soldiers' lives and their families. We will call for action.

Author and reporter John Nichols of The Capital Times will call for impeachment of the president. County Supervisor Barb Vedder will call for the Dane County Board to place referendums on bringing the troops home and impeachment on the April 2007 ballot. And activist and organizer Steve Burns will call for petition drives to place these referendums on ballots across the state.

Invest your Saturday afternoon in honoring veterans -- and learning how to restore the rule of law in America.

\ Buzz Davis of Stoughton is a member of Veterans for Peace and is co-chairman of the Wisconsin Impeachment/Bring Our Troops Home Coalition. He is a retired state planner and Vietnam-era Army officer.