LETTER: U.S. is committing war crimes

Editor,

President Bush has ordered war on Iraq on the pretext that Saddam Hussein has defied U.N. resolutions. He has done this in defiance of the U.N. charter — contrary reasoning that provides any nation with justification to attack us.

Bush and the ideological zealots who advise him are the authors of this criminal foreign policy, but nearly all of Congress has allowed it to happen — Democrats and Republicans alike — abdicating their constitutional responsibility for declarations of war for fear of not being re-elected.

Bush’s successful campaign of lies and fear-mongering has led a gullible and uninformed majority of American citizens to support this illegal campaign. So we Americans must share the blame — including those of us who sit quietly by hoping for the best. Bush and his staff are now war criminals, wasting the patriotism and courage of our young troops in this unjustified war of aggression.

We have become a rogue nation, a vigilante nation. We haven’t acted to indict Saddam Hussein for international crimes, because we don’t support an international system of justice (being indicted ourselves would cramp our style).

We have become the threat to world peace. Power corrupts, and our overwhelming military power has allowed one man, George Bush, to defy the entire community of nations. Those with integrity and respect for international justice must now call for the impeachment of President Bush, Vice President Cheney, and their advisers and staff for war crimes. If we don’t, we are all to blame.

Mark Ellis