STATEMENT CALLING FOR THE IMPEACHMENT OF PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH

The Steuben County Green Party calls for a public inquiry into various evidences that the Bush administration used false information to convince the American people that the Iraq war was necessary. This includes the Downing Street Memo, which is a collection of minutes taken from a meeting of the British Prime Minister on July 23, 2002. The American public who have sacrificed their spouses, parents, and children for the war effort deserve to know the full and real motivation for going to war in Iraq. This document and other government documents, revealed since the Downing Street Memo was reported by the Sunday Times on May 1, 2005, show that the Bush administration had plans to invade Iraq in the summer of 2002. The documents portray in detail how our government did not believe Iraq was a greater threat than other nations and how intelligence was packaged to sell the case for war to both Congress and the American public through the perceived danger of weapons of mass destruction.

To date, the authenticity of these documents has not been disputed by the Bush administration. The documents show that the Bush administration's discussion of weapons of mass destruction and Iraqi links to terrorism have been nothing but rhetoric. Rhetoric was used to convince an American public, afraid of being attacked, to go to war. The emotions brought up by Sept. 11th were manipulated to begin a military engagement that has so far resulted in more than 2,500 dead U.S. soldiers and more than 15,000 American wounded, not to mention at least 100,000 Iraqi civilians killed. When people like Ambassador Joseph Wilson truthfully told how there were no real attempts by the Iraqi government to buy uranium, members of the administration leaked the covert identity of his wife as punishment. Since this leak more soldiers have lost their lives or been maimed, prisoners have been abused such as in the Abu Graib prison and Guantanamo Bay, and soldiers placed at the breaking point have massacred 24 Iraqi ciivlians at Haditha including women and children.

If a public inquiry determines the truthfulness of these documents, then we call for the beginning of impeachment procedures against President George W. Bush. If the facts revealed in the Downing Street Memo and other sources are true, then our country has a president who has deceived its citizens and is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors. As a party committed to nonviolence, it is paramount that the Green Party speaks out on this issue and demands that the truth be known and judged accordingly for our nation's future. We the undersigned therefore stand in solidarity with all organizations and people, including members of Congress, who support an inquiry into the basis of this war and subsequent impeachment hearings.

Darin Robbins
Corning, New York