EIGHTH ADDRESS TO CITY COUNCIL (Regarding A Resolution To Impeach), February 19th

Diane spoke this time, then me. The Mayor responded at the end, for the first time, saying, as usual, that the City Council had no expressed interest in impeaching the President. Then he added that an election was just "around the corner," that we should all vote responsibly, and that change would come about through the "normal" process.

My speech went as follows:

Mayor, Council members, I appear for the eighth time asking you to pass a resolution to impeach the President and Vice President of the United States.

I would like to point something out about the war in Iraq, which I think most Americans tend to forget or may not be aware of. Iraq had a combined total of zero attacks against Americans in all the decades of Saddam, except when Bush invaded their country.

War plans with Iraq were drawn up in the first month of the Bush Administration, and so was the illegal wiretapping of Americans--7 to eight months before 9-11.

Since we invaded, we have systematically bombed that country, turning Iraq's cities and towns into free-fire zones. We've leveled entire neighborhoods. We've killed women, children, families, by the hundreds of thousands.

We've raped, pillaged, and tortured. Mercenaries payed for with our tax dollars indiscriminately gun people down in the streets.

We've used white phosphorous and cluster bombs, both banned by the U.N., on civilians. White phosphorous, by the way, spreads on the skin and catches fire. It cannot be extinguished or washed off with water, so the flesh is simply burned down to the bone.

I could bring pictures in here and show you what that looks like, and I think everyone in here certainly ought to know what it looks like. All I can say is it's gruesome to look at.

The systematic extinction of the Iraqi people is without any apparent motive; it is simply violence for the sake of violence.

In fact, the invasion and occupation of Iraq now rivals the great crimes of the last century. The human toll--2.1 million, by the latest estimate--exceeds the number killed in the Rwandan genocide in 1994. And is approaching the number who died in Cambodia during the Khmer Rouge era of the 1970's.

Your silence and your expressed disinterest regarding these and other crimes that are done in your name and mine, speak volumes. If you know your history, you'll find that all criminal regimes rely heavily on the silence and tacit approval of their citizens.

By failing to act now to bring these men to account, we lay the groundwork for future presidents, Democrats or Republicans, to do the same or worse. If impeachment is not an option now, I doubt it ever will be again.

Some things transcend politics. Do we not owe an example to our children, at least, to speak up when wrong occurs? I appeal to you--to your "better angels"--to do the right and decent thing, and pass this resolution.

Thank you.