There is no longer a question. President Donald Trump has admitted he has started a war. He has bragged that no other president has done it. He acknowledged that he received no approval by from Congress by a joint resolution, as required by Article 1, Section 8 of the Constitution.
He has struck Iran and a base in Iraq. He will surely injure and kill people, including American service members. He is depleting our weapons and ammunition at an alarming rate, impacting our defensive capabilities, which will continue until hostilities cease. He has not indicated any purpose except regime change and stopping Iran’s missile production and nuclear program (not so long ago, he said his last strike had completely obliterated Iran’s nuclear research and production). He has not stated that there is any immediate threat to our nation.
Let’s make this easy: We have an admission from the defendant, the president of the United States, that he knowingly violated the Constitution and started a war without the constitutionally mandated approval. He has assumed the powers of a king gladly and knowingly. He has told us he is a traitor to his oath and the nation.
To stop this illegal usurpation of power and restore our democracy, he must be impeached and tried, the Constitutional process for addressing a president’s illegal and criminal acts. Once the active hostilities cease (and they cannot last long since he is rapidly depleting our force’s materiel and supplies), Congress must vote to impeach and try him. Only then will we restore the nation to its pre-Trump democracy under law.
A trial would also reveal the president’s process and decision-making in apparently disregarding military advice about the consequences of his actions, as well as his lack of communication with Senate and House leaders. We will find out what influence Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu had in Trump’s decision. We will also get a better idea of his thinking and whether it was compromised by health issues. We will see who advised him to break the law and be able to hold them to account.
It is no longer an academic question of the scope of executive power. The conservative Supreme Court may debate all it wants about the scope of presidential power to fire appointees to government agencies and other issues before it, but this situation is an admitted attempt and completion of an illegal, knowing coup, based on nothing except Trump’s desire and belief that he is not bound by law and 250 years of American history.
If House Republicans do not join in stopping him by voting for an impeachment resolution, they will be part and parcel of his traitorous agenda and policies. If he is impeached, there can be no verdict other than guilty by a two-thirds majority in the Senate. He has admitted that he knowingly violated the highest law in the land. He is a traitor, plain and simple.
Now is the time to take back our country. If not now, when there is no factual dispute, when? To delay is to lose our democracy and our republic.
