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Loyalty, Impeachment and 'Supporting the President' (Harun I., July 10, 2007) Those who support the president miss the point. Oaths of office and military service are not to an individual. Even the Pledge of Allegiance is not to any one person but to this nation. Therefore I guess one has to define our nation. If we agree that the Declaration of Independence and more importantly the Constitution of the United States of America define this nation then that is where our loyalty and support must lie. Any individual that undermines or hold himself/herself above this body of law that defines this nation, regardless of intention, must be held accountable. Clinton's impeachment was just. It was not about his affair. It was about a principle that those who preside over this nation's laws must abide by the law themselves. They must behave in a manner beyond reproach. Lying to the American people was a breach of trust and a violation of the law that, left unchecked, would spell the beginning of the end of this great nation. To my regret Clinton did not have the honor to remove himself from office and the attempt to do so failed. IMHO, this set a precedent we may come to regret. This current administration's wrongdoing is voluminously greater and exponentially more egregious than what Clinton or Nixon ever perpetrated. But the degree, while of some importance in terms of urgency and evidence, is secondary to Constitutional principle and law. We must impeach. With that said, and although I am not a lawyer, we should realize that a successful impeachment with a guilty verdict on the charge of launching an illegal war in Iraq may open this president and his cabinet to an international tribunal. We cannot let this possibility stay our hand. The silence of the majority of my fellow Americans saddens me. But I read your post and see that there is a ray of hope. People are asking can we band together and make it better? The answer resoundingly is, yes we can. That gang in Washington serves the people of this great nation and it is high time they were emphatically and unapologetically reminded of this. As for the people that support their president remember, the Germans supported Hitler, the Italians, Mussolini, the Soviets, Stalin..., to their ruin. These supporters forgot that the nation is bigger than one individual. I ask these supporters, what do they support more, the Constitution or a man? The presidency of the United States is not about a man; it is symbolic of the ideals (laws) laid out in our Constitution that define this nation. In fact all of our government is symbolic of the Constitution. I began my service to my country by taking and oath to support and defend the Constitution of the United States of America from all enemies, foreign or domestic. In doing so I had the honor and privilege to serve all of my fellow Americans whatever their race, greed, or religion. My job was to protect this nation's body of law and therefore our way of life. The Constitution is a masterwork. It, like all the major religious texts in the world, understands the weaknesses of men. It was crafted to keep this nation strong against those weaknesses. The wisdom and foresight and admonitions of our Founding Fathers should not go unheeded. These may be new times in which we live but there is no "new man". There is much talk of honoring the sacrifice of those fallen in this Iraq war by finishing the job. What about honoring the sacrifice of those who fell in the war of independence by adhering to the Constitution? The Revolution gave us a free democratic republic. What will the war in Iraq give us? What will the destruction of the Constitution give us? I give no answers to the above questions because every American must examine his/her own ethics and morality and live with their answers (our children will also live with our answers). Whether a free democratic republic or an Orwellian nightmare, we all must chose and accept responsibility for our choices. For more on a wide array of other topics, please visit the oftwominds.com weblog. 
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