Nader Calls for Impeachment of Obama

From Democracy Now:

RALPH NADER: You know, let’s be very forthright, though, Juan. George W. Bush and Cheney committed war crimes. They had surveillance of Americans illegally. They unconstitutionally pursued wars in Asia. They slaughtered innocents. And they were considered war criminals by many people, including Republican former judge Andrew Napolitano, author of four books on the Constitution, and Republican Bruce Fein. Now, Barack Obama is committing the same crimes—in fact, worse ones in Afghanistan. And innocents are being slaughtered. We’re creating more enemies. He’s violating international law. He is not constitutionally authorized to do what he’s doing. He’s using state secrets. He’s engaging in illegal surveillance. The CIA is running wild without any kind of circumscribed legal standards or disclosure.

JUAN GONZALEZ: We have just a few seconds.

RALPH NADER: And so, why don’t we—why don’t we—yes, why don’t we say what’s on the minds of many legal experts? That the Obama administration is committing war crimes. And if Bush should have been impeached, Obama should be impeached.

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Morals and ethics aren't easy.

I genuinely like President Obama, in spite of my many political differences with him. I like his style. I like what he, as an African-American man, has achieved in rising to the top of what Malcolm X once called the "white power structure." I like his uplifting rhetoric. I like his intellectual approach to politics and governing. I like his urge to reconcile differing points of view.

And, of course, I mostly like that he's not a Republican.

But morals have meaning. Laws have meaning. It was extraordinarily easy for me to call for President Bush's impeachment when he was in the White House, extraordinarily easy for me to call for the investigation and prosecution of Bush and his cadre for war crimes now that they're out of office. It was easy because Bush was so obviously guilty, and even easier now that he has publicly admitted, even boasted of, ordering the torture of prisoners of war. But it was, and is, also easy because I don't like Bush.

I do like Obama.

But my, indeed our, principles would be utterly without meaning if we applied them only to people we do not like. I like President Obama. But, by the same standard to which we should hold the previous administration, the same standard to which we held leaders of the German Nazi regime in the 1940s, he is a war criminal, and should be thrown out of office and put on trial for crimes against humanity.

I mean, I know that's even less likely than putting Bush and Cheney on trial is, but it is the only course of moral action we can take. Otherwise, morality and the law are meaningless. And America stands for nothing.

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