(PHIL RESTINO) I want to be very clear that I have nothing personal against Chris Hedges and I do not minimize all the good and courageous work that he has done. The point that I’m trying to make is that in his NOT publicly calling for the impeachment of the Democrat President Barack H. Obama for the very same war crimes that he and so many other prominent progressives cited in their very clear and righteous public calls for impeaching the Republican President George W. Bush, along with his and the other prominent progressive voices NOT publicly mentioning, let alone promoting, the Republican Ron Paul’s legislation (introduced the same week that Hedges’ lawsuit was filed) to simply strike the indefinite detention Section 1021 out of the 2012 NDAA has had the effect, intentional or not, of keeping the opposition to the war crimes and unconstitutional, tyrannical legislation as clearly partisan in the eyes of the GENERAL PUBLIC and thus prohibits (or keeps the gate closed on) any true populist, non-partisan, and truly effective opposition. That’s where I’m coming from with my calling out Hedges and ALL others who previously had so righteously publicly called for the impeachment of the Republican George Bush citing the same crimes that the Democrat Barack Obama has been committing over the past 4 years, and then some.
Please listen carefully to the following 9-minute YouTube segment from the February 23, 2013 interview done by Guillermo Jimenez, host of the popular weekly radio program Traces of Reality broadcast live each Saturday from 5pm to 7pm Central Time on the RBN Radio Network and at TracesOfReality.com:
For more on Congressman Ron Paul’s legislation introduced January 19, 2012 to strike the indefinite detention provision from the 2012 NDAA, please read the following RT report:
Many people still don’t know that Veterans For Peace passed at its 2011 national convention VFP Resolution 2011-7 stating that it would call on the U.S. Congress to immediately begin impeachment proceedings against Democrat President Barack H. Obama for War Crimes (including the same war crimes cited in VFP’s resolution passed at its 2004 national convention to impeach Republican President George W. Bush). The following 40-second video shows VFP’s Mike Ferner promoting on the national stage VFP’s impeachment resolution and the flyer put out by VFP’s national office containing a copy of the March 19, 2005 letter signed by VFP’s national president at the time David Cline which was sent to each member of Congress. After the resolution to impeach the Democrat President Obama for War Crimes was passed at the 2011 VFP national convention, the VFP national president at the time Elliott Adams was initially going to issue a similarly signed letter to Congress as was done with the previous resolution to impeach the Republican President Bush, but he then abdicated that duty to VFP’s acting executive director at the time, the very same Mike Ferner featured in the 40-second video linked below.
Additionally, at the Veterans For Peace national convention a year later in August of 2012, the impeachment resolution that was passed in 2011 was reaffirmed by the general membership’s rejection by an even wider margin of a 2012 resolution to rescind the passage of the 2011-7 Impeachment of President Barack H. Obama for War Crimes resolution. In the months following the 2012 VFP national convention, returns from a mail-in vote sent to the entire VFP dues-paying membership showed an even stronger backing of the 2011 impeachment resolution by rejecting the 2012 proposed resolution to rescind the 2011 impeachment resolution by a nearly 2 to 1 margin.
Yet, to this very day, more than 18 months after the fact … and after the 2012 election cycle has run its course and the Democrat President Obama has secured a second term in office … the national president of Veterans For Peace has yet to issue a signed letter to members of Congress calling on them to immediately begin impeachment proceedings against Democrat President Barack H. Obama for war crimes as per the resolution 2011-7 passed at the VFP national convention on August 6, 2011.
Please also note that the 2011 impeachment resolution for the Democrat President Barack H. Obama was passed by VFP’s general membership in the same manner and according to the same rules as the previous 2004 impeachment resolution for the Republican President George W. Bush.
Resolution 2011-7, Impeachment Of President Barack H. Obama For War Crimes:
As Mike Ferner so proudly had announced on the national stage at the impeachment rally in Washington, DC on June 16, 2005, it was on the 2nd anniversary of the Republican President Bush’s March 19, 2003 illegal military attack on Iraq that the official letter signed by VFP’s President David Cline was sent to each member of Congress calling on them to immediately begin impeachment proceedings against the Republican President George W. Bush.
Well, how about on the 2nd anniversary of the Democrat President Obama’s March 19, 2011 equally illegal attack on Libya, the current national president of Veterans For Peace … Patrick McCann … issue a similarly signed official letter to all members of Congress calling on them to immediately begin impeachment proceedings against the Democrat President Barack H. Obama for the crimes cited in VFP Resolution 2011-7, Impeachment Of President Barack H. Obama For War Crimes ??? Isn’t it about time ???
Let us not forget the following words so righteously spoken by Mike Ferner of Veterans For Peace:
“It is our responsibility, and as one VFP member stated, our sworn duty, to uphold the Constitution and impeach this criminal president. As citizens, every one of us is complicit in his crimes. By virtue of that complicity, we are compelled not only by the law but by morality and history to do whatever we can to stop this war of aggression and these crimes against humanity. The Nuremberg Tribunals following World War II did not favorably judge the first nation the world determined had waged a war of aggression, nor its “good citizens” who obeyed their government.” – Veteran For Peace Mike Ferner, Washington, DC, June 16, 2005
Note: For those wishing to inquire as to why the national leadership of Veterans For Peace has not been doing more in regards to the resolution passed by its general membership on August 6, 2011 at its annual national convention to call on the U.S. Congress to immediately begin impeachment proceedings against Democrat President Barack H. Obama for War Crimes, please contact the members of VFP’s representative national leadership, as elected to serve them by the organization’s general membership, at: http://www.veteransforpeace.org/who-we-are/board-of-directors-new/
Peace everybody,
Phil Restino
Chapter Co-Chair, VFP Chapter 136
Central Florida Veterans For Peace
ph/fax: (386) 788-2918
War Crimes are War Crimes: Prosecute Bush, Impeach Obama!