An impeachable lie

Okay, I'm an active anti-Bushie, but I've never subscribed to the impeachment talk, largely because of its unlikelihood, also because of its impact on America right now. But most significantly because I've not found a directly impeachable offense in all of Bush's lies and conduct, however evil. Not impeachable, I've reasoned, because not involving moral turpitude, and not amounting to "high crimes and misdemeanors."

But the lies he repeatedly told about Saddam Hussein's links to Al Qaida, his scare tactics that goaded the Congress and the public into war, came close. And now this, a lie by omission, pushes the case against him over the top. The National Intelligence Estimate (NIE) he claims to have relied on in making war, contained the clearly-stated conclusion that Saddam was not likely to attack the US, or join with terrorists to do so, unless he was desperate; in other words, unless Iraq was attacked, or in imminent danger of being attacked.

Not a peep about this CIA conclusion, because it flew in the face of Bush's plans to invade Iraq. But that's not the indictable, impeachable part. What Bush did was lie to the Congress (this conclusion was not included in the censored version of the NIE that the White House allowed the Congress to read) and the rest of us, over a matter which jeopardized our lives and property. He deliberately failed to tell us that attacking Iraq would, in the judgment of the intelligence he knew, place us at greater risk for harm and the spread of terrorism to our shores, than if we did not attack.

And that, mein dammen und herren, is treason.