President George W. Bush should be impeached

Alright, that's fine then. My first contention is that Bush, by ordering military officials to use water-boarding and other "enhanced interrogation techniques has committed a felony, which is cause for impeachment. The UN General Assembly has passed and the United States has accepted this definition of torture: "severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental; is intentionally inflicted on a person; for such purposes as: * obtaining from him/her or a third person information or a confession * punishing him/her for an act s/he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed * intimidating or coercing him/her or a third person * or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind; when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity. " Water-boarding, which simulates drowning certainly causes mental pain, reported beatings in interrogation would be considered physical pain, there have also been reports of Korans being burned, which is mental pain for many devout Muslims. So, we must conclude that the Bush administration has been condoning torture of military detainees. Now, we must look at the legality of these actions, on a domestic and global scale. On the domestic scale, the most important arena for impeachment, Bush has effectively committed a felony. First, I would like to point out that in 1999 the United States in its Initial Report to the UN Committee Against Torture said the use of torture is "is categorically denounced as a matter of policy and as a tool of state authority…No official of the government, federal, state or local, civilian or military, is authorized to commit or to instruct anyone else to commit torture. Nor may any official condone or tolerate torture in any form…Every act of torture within the meaning of the [Convention against Torture] is illegal under existing federal and state law, and any individual who commits such an act is subject to penal sanctions as specified in criminal statutes. " These criminal statutes include 18 U. S. C. 242, which makes it a criminal offense for any public official to willfully to deprive a person of any right protected by the Constitution or laws of the United States. The Guantanamo Bay operation is violating prisoners habeas corpus, 5th, 6th, and 8th amendment rights. Althoguh they are not citizens, this law still makes it illegal to deprive them of these rights. Also the US Supreme Court has condemned many methods of torture as illegal including whipping, slapping, depriving a victim of food, water, or sleep, keeping him naked or in a small cell for prolonged periods, holding a gun to his head, or threatening him with mob violence. Even if these techniques aren't considered torture, in Supreme Court cases such as Miranda v. Arizona and Blackburn v. State of Alabama it has been ruled that one cannot be forced to confess or inform police using physical or mental coercion techniques. In Miranda the Court said "coercion can be mental as well as physical…the blood of the accused is not the only hallmark of an unconstitutional inquisition. " The argument that this is for national security holds no water either. According to the U. S. government, "U. S. law contains no provision permitting otherwise prohibited acts of torture or other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment to be employed on grounds of exigent circumstances (for example, during a "state of public emergency") or on orders from a superior officer or public authority. " Now, onto the global legal scale. Although most global laws are not really that enforceable, some are considered jus cogens, meaning that any country can prosecute those who violate this law, regardless of the perpetrators nationality, where the crime was committed, where the victim was from, et cetera. Prohibitions against torture are jus cogens (HRW). That means that President Bush has not only committed a federal crime, but an international crime. The laws against it include the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the Convention against Torture or Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, and most famously, the Geneva Conventions. The United States has ratified all of these treaties, the ICCPR was ratified by Bush's dad. Also, even if you don't think the international law is relevant, we have The War Crimes Act of 1996, which makes it illegal for any US national to violate the Geneva Conventions. Although some contend that torture of "enemy combatants" is not protected by the Conventions, it is in fact protected by Common Article Three to the Geneva Conventions, which protects all detainees from occupations from "[v]iolence to life and person, in particular murder of all kinds, mutilation, cruel treatment and torture; …outrages upon personal dignity, in particular humiliating and degrading treatment. " As it is clear that Bush has committed these crimes, he must be impeached. Contention Two: Bush committed perjury, when asking for authorization for Iraq. He said many things such as: 1. "The British Government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa. "-George W. Bush. The documents supporting this fact were forged (another crime mind you) 2. Bush, Cheney, Rice and Powell said that some aluminum tubes Iraq attempted to buy were intended for use in a uranium centrifuge to create nuclear weapons. These were the only physical evidence he had against Iraq. It later turned out that the Department of Energy had found it to be inaccurate evidence, before Bush used at evidence! (NY Times 3. There was of course the famous WMDs charge, but Bush's evidence consisted mainly of forged documents, plagiarized student papers, tortured detainees, and vague satellite photos.