Veteran For Peace Phil Restino with Joyce Riley – Impeach Obama

March 22, 2011

Central Florida chapter co-chair Phil Restino of Veterans For Peace called in to the weekly morning radio program The Power Hour with Joyce Riley http://www.thepowerhour.com to join in the discussion concerning President Obama’s ordering of a U.S. “Shock and Awe” type military attack on the sovereign nation of Libya beginning with the U.S. firing of over 100 cruise missles which hit multiple locations in Libya on Saturday, March 19, 2011 … eight years to the day of his predecessor George W. Bush’s own “Shock and Awe” unilateral attack on the sovereign nation of Iraq.

Phil told of how the Central Florida chapter of Veterans For Peace passed a resolution on July 7, 2009 calling for the impeachment of President Obama for war crimes. The resolution was the result of an article written by chapter member Tom Santoni in response to President Obama’s ordering of deadly drone bombings on the sovereign nation of Pakistan just 3 days after taking office in January 2009. The article, “IMPEACH OBAMA!”, was published on February 2, 2009 and began the process of the Central Florida chapter’s taking on the issue of calling for removal from office of President Obama by means of impeachment, just as Veterans For Peace as a national organization had called for the impeachment of Obama’s predecessor President Bush citing the same war crimes and prosecuting wars of aggression.

Also discussed was the President’s unique authority to order a cease-fire at any time … as President George H.W. Bush ordered a cease-fire to the First Gulf War on February 28, 1991 … and how President Obama had the responsibility to do so the minute he took office on January 20, 2009 or else be party to the same war crimes committed by his predecessor President George W. Bush.

Joyce asked why after 2 years since Obama assumed the Presidency was Veterans For Peace still applying the very clear double-standard of calling for the impeachment of the Republican George Bush and not calling for the impeachment of the Democrat Barack Obama for the very same war crimes. Phil went on to answer by sharing his experiences with Veterans For Peace’s national leadership rejecting the impeachment resolution 2 years in a row.

When it was mentioned that Rep. Dennis Kucinich had indicated publicly that President Obama’s ordering of the U.S. attack on Libya, without even consulting the U.S. Congress … let alone waiting for Congress to grant a Declaration of War as required by the U.S. Constitution … Phil pointed out that the antiwar organizations shouldn’t be the ones waiting for a political figure to give them “cover” by calling for impeachment, but rather it is the job of the antiwar organizations to be the ones to first call for impeachment so as to give the political figure the “cover” needed to risk making such a call.