I
decided to prepare this book because I became convinced it was needed. Back in 1980, I represented a survivor
of Auschwitz and filed a lawsuit against some radical right-wing organizations
that feed upon fear and hatred and who deny the Holocaust as a publicity
ploy. These were marginal groups
largely composed of kooks and nuts, some of whom celebrate the birthday of
Adolph Hitler and dream of a new Imperium.
Although they were actively seeking to mislead young people through the
establishment of a phony “institute” and the publication of a “scholarly
journal,” I didn’t believe they were an imminent threat to our freedoms. The matter was resolved when a wise
Superior Court judge took judicial notice of the fact that Jews were gassed to
death in Auschwitz in the summer of 1944.
However, in the past three years I have watched our government being
taken over by another group of far more sophisticated zealots, who have seized
extraordinary power and who appear to have engaged us in an unlawful war. It is not terrorism that I fear most, it
is the unbridled power that has been assumed by our own government, to our
detriment. Next, I decided that I
could write the book. One of the
skills I have acquired is the ability to absorb and compile large amounts of
information into brief, comprehensive documents written in a simple
language. Perhaps it’s because I
never learned a whole lot of fancy words, but following the ABCs got me by as I
wrote the “Policy Manual” of the Los Angeles Police Department and the “Role of
the Police in America” for President Nixon’s National Advisory Commission on
Criminal Justice Standards and Goals.
This skill has since served me well in drafting legal briefs over the
years. Finally, once I concluded
that the danger was real and present, I had no choice. As Albert Camus once wrote, “And
henceforth, the only honorable course will be to stake everything on a
formidable gamble: that words are
more powerful than munitions.”
Thousands of our young women and men are fighting in Iraq and,
whether or not we agree with their being there, we must give credit to the
bravery of our sons and daughters who are being maimed and who are dying. They are the best, the bravest, and the
brightest the world has ever seen.
They deserve better than to be cynically used to promote selfish
corporate and corrupt political interests.
They certainly deserve better than to be sneaked back into the country in
the middle of the night, once they have given their lives and limbs in Bush’s
War.
Our soldiers deserve to come home to a country which recognizes and
honors their sacrifice by providing them with adequate medical care and
veterans’ benefits to compensate them for their losses. Finally, they deserve to come home to a
country where the Bill of Rights, which they allegedly fought to defend, has
been preserved for them and their descendants. They are dying for us; we have to have
the courage to fight for them, though we risk being called unpatriotic and
labeled as traitors. The ultimate
conclusion of this book was not lightly arrived at. It is not an easy thing to accuse our
president of having failed to protect us and to wonder if the failure was
intentional or negligent. It
is not easy to accuse him of intentionally lying to Congress and the American
people and thereby committing felony offenses. It is not easy to accuse him of
violating international laws against humanity, the laws of war, the Charter of
the United Nations, and the supreme law of the land. It is not easy to accuse him of a
wholesale violation of our constitutional rights. It is not easy to question whether he
should be impeached and stand trial or be left to the mercy of the voters. However, these things must be said. We can no longer remain silent and hope
for a better day. Our freedom is
too precious. It is as Thomas Paine
wrote, “These are the times that try men’s souls. The summer soldier and the
sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country;
but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman.” It is time to hear the evidence and if
sufficient, to take action.
