Andrew C. McCarthy wrote an article that should be praised.
Under the title: “The Taliban Swap and 'High Crimes and Misdemeanors,'" the
article of June 3, 2014 in National Review Online basically demonstrates that
from the legal point of view, President Obama did the right thing in exchanging
prisoners of war between America and the Taliban of Afghanistan – with a small
caveat that is open to interpretation.
We shall come to that caveat in a moment. Meanwhile, it is
worth noting that McCarthy could very well have been inspired by a Wall Street
Journal editorial written a day before … or maybe not. The important point,
however, is that strong arguments have come from several sources as to the
legality of what President Obama has done in this case.
Moreover, several times in the article, McCarthy makes the
point that the President of the American
Republic
And that travesty, according to McCarthy, happens to be the
caveat that was mentioned earlier. What is it really? It is this: “The vital
point is that the president has returned commanders to the Taliban and Haqqani
while those organizations are still conducting attacks against American troops
… [they] were not exchanged in connection with a final settlement in which it
would be appropriate to exchange detainees … the war effort has not been fully
abandoned yet.” This is what is bothering the author of the article; what he
says President Obama should be held accountable for.
So then, what can be said about that situation? Well, there
is no doubt that the war is winding down already. If this exchange of prisoners
will speed up the process and save more lives along the way, the better it is
for both sides. There is no good reason why people should continue to die on
either side just because the official date for declaring the end of the war has
not yet arrived. Having a lull in the fighting between now and then is
something that should be welcomed, not one to be angry about.
All of this aside, however, there is something monumental
that President Obama can and should do; something that will fundamentally
transform the way that politics is conducted in America at this time. In fact, it
is not something that is really new to the system of governance, but one that
will signal a return to how America
used to be run before the paralysis that has set in, and that is killing the
country.
What has come to light as a result of this latest brouhaha
is that the President of the Republic can do something that an ordinary person
cannot do. He can commit an act which – if committed by someone ordinary –
would be regarded as civil disobedience and punished under the law. But the
President, being a co-equal branch of the government, can violate a statute by
disregarding it, and get away with it.
Consequently, what Mr. Obama needs to do now is take
advantage of the current situation and formalize his apparent act of civil
disobedience by writing a letter to Congress telling it he regards as null and
void every statute enacted to serve the purposes of Israel and World Jewry. And he
should urge the Congress to repeal them all or sue him.
That is, the President should challenge the Congress to try
and impeach him so that America
gets a chance to go through the process of cleansing itself, and wipe away the
political filth that has been accumulating over its system of governance for
more than half a century.
There is no doubt that the Courts and the American public
will side with the President if the Congress takes up the challenge … and
America will come out of the experience reinvigorated to be, once again, like
it was right after the Second World War.