Forget Impeachment, Put Bush and Cheney in a Straightjacket
By Rosa Brooks, Los Angeles Times. Posted October 29, 2007.
The president's warmongering remarks on the Iranian threat suggest he
is psychotic. Really.
Forget impeachment.
Liberals, put it behind you. George W. Bush and Dick Cheney shouldn't
be treated like criminals who deserve punishment. They should be
treated like psychotics who need treatment.
Because they've clearly gone mad. Exhibit A: We're in the middle of a
disastrous war in Iraq, the military and political situation in
Afghanistan is steadily worsening, and the administration's
interrogation and detention tactics have inflamed anti-Americanism and
fueled extremist movements around the globe. Sane people, confronting
such a situation, do their best to tamp down tensions, rebuild
shattered alliances, find common ground with hostile parties and give
our military a little breathing space. But crazy people? They look
around and decide it's a great time to start another war.
That would be with Iran, and you'd have to be deaf not to hear the war
drums. Last week, Bush remarked that "if you're interested in avoiding
World War III ... you ought to be interested in preventing [Iran] from
having the knowledge necessary to make a nuclear weapon." On Sunday,
Cheney warned of "the Iranian regime's efforts to destabilize the
Middle East and to gain hegemonic power ... [we] cannot stand by as a
terror-supporting state fulfills its most aggressive ambitions." On
Tuesday, Bush insisted on the need "to defend Europe against the
emerging Iranian threat."
Huh? Iran is now a major threat to Europe? The Iranians are going to
launch a nuclear missile (that they don't yet possess) against Europe
(for reasons unknown because, as far as we know, they're not mad at
anyone in Europe)? This is lunacy in action.
Writing in Newsweek on Oct. 20, Fareed Zakaria, a solid centrist and
former editor of Foreign Affairs, put it best. Citing Bush's
invocation of "the specter of World War III if Iran gained even the
knowledge needed to make a nuclear weapon," Zakaria concluded that
"the American discussion about Iran has lost all connection to
reality. ... Iran has an economy the size of Finland's. ... It has not
invaded a country since the late 18th century. The United States has a
GDP that is 68 times larger and defense expenditures that are 110
times greater. Israel and every Arab country (except Syria and Iraq)
are ... allied against Iran. And yet we are to believe that Tehran is
about to overturn the international system and replace it with an
Islamo-fascist order? What planet are we on?"
Planet Cheney.
Zakaria may be misinterpreting the president's remark about World War
III though. He saw it as a dangerously loopy Bush prediction about the
future behavior of a nuclear Iran -- the idea being, presumably, that
possessing "the knowledge" to make a nuclear weapon would so empower
Iran's repressive leaders that they'll giddily rush out and start
World War III.
But you could read Bush's remark as a madman's threat rather than a
madman's prediction -- as a warning to recalcitrant states, from
Germany to Russia, that don't seem to share his crazed obsession with
Iran. The message: Fall into line with administration policy toward
Iran or you can count on the U.S.A. to try to start World War III on
its own. And when it comes to sparking global conflagration, a U.S.
attack on Iran might be just the thing. Yee haw!
You'd better believe these guys would do it too. Why not? They have
nothing to lose -- they're out of office in 15 months anyway. Après
Bush-Cheney, le déluge! (Have fun, Hillary.)
But all this creates a conundrum. What's a constitutional democracy to
do when the president and vice president lose their marbles?
The U.S. is full of ordinary people with serious forms of mental
illness -- delusional people with violent fantasies who think they're
the president, or who think they get instructions from the CIA through
their dental fillings.
The problem with Bush is that he is the president -- and he gives
instructions to the CIA and military, without having to go through his
dental fillings.
Impeachment's not the solution to psychosis, no matter how flagrant.
But despite their impressive foresight in other areas, the framers
unaccountably neglected to include an involuntary civil commitment
procedure in the Constitution.
Still, don't lose hope. By enlisting the aid of mental health
professionals and the court system, Congress can act to remedy that
constitutional oversight. The goal: Get Bush and Cheney committed to
an appropriate inpatient facility, where they can get the treatment
they so desperately need. In Washington, the appropriate statutory law
is already in place: If a "court or jury finds that [a] person is
mentally ill and ... is likely to injure himself or other persons if
allowed to remain at liberty, the court may order his
hospitalization."
I'll even serve on the jury. When it comes to averting World War III,
it's really the least I can do.
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