Ramsey Clark’s Counter-Inaugural speech in D.C.

Delivered on January 20, 2005 at Counter-Inaugural demonstration at 4th St. and Pennsylvania Ave in D.C
 
Let me warm you up for a minute by telling you about how cold it was on January the 20th of 1961, literally. The Potomac River was frozen over and I remember seeing a guy ride across it on a motorcycle. And my feet haven’t thawed out yet. I stood up for about 12 hours out here. There was over 20 inches of snow. And the best scene of the inauguration was when a buffalo with a rider came charging down Pennsylvania Avenue, reminded us that this country can be a beautiful place where the buffalo roam, but no more.
 
We’re the ones that are here really to support and defend the Constitution of the United States. We have to take the Constitution back. Back from Crimes Against Peace, from War Crimes and Crimes Against Humanity. You know the Nuremburg Tribunal called the War of Aggression the supreme international crime, and it is. And George W. Bush has waged a war of aggression against Iraq. He’s killed more than 100,000 people. Were their lives worth nothing? Can we have a moment of silence in memory of all the people who died in Iraq because of the criminal acts of George W. Bush in waging this war of aggression.

Every moment of their lives is fraught with danger right now because of us. The world is the most dangerous place it’s ever been now because of what our country has done and is doing. And we have to take it back. We can’t wait four more years.

There can’t be any more Fallujahs. Fallujah is the 21st century equivalent of Guernica. We just went in and destroyed that city. Drove the people out, killed them, thousands, we don’t know how many. They won’t even bother to count whose been killed or how many or estimate how many. They just keep killing. Almost every day we’re reading about another check point where some family got wiped out cause they didn’t do what they were supposed to do according to the military there.

Abu Ghraib is unbelievable in the innocent times of 1961, that we would torture people that way and on the instructions of the President of the United States and his highest legal advisors. Torture is okay, they said, go for it fellows. If we can’t renounce that and remove it from office then the Constitution doesn’t work anymore.

We’ve got to do more than take back the Constitution. There has to be accountability for what has happened. The Constitution says that the President, Vice President and other officials of the United States shall be removed from office upon impeachment for and conviction of high crimes and misdemeanors.

If you care about the Constitution you’d better start talking to your member of the House of Representatives and say impeachment now is essential to the integrity of the United States government and to the future of the United States. We’ve had more than 500,000 people sign on to ImpeachBush.org/VoteToImpeach.org. We need to get 5 million and we need to get 5 million on there quick.

And then the Congress will react. The Congress understands something when the people demand it. And the power is in the people. It always has been. The question is whether the people have the will to exercise it.

I think the imperative challenge of the American people now is to live up to the Constitution and demand the impeachment of George W. Bush and other officials of the government who are responsible for these crimes.

We encourage you to participate in the impeachment movement by voting online at ww.ImpeachBush.org.