We are now into the fifth year of the Iraq war, with no end in sight and troop numbers rising, and accountability, rule of law and reason still on vacation in the U.S. The benevolence and patriotism Americans have always touted continue to be manifestly absent.

In the fall of 2002, I wrote a letter to the Daily Times arguing against the impending invasion of Iraq, when the Times was clamoring for the war along with the mostly deluded masses. Then, as now, publicly available information overwhelmingly indicated the Bush administration’s case for war was fabricated. Iraq was not poised for an imminent attack against the U.S.

We all knew the invasion of Iraq did not meet constitutional requirements for war. We all knew Iraq had no part in the 9/11 attack, and available information indicated the WMD case against Iraq was mostly fraudulent.

In light of information that has become public post-invasion, especially the Downing Street memo and insider accounts of the operations of Cheney’s Office of Special Plans within the Pentagon, it is evident the Bush administration orchestrated an intentional deception campaign to garner support for the invasion and occupation of Iraq.

National Security Adviser Richard Clark, Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, and others have stated Bush was intent on attacking Iraq from the beginning of his presidency, long before 9/11, and Cheney was planning for control of Iraqi oil fields within his secretive energy task force, also long before 9/11.

Americans who claim they didn’t know better in 2003, and were caught in the emotional fury after 9/11, have no excuse today. It is now a simple matter of honesty.

Does the U.S. citizenry have the honesty and courage to stop the atrocities it is responsible for, and right the wrongs, or will our nation continue to employ the abject arrogance and ignorance of the Bush administration, refusing reason and law while our military continues the mass murder of civilians?

The only redress for the criminal conduct of the U.S. government is impeachment of Bush and Cheney and war crimes trials for all those involved in initiating and commanding the war.

It is now obvious why the Bush administration has sought to block the International Criminal Court. The only way the U.S. can prove to the world we don’t need oversight by a foreign court is to prosecute our own war criminals.

Last month, Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, introduced articles of impeachment against Dick Cheney (H. Res. 333).

This is a logical first step toward ending the national insanity of the past several years, yet the resolution has only three co-sponsors to date.

Certainly few Republicans will support rule-of-law, as the party is apparently quite happy with despotism. The Democrats, who were given control of Congress with a public mandate to stop the war, have betrayed that mandate in favor of cowardly politics-as-usual, making them no better.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., has refused her obligation to impeach a criminal president, recently commenting, “Bush is just not worth it.” Maybe she doesn’t realize it’s not about Bush, but about the integrity of the Constitution, reinstatement of rule-of-law governance, and defense of domestic liberty.

What she is really saying is the American people, and our constitutional system, aren’t worth it.

Sens. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., and Bob Casey, D-Pa., and Rep. Joseph Sestak, D-7 of Edgmont, also continue to support the illegal war, all voting for continued funding of the war, and all avoiding their obligation to hold the executive branch accountable for a litany of high crimes. They all speak as if justice and morality guide them, and yet they act without regard for either.

As if the Iraq war were not enough to justify impeachment of Bush and Cheney, there is also gross violation of the Geneva Convention with the continued torture, illegal detention, and extraordinary rendition of hundreds of prisoners who have not been charged with any crime, the intentional destruction of the primary CIA operation that monitored WMD trafficking, abrogation of nuclear weapons treaties, illegal domestic wiretapping and spying, covert destabilization operations against the legitimately elected government of Venezuela while backing oppressive regimes in Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Nigeria, Colombia, Israel and other countries, and the present, reminiscently fraudulent P.R. campaign in an attempt to justify an attack against Iran, when in fact it is the U.S. in violation of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, not Iran.

For too long the American public has drugged itself with entertainment and consumerism while its government has treated much of the world to lawlessness and brutality. Iraq has been host to U.S. intervention for the past 50 years. Millions of Iraqi civilians have died as a direct result, over 700,000 just since 2003.

It is laughable, and sad, that so many Americans complain about “terrorists” who want to kill us.

If some other country were to subject the U.S. to the equivalent of any single one of those 50 years of U.S. policy in Iraq, all 300 million of us would be “terrorists” — ready to kill the invaders.

Bush and Cheney must be impeached, or American virtue will be as much of a lie as Iraq’s responsibility for 9/11.

It’s time for every citizen to accept responsibility for the defense of liberty and our constitutional, rule-of-law system, and to demand justice and accountability. A good start would be mass public demand for congressional action on H. Res. 333 to begin impeachment hearings. Every citizen, every community group, every town and county council, and every state legislature should courageously take a stand in support of impeachment, until Congress gets the message.

The Vermont Legislature recently passed such a resolution, and several other states are considering doing so. There is nothing more important Congress could possibly do, thus their refusal is not acceptable.

It’s time for the citizenry to put politics and group loyalties aside and to take a stand on principle.

David Lamb, a resident of Upper Providence, is a former Pennsylvania police officer, and a former human rights investigator for the United Nations in Bosnia.