Science fiction author Robert Heinlein had a simple idea. Write an amendment by which Congress could no longer authorize the US go to war on foreign soil, but instead would put the issue to a public referendum; only the people who would directly bear the cost of a war should determine our participation in that war.
Simply put, we still had our active army and reserve components who would be the first to fight in any conflict, but the referendum would determine the draft without resort to any lottery like selective service. Instead, a vote for the conflict placed the voter in the first draft. Vote against the war and you filled the third round and anyone who abstained, having voiced no strong opinions for or opposition to, would make the second draft of the war. And only those eligible to fight, were eligible to vote.
It's my thought that under this system, we would have voted "yes" to enter Afghanistan, and "no" to Iraq. Al Queda wouldn't question American resolve to win the war when they could see the individual votes tallied on CNN, and wouldn't be looking to attack America on American soil in any significant or substantial way for exactly that reason. And most importantly, our elected leadership would be far more careful in leading us into a war under false pretenses. At least, if I were the President of a country that was about to volunteer to go to war, I would be very certain of my intelligence that Iraq had weapons and was prepared to use them effectively. Especially knowing how betrayed those volunteers were going to feel about being misled into a war away from their families and decent pizza.
Of course, this only works if the Constitution is respected to actually limit the powers of our federal government.
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If I were a politician thinking about putting American's into a war under false pretenses, I'd think really hard about how many of those American's would be fighting in that war, and about the military training they'd receive. Then I'd think about how upset those American's would be when they learned that they had been lied to. Then, I think, impeachment would not be my first concern.
Equally, under Heinlein's proposed amendment, I'd think really hard about what I valued in this country before I'd vote to go to war in another.
"Support the troops and not the war"? I have one deployment during which I had the good fortune as a line medic that I came home without a combat medic badge. I'm leaving next month for another tour under stop-loss.
I don't want to lose the lives of my soldiers (or my own for that matter) because my country threw them away for a conflict that no one cared enough to win. Impeachment could bring accountability to the figurehead of the war, but what accountability do we have of the Congress that failed?
It's too late for over 4000 US soldiers to "bring the troops home", and what of the uncountable Iraqi citizens whose lives have been destroyed for a war we never understood?
With Heinlein's amendment, we would never have had an Iraq. We probably would never have had a Viet Nam, because if we'd had Korea, we wouldn't have North Korea now.
None of this means that the world would be better, but it would perforce be more honest.
It's my belief that America has lost faith in itself. Individuals no longer believe in the American dream of personal achievement. People continue to treat the world as if it were a zero-sum game in which I can't have mine, if I allow you to have yours. Honest capitalism(capitalism is democracy) benefits everybody from the successful entrepreneur, to the potential of 6 billion individuals in the world making their own decisions, both successes and failures. That's 6 billion opportunities to get something done right. Any government monopoly only has one chance to get it wrong before the politicians have invested their careers in a failure. No one will try something that might work for fear it might not. The only safe attempt is the one that doesn't quite work because it's the least risk.
Freedom is itself and act of faith. It's a belief in individual achievement, starting with the belief in the potential for one's own achievement, but also a passing of that respect to others.
Well by a strange coincidence I see that there is a petition at the top of this page to impeach the president. I signed it and I urge others to do so as well.
The politicians would probably just lie to the people and deceive them into starting another war. Personally I prefer impeaching presidents who use deception to get us into wars. After being impeached they should also be prosecuted if they violated any laws, including the constitution. If presidents were frequently impeached and prosecuted it might cause them to be more honest. But the problem with either of those options is that they must be enacted into law by the same scoundrels who get us into these things in the first place.
We have to get more Ron Pauls into congress or preferrably the white house to make that happen.