“Hands stained with the best blood of our nation.” - The Gazette of the United States, a Philadelphia newspaper, in an editorial, denouncing Aaron Burr for killing Alexander Hamilton. (1)

After Aaron Burr, the then V. P. of the United States, shot Alexander Hamilton to death in a duel, he became the most loathed man in America. In light of the fact that the Bush-Cheney Gang is insisting on sending 30,000 more U.S. troops into a raging Civil War in Iraq, I predict that V.P. Dick Cheney’s reputation will soon sink even lower than Burr’s. A raving Neocon, Cheney has been the single most important instigator of the Iraqi conflict. (2) Meanwhile, Newt Gingrich has just made public the fact that President George W. Bush is “a weak man, like Gerald Ford.” He blames the chaotic situation in the White House on Karl Rove. With respect to the Iraqi War, however, it is Cheney, who has been running that show for the last six years. John Judge, an aide to Rep. Cynthia McKinney (D-GA), said: “The joke in D.C. is, if Cheney dies of a heart attack, Bush will become President!” (3)

I’m convinced that sending more troops to Iraq, in a war that Bush himself now admits: “We’re not winning,” is an act of hubris comparable to the deranged President Richard Nixon’s firing the Special Prosecutor in the Watergate case--the infamous “Saturday Night Massacre.” (4) I think that all hell is going to break loose on Capitol Hill, in Jan., 2007, especially when the Pro-Impeachment Brigade, led by activists Cindy Sheehan, Ann Wright, Medea Benjamin, et al, hits Capitol Hill, on Jan. 3rd. (5) Attorney Elizabeth Holtzman, of Watergate Committee fame, believes that the movement for impeachment will build as new damaging evidence is disclosed. Her keen analysis is now ringing truer than ever. (6)

In early 2007, Cheney will also be required to give testimony under oath in an important criminal perjury and obstruction of justice trial involving his former chief of staff in the White House, Irving “Scooter” Libby. Feared Special Prosecutor, Patrick J. Fitzgerald, will conduct the cross-examination of the V.P. Libby is also a Neocon, with close ties to the leading architect of the Iraqi War, Paul “Heart of Darkness” Wolfowitz. (7) The duo once served together in the U.S. State Department. Libby was a key player in the White House Iraq Group (WHIG), which Cheney is suspected of using to manipulate the intelligence to suit his pre-set, pro-Iraqi War policy. If that one charge alone can be sustained, the House of Representatives shouldn’t have any problem passing a Resolution of Impeachment against this arch War Hawk, and his co-conspirator in crime, Bush. The NYT’s reporter, Judith Miller, was used by WHIG to feed disinformation to the public in order to justify the attack on Iraq. (8) Ray McGovern, an ex-CIA analyst, has said of the devious Cheney, that he was primarily responsible for creating a “campaign of deceit” about Iraq. (9)

Getting back to the slippery Burr. His duel with Hamilton took place in Weekawken, New Jersey, on the morning of July 11, 1804. Hamilton, a great lawyer, had been the nation’s first Secretary of the Treasury and a true champion of the U.S. Constitution, second only to the legendary James Madison of Virginia. (10) He had also been an aide-to-camp to General George Washington and an artillery office in the gallant Continental Army. Hamilton died from his gun shot wound received from the duel with Burr, on July 12, 1804, in NYC. He left behind a grieving widow and seven children. Unlike Cheney, who repeatedly dodged the draft for the Vietnam conflict, Burr was a bona fide Revolutionary War hero, having served with great distinction. Nevertheless, Burr’s reputation never survived his taking the life of Hamilton--one of the Republic’s most brilliant, charismatic and fearless Founding Fathers. (1)

Even though dueling was technically legal in New Jersey, a murder indictment was handed down against Burr. He was also indicted in NYC for “participating in a duel.” Burr quickly left his Greenwich Village home and fled south to Washington, D.C., where he had immunity from arrest, to preside over the U.S. Senate. Thomas Jefferson was then President. He hated Burr with an overriding passion, seeing him as a two-faced political rival, who had failed to step aside when the electoral vote for the presidency, in 1800, had ended in a tie between them. (1) He also felt that Burr was capable of resurrecting the fast-declining Federalist Party. When Burr’s V.P. term of office expired, in early 1805, and he failed to obtain a political sinecure from Jefferson, he got more deeply involved in a dastardly plot to seize the “Western Lands,” (today’s Texas, New Mexico and environs), and set up a new entity, distinct and separate from the U.S. It was to be used by the criminal schemers to conquer Mexico, with the ambitious Burr being installed as its “Napoleonic Emperor.” (11)

This particular condemnatory intrigue was British in origin. Burr was charged with treason. His trial was conducted by the Supreme Court’s Chief Justice John Marshall in Richmond, VA. However, he was found “not guilty” on September 1, 1807. The reason he was freed was that the government couldn’t come up with the necessary “overt act” to make its case. (1) It also helped Burr’s chances for acquittal that the great trial lawyer, Luther Martin of Maryland, was one of his defense counsels. And, probably more important to his beating the rap than all of the above was the fact that Justice Marshall, a Revolutionary War comrade of Burr, was also a fierce political opponent of President Jefferson, even though they were distant relatives. (12) There was eventually a “smoking gun” to prove Burr’s deep complicity in the plot. (1)

Finally, putting the extremely desperate Cheney at center stage again: He is a very powerful and totally unscrupulous individual. He knows that only another war as a diversion from his putative wrongdoings can save his hide. Cheney’s serial evildoings include, at the very least, his moral culpability for the 2,954 American troops-- “the best blood of our nation”-- already slain in Iraq. Unless the U.S. Congress does its mandated duty and quickly moves to impeach and remove from office, both Bush and Cheney, a U.S. led attack on Iran is a real and present danger. If the Congress fails to act, say good-bye to our Republic and prepare yourselves for a police state and a war without end!

Notes:

1. “Duel: Alexander Hamilton, Aaron Burr and the Future of America” by Thomas Fleming.
2. www.huffingtonpost.com/2006/11/05/conservative-richard-perl_n_33310.html and
batr.net/neoconwatch/ and
thinkprogress.org/2006/04/23/60-minutes-cia-official-reveals-bush-cheney-rice-were-personally-told-iraq-had-no-wmd-in-fall-2002
3. www.youtube.com/watch
4. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday_Night_Massacre
5. www.gsfp.org/article.php
6. www.youtube.com/watch
7. usa.mediamonitors.net/content/view/full/29114
8. rawstory.com/news/2005/Cheneys_role_in_outing_of_CIA_1012.html
9. www.antiwar.com/mcgovern/
10. “James Madison and the Struggle for the Bill of Rights” by Richard Labunski.
11. “Aaron Burr: Conspiracy to Treason” by Buckner F. Melton Jr.
12. “John Marshall: Definer of a Nation” by Jean Edward Smith.

© William Hughes 2006.

William Hughes is the author of “Saying ‘No’ to the War Party” (Amazon.com). He can be reached at liamhughes-AT-comcast.net.