This afternoon, I went to a Good Friday service. To Christians, Good Friday commemorates our Lord’s death on the cross. Near to his death he cried out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me,” mirroring David’s lament in Psalm 22 “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning?” So Good Friday is a very somber day in the Christian calendar and not a place for humor. Therefore today, the pastor asked the congregation for concerns to lift them to God and the response was to be: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken us.” There were numerous concerns, both personal and global, and of course you could guess that the crisis in the Mideast was among them. As I was listening to the requests, knowing full well what the congregational response would be, I nearly uttered “the President of the United States,” with the inevitable response: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken us.” Certainly the humor did not escape me, but neither did the somber commemoration. I mutely chuckled, my wife nudged me in the ribs, and I did refrain.

But we are facing a very serious crisis in the next few months. The American people want our combat troops out of Iraq. The Congress, representing the vast majority of Americans are now on their way to using their unarguable power of the purse to achieve those ends. The American people have spoken through our electoral process. The President doesn’t get it. England’s Charles I didn’t get it either. He lived - and died - in a transition of change from the divine right of kings to accountability to the people.

Our President, in his role as commander in chief, believes that it is his Army and he can do with it as he pleases. Well, that’s not quite true. In fact, while he commands the Armed Forces, even to the extent of going to battle with them in the field, what he does not understand, is that it is not his to do with as he pleases. He is accountable to the people represented through the Congress. The Constitution’s clear intent is that the final authority is its citizens. Let me remind you:

We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

The Congress has actually given the President a compromise: We’ll finance your war, but there must be a foreseeable end point. Instead, the President is threatening to precipitate a Constitutional crisis. If he vetoes the supplemental appropriation bill, there is no money for his war. The Congress, as well as the American people, are not going to compromise any further. The President’s actions then forces an inevitable confrontation with the Congress that will be met by another bill that will forthwith end funding – and the Congress will be on very solid grounds under the War Powers Act of 1973.

The President has two choices, redeploy the combat troops or conduct an unfunded war. He would have to transfer money from other accounts to do so which, in and of itself, is illegal. He would be conducting an illegal war in all its meanings. Of course, he would be challenged and taken to court, but he is banking on the creeping deliberate pace of our judicial process. In the meantime, the congress would have very little choice but to at least start impeachment proceedings, but the President also knows that the alternative to his impeachment would be the Vice-President who is just as repugnant to the Congress. It is time for both parties to understand the gravity of this situation.

The President needs to see that even his own party’s support is gone. He needs to be faced with overwhelming opposition. Our congressman needs to abandon his President - for his own sake. No more on the fence – and even without the Iraq war, we will still have Fort Drum.

Yes, our very democracy is at stake. Perhaps I should have brought up the President’s name during the Good Friday service.