With the never-ending discussion of Trump’s actions and the desire by some to impeach him I find myself thinking about the most recent Presidential impeachment. In particular I have been thinking about August 20th 1998.

Mind you article of impeachment did not pass from the House until December of 1998, but in August of that year the currents were flowing fast and the prospect of putting the President on trial in the Senate loomed over everything. But August was a busy month in 1998 and world events did not take a pause while American politics descended into warfare. On August 7th 1998US Embassies were bombed in Kenya and Tanzania killing over 200 people and injuring more than 4000. Al-Qaeda, led by the terrorist Osama bin Laden, carried the deadly attacks proving the organization to be more than a run-of-the-mill terrorist association. On August 20th President Bill Clinton operating on actionable intelligence about bin Laden’s location, launched missile strikes into al-Qaeda’s training camps in Afghanistan in a attempt that failed by a few hours to remove the terrorist from game board.

What does this military action have to do with Clinton’s looming impeachment?

Also on August 20th 1998 Monica Lewinsky returned to court continuing her Gran Jury testimony. Unlike the Mueller investigation Ken Starr’s office leaked like the Titanic after it’s impact and from numerous secret sources, including Grand Jury testimony information spilled freely.

The missile strikes taking place on the same day that Lewinsky returned to the Grand Jury sparked endless accusations that Clinton had ordered the strike to push the political mess off the new cycle. My conservative friends, and full disclosure at the time I was still a registered Republican voter, asserted that it was simply beyond any credibility that the Intelligence and Lewinsky’s testimony were mere coincidence certain that Clinton had ordered military action for mere temporary political position. It was quite a few years later that the evidence, now declassified, verified that indeed such a coincidence had taken place.

What does this have to do with Trump?

For all his failings and personal issues Bill Clinton still behaved more or less as a typical President but the same cannot be said for Trump. One has to look at his abuse of ’emergency’ declarations and tariffs to see that this president dis not bound by convention. Should the House move to impeach Trump, something that couldn’t be pushed off the news with an outrageous tweet, I cannot be certain that this man would not launch a few missiles to distract but rather initiate something far more serious to take over the news cycle. With the GOPs abandonment of all pretenses of responsibility and principle in their defense of Trump even such a blatant abuse of powers I can’t honestly give them the good will to expect that this would provoke the conservatives to hold him in any measure of responsible.

I think it is very possible that starting an actual impeachment of Trump will cost real lives, it is imperative that every other option be explored before that trigger is pulled.