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10th November 2010 16:21
Link to Post #1
Avalon Member
Will Bush be tried as war criminal?
G.W. Bush has appeared on MSM for the past few days giving interviews and promoting his book.
Is he trying to divert attention from other facts coming to haunt him?
Former US President George W. Bush, who is responsible for waging two wars on Afghanistan and Iraq, is back on media covers, but this time as a figure who has been wronged.
Following the release of his memoir entitled “Decision Points" last week, Bush made a media tour after nearly two years of silence, once again raising controversy over his remarks.
But the 43rd US president is being only lightly challenged on his eight years in the White House.
By lingering mostly on emotions and the unforeseen complications of his presidency, Bush has successfully managed to divert media attentions from his worst moments in the Oval Office.
In his book, the former US leader ironically portrays himself as a reluctant warrior who had qualms about resorting to force.
He, however, firmly defends his decisions during his presidency, including the wars he waged on Afghanistan and Iraq which has so far killed millions of people.
But the 64-year-old has abdicated all responsibilities for the deaths of Iraqi and Afghan civilians, claiming that even though he “feels terrible” for the deaths, they were inevitable as they were for a better cause -- that is the so-called “liberation” of millions of other civilians.
In his memoir, Bush also admits that he personally approved a request by CIA agents to use waterboarding and other forms of torture in the interrogation of so-called "terror suspects." He argues that his decision helped save lives.
Bush's autobiography, which has been much publicized in the mainstream media, is considered as an attempt to politically resurrect the ex-president's badly-tainted reputation during his tenure.
This is while many human rights activists believe that Bush is a war criminal who should be prosecuted for crimes against humanity.
They blame the former US leader of:
1) Unleashing a war against Afghanistan in 2001 with the official objective of curbing militancy and bringing peace and stability to the country. Nine years on, however, American and Afghan officials admit that the country remains unstable as civilians continue to pay the heaviest toll. Since October 2001, over 100,000 Afghans have died and many others sustained injuries in US-led operations in Afghanistan, while the American army has lost over 1,370 soldiers.
2) Engaging the United States in yet another war -- this time in Iraq. The US spearheaded the 2003 Iraq invasion after Bush and former British Prime Minister Tony Blair built the case for it by claiming that Baghdad had weapons of mass destruction (WMD).
3) The US-led troops never found any such weapons, and official statistics show nearly a million Iraqis have been killed since the invasion. Over 4,300 US troops have also died in Iraq.
4) Involving private security firms in the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. One such company known as Blackwater has been involved in the murder of several Afghan citizens over the past years. The company has also been struggling with a trail of legal cases and civil lawsuits, including one for killing 17 Iraqi civilians during a Baghdad shootout in 2007. Earlier in June, the CIA reportedly admitted that Blackwater had also been loading bombs on US drones targeting suspected militants in Pakistan.
5) The torture of hundreds of Iraqis, Afghans and other Muslims. In 2004, heart wrenching articles, including pictures showing US military personnel appearing to abuse Iraqi prisoners, came to public attention. The reports later revealed accounts of physical, psychological, and sexual abuse, including torture, rape, sodomy, and homicide of prisoners in US detention facilities such as Abu Ghraib in Iraq, Bagram in Afghanistan and Guantanamo in Cuba.
6) Inflicting tens of thousands of billion dollars in damage to infrastructures in Iraq and Afghanistan.
7) Spending hundreds of billion dollars from tax-payers money to fuel the US wars overseas and initiating the global financial crisis in 2008, also known as the Great Recession.
Source: here
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The Following 2 Users Say Thank You to truthseekerdan For This Post:
jackovesk (9th February 2011), Zook (10th November 2010)
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10th November 2010 16:36
Link to Post #2