A tribunal in Malaysia, spearheaded by that nation’s former Prime Minister, yesterday found George Bush and Tony Blair guilty of “crimes against peace” and other war crimes for their 2003 aggressive attack on Iraq, as well as fabricating pretexts used to justify the attack. The seven-member Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Tribunal — which featured an American law professor as one of its chief prosecutors — has no formal enforcement power, but was modeled after a 1967 tribunal in Sweden and Denmark that found the U.S. guilty of a war of aggression in Vietnam, and, even more so, after the U.S.-led Nuremberg Tribunal held after World War II. Just as the U.S. steadfastly ignored the 1967 tribunal on Vietnam, Bush and Blair both ignored the summons sent to them and thus were tried in absentia.
The tribunal ruled that Bush and Blair’s name should be entered in a register of war criminals, urged that they be recognized as such under the Rome Statute, and will also petition the International Criminal Court to proceed with binding charges. Such efforts are likely to be futile, but one Malaysian lawyer explained the motives of the tribunal to The Associated Press: “For these people who have been immune from prosecution, we want to put them on trial in this forum to prove that they committed war crimes.” In other words, because their own nations refuse to hold them accountable and can use their power to prevent international bodies from doing so, the tribunal wanted at least formal legal recognition of these war crimes to be recorded and the evidence of their guilt assembled. That’s the same reason a separate panel of this tribunal will hold hearings later this year on charges of torture against Dick Cheney, Donald Rumsfeld and others.
If you are like me when you read the headline you found yourself anxiously hoping that FINALLY Blair and Bush would be punished fro their war crimes. Sadly that is not the case. At least not yet.
I still hold out hope that someday (Not while Bush is still alive that is for sure) there will be an investigation that the Republicans cannot sabotage, like they did the 9-11 Commission, and history will finally reflect that what these two men did was a crime that should have been punishable with life in prison, or the death penalty.
I am not usually an advocate for the death penalty, but in Bush's case at least I would gladly make an exception.
Good for them! Our so-called leaders are above the law but at least one country has tried them and found them guilty! The laws are made for the common people, but the rich or the powerful politicians. They must be members of those secret societies in some of our so-called prestigious universities. Members all have something on each other and that keeps them all in check so they all lie to protect each other. What a mockery they have made of democracy!
ReplyDeleteIt's only an acknowledgement of what the rest of the world already knew...........
ReplyDeleteLet's not leave out Darth Cheney and Rummy, also, too.
ReplyDelete(Of course, Im still waiting for Nixon and LBJ to be prosecuted as a war criminals...)
"Not just offensive, but TET OFFENSIVE!"
And also too, in the court of public opinion, these men are responsible for the bleeding of our Military and Free Market abuses.
ReplyDeleteThey left things wrecked, wrecked I tell you.
Ahh, brings to mind the ancient Chinese proverb, 'the longest journey begins with the first step...'
ReplyDeletePresident Obama is not appreciated or recognized for his recent efforts toward establishing a dialogue with Indonesia and other Asian nations. Those who cling to the idea that the U.S. can remain boss of the world thru sheer military might are the ones who have doomed our future to that of Rome. If the supporters of these tragic wars don't care to read and learn from history or geography they could at least watch Survivor on CBS. At the end, the winner is usually also the most reviled.
I wouldn't make an exception for Bush Whack for the death penalty. I'd give him life in prison in a "smart" cell wired for showing endless loops of dead American soldiers and Iraqi civilians 24/7. Maybe interspersed with images of destroyed Iraqi oil fields to drive home the fact of all that lost revenue to his family business.
ReplyDeleteIt may "only be Malaysia" but it's a start. Someone has to be first to throw their shoes...
I do find it amusing that Bush is a virtual prisoner here in the US...he cannot leave the country for fear of being arrested. That is no small victory, in advance of the larger one coming.
ReplyDeleteAh...my parents just explained how we just dont realize the horrors or war..and i am just naive in my thinking...and "That terrible man" was killing his people before we got there....
ReplyDeleteSigh.
I guess Malaysia, and Switzerland, and Sweden (or whomever else told Bush not to come around)...are all naive.
Thank you all for being a sane refuge within my upside-down household.
Good for Malaysia. They definitely need to add Cheney and Rumsfeld to that list.
ReplyDeleteIf anyone of those goons were to be charged with war crimes, and I believe treasonous activities against this nation's security and Constitution, it would be Dick Cheney. I would like to see him face a firing squad.
Ohhhh... you said 9-11. You mention the 9-11 Commission- not sabotaged? Are we to take it as truth then?
ReplyDeleteWe will never know, despite the glaring evidence, that this was a false-flag, urban renewal project, the truth of what the neocons and their PNAC has done to us.
This is a discussion that needs to be held, no matter if most simply cannot believe that we did this to our own.
None so blind as those who will not see.
It's a start. I agree with everyone who said Rummy and Cheyney deserve to be added to the list. The way these people started an unjust war in Iraq (That man tried to have my daddy killed), the lack of evidence of yellow cake, wmd, etc etc. Which led to the senseless maiming and deaths of countless innocent civillians and our own military were unconsionable.
ReplyDeleteAnd what bothered me most was the hubris Rummy had when he proclaimed "Every one of them (our military) raised their hands and said "pick me"" Just made my blood boil.
They sanitized the reality of what happens in war, we never got to mourn our war dead publicly, and they all scrambled to write revieionist histories of their parts in the war, basically pointing fingers at everyone else.
We have so far to go in repairing the damage to America's reputation. I don't believe in the death penalty, per se, but I believe in Karma, and history will not be kind to any of them.
My wish is for them to truly reap even a inking of the horror they brought to our fellow humans. I would really love to see justice done and in my lifetime.
ReplyDeleteI can think of all kinds of torturous ways to make them accountable,first give all the money they made off the wars to the Iraqi people and to our vets and their families. Money is the dearest thing to them.
They should all be tried for wars against humanity. When I say this to people,they think I am crazy but I am dead serious. These wars changed our country and not for the good. I will never forget or forgive them for that. While I have regained some sense of calm,I cannot ever forget being worried constantly and especially during 15 month tour of Iraq my son-in-law did. My daughter will be done with her commitment next year and then I will truly relax. These occupations were illegal and pushed through with lies.
lol, touchy subject with me....sorry