There’s been a lot of media attention devoted to the 10th anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. Most, but not all of that attention is focused to greater or lesser degrees on the lies, propaganda, and deception involved in convincing Congress and the American people of the need to invade Iraq. The one question that few seem to be asking is how and why no one in the Bush Administration has been prosecuted for war crimes. From the President on down, we know now that there was a concerted effort to deceive and propagandize Americans into swallowing the rationale for the “need” to go to war in Iraq. We also know now there never were WMDs in Iraq, and that there was a coordinated effort by the Bush Administration to convince us otherwise. Remember “We don’t want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud”? Remember “Curveball,” the discredited source of so much disinformation that BushWorld used to create a case for war?
I’m both stunned and appalled that a President and his minions could lie and propagandize America into an immoral and illegal war responsible for the deaths of something like a quarter-million people all told…and not be charged with war crimes. Almost 5000 young Americans died in Iraq, with thousands more injured, maimed, and/or permanently scarreed. By all rights, Bush, Cheney, and their rest of the warmongers should be on trial in the Hague…yet the Obama Administration thought it too risky to set a precedent by trying a President and his staff for war crimes.
Let’s consider something for just a moment. If the President responsible for the wain in Iraq had been a Democrat, Republicans would have impeached him in a New York minute…and rightly so. Yet a Republican President is guilty of what can only charitably be called genocide, and he’s still walking the Earth a free man.
By not charging and prosecuting Bush and his minions, or at least arresting them and delivering them to the UN war crimes tribunal in the Hague, President Obama and Attorney General Eric Holder have made themselves complicit in the war crimes committed by the Bush Administration.
While many of those involved in the lies and propaganda are now heavily invested in advancing their preferred narrative- that war in Iraq was both good and necessary- their time has come and gone. Their voices no longer have any credibility. Those responsible for genocide aren’t going to be held accountable for their monstrous crimes. All we can now reasonably hope for is that history will be honest…and that there’s a special place in Hell waiting for all of them. Soon.
Below is “Hubris”- the excellent documentary on the run-up to the Iraq war produced by MSNBC. I highly recommend it.
