Bush Invasion of Iraq Similar to Putin Invasion of Ukraine

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George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq is similar is to Putin’s Invasion of Ukraine because both were based on lies and both were unprovoked.

 

How Putin’s Ukraine War Is Like Bush’s Iraq War

Kyle Kulinski compares the Russian invasion of Ukraine by Vladimir Putin to the US War in Iraq orchestrated by George W. Bush almost two decades ago

 

Opinion | How George W. Bush Laid the Groundwork for Putin’s Invasion of Ukraine

“Bush’s willful act of aggression, his invasion, and eight-and-a-half-year military occupation of Iraq, has deeply hindered effective policy-making by the U.S. regarding Russia’s attack on Ukraine.”

 

As Russia invades Ukraine, Iraqis remember painful war memories

Ukraine’s invasion is a painful reminder for many Iraqis who have lost their hopes and dreams due to conflict.

John Oliver: Bush Should ‘Shut the F*ck Up’ About Ukraine

During last week’s Season 9 premiere of his hit HBO series Last Week Tonight, John Oliver delivered a blistering takedown of the right-wing panic over critical race theory -which conservatives have redefined to mean any conversation about race that they’re uncomfortable having and appears to be a smoke screen used to push their broader agenda: school choice.

 

Bush began Iraq plan pre-9/11, O’Neill says

WASHINGTON — President Bush and his senior aides began plotting the invasion of Iraq just days after he took office in January 2001 and not, as the administration has indicated, after terrorists struck against the United States eight months later, according to former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, who was forced from his post in December 2002.

Per the above article:  “President Bush and his senior aides began plotting the invasion of Iraq just days after he took office in January 2001 and not, as the administration has indicated, after terrorists struck against the United States eight months later, according to former Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill, who was forced from his post in December 2002.

In an interview scheduled to air tonight on CBS News’ “60 Minutes,” O’Neill derided what he considered the administration’s intent from the start to remove Saddam Hussein by force.

“From the very beginning, there was a conviction that Saddam Hussein was a bad person and that he needed to go,” O’Neill told the news program, according to excerpts released yesterday. “For me, the notion of preemption, that the US has the unilateral right to do whatever we decide to do, is a really huge leap.”

White House Press Secretary Scott McClellan said yesterday that Hussein “was a threat to peace and stability before Sept. 11, and even more of a threat after Sept. 11.”

The interview of O’Neill, the only Bush Cabinet member so far to leave office, served as a preview to a forthcoming book written by former Wall Street Journal reporter Ron Suskind about O’Neill’s experience in the Bush administration.

The book is based in part on thousands of notes and documents collected by the former treasury chief, as well as information gathered by Suskind from other White House insiders, to examine the first half of the president’s term. It is bound to reignite the debate over whether the Bush administration used the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks as cover to launch a preordained policy of toppling Hussein. Although this story was already published in 2004, it got only little attention, although it is clearly very important”.

 

George W. Bush Legacy Of War: ‘WMDs’ In Iraq

Americans finally learned the truth about weapons of mass destruction. The man charged with finding WMD’s released a report revealing he’d found nothing.

 

George Bush: ‘God told me to end the tyranny in Iraq’

George Bush has claimed he was on a mission from God when he launched the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, according to a senior Palestinian politician in an interview to be broadcast by the BBC later this month. By Ewen MacAskill.

Religious Fanatic George Bush: ‘God told me to end the tyranny in Iraq’

Religious Fanatic George Bush has claimed he was on a mission from God when he launched the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, according to a senior Palestinian politician in an interview to be broadcast by the BBC later this month.

Mr Bush revealed the extent of his religious fervour when he met a Palestinian delegation during the Israeli-Palestinian summit at the Egpytian resort of Sharm el-Sheikh, four months after the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003.

One of the delegates, Nabil Shaath, who was Palestinian foreign minister at the time, said: “President Bush said to all of us: ‘I am driven with a mission from God’. God would tell me, ‘George go and fight these terrorists in Afghanistan’. And I did. And then God would tell me ‘George, go and end the tyranny in Iraq’. And I did.”

Mr Bush went on: “And now, again, I feel God’s words coming to me, ‘Go get the Palestinians their state and get the Israelis their security, and get peace in the Middle East’. And, by God, I’m gonna do it.”

Mr Bush, who became a born-again Christian at 40, is one of the most overtly religious leaders to occupy the White House, a fact which brings him much support in middle America.

 

George W. Bush really did lie about WMDs, and his aides are still lying for him

Ari Fleischer is a liar. He lies about stuff big and small. And as President George W. Bush’s press secretary during the run-up to the Iraq War, he participated in a large effort to exaggerate and misrepresent what the intelligence community believed about weapons of mass destruction and Iraq’s (negligible) links to al-Qaeda.

Per the above article; “George W. Bush really did lie about WMDs, and his aides are still lying for him. Ari Fleischer’s latest excuses are pathetic”.

“Ari Fleischer is a liar. He lies about stuff big and small. And as President George W. Bush’s press secretary during the run-up to the Iraq War, he participated in a large effort to exaggerate and misrepresent what the intelligence community believed about weapons of mass destruction and Iraq’s (negligible) links to al-Qaeda.

But Fleischer does not like it when people point out that he’s a liar, so he took to Twitter on Tuesday night to mark the anniversary of the invasion of Iraq and address what is, in his mind, a major tragedy surrounding the war: the fact that people sometimes point out that he and his friends are liars.

Some might argue the real victims of the war are the nearly 300,000 civilians and combatants killed due to an unnecessary invasion, but Fleischer would rather focus on his and his colleagues’ hurt feelings.

Fine. Let’s focus there. Fleischer is, once again, lying — and lying about the times his colleagues lied. There were numerous occasions when Bush and his advisers made statements that intelligence agencies knew to be false, both about weapons of mass destruction (WMDs) and about Iraq President Saddam Hussein’s nonexistent links to al-Qaeda. The term commonly used for making statements that one knows to be false is “lying.”

Mother Jones’s David Corn has been excellent about chronicling specific examples over the years. Here are just a few:

In October 2002, Bush said that Saddam Hussein had a “massive stockpile” of biological weapons. But as CIA Director George Tenet noted in early 2004, the CIA had informed policymakers it had “no specific information on the types or quantities of weapons agent or stockpiles at Baghdad’s disposal.” The “massive stockpile” was just literally made up.
In December 2002, Bush declared, “We do not know whether or not [Iraq] has a nuclear weapon.” That was not what the National Intelligence Estimate said. As Tenet would later testify, “We said that Saddam did not have a nuclear weapon and probably would have been unable to make one until 2007 to 2009.” Bush did know whether or not Iraq had a nuclear weapon — and lied and said he didn’t know to hype the threat.

On CNN in September 2002, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice claimed that aluminum tubes purchased by Iraq were “only really suited for nuclear weapons programs.” This was precisely the opposite of what nuclear experts at the Energy Department were saying; they argued that not only was it very possible the tubes were for nonnuclear purposes but that it was very likely they were too. Even more dire assessments about the tubes from other agencies were exaggerated by administration officials — and in any case, the claim that they’re “only really suited” for nuclear weapons is just false.
On numerous occasions, Vice President Dick Cheney cited a report that 9/11 conspirator Mohamed Atta had met in Prague with an Iraqi intelligence officer. He said this after the CIA and FBI concluded that this meeting never took place.
More generally on the question of Iraq and al-Qaeda, on September 18, 2001, Rice received a memo summarizing intelligence on the relationship, which concluded there was little evidence of links. Nonetheless, Bush continued to claim that Hussein was “a threat because he’s dealing with al-Qaeda” more than a year later.

In August 2002, Cheney declared, “Simply stated, there’s no doubt that Saddam Hussein now has weapons of mass destruction.” But as Corn notes, at that time there was “no confirmed intelligence at this point establishing that Saddam had revived a major WMD operation.” Gen. Anthony Zinni, who had heard the same intelligence and attended Cheney’s speech, would later say in a documentary, “It was a total shock. I couldn’t believe the vice president was saying this, you know? In doing work with the CIA on Iraq WMD, through all the briefings I heard at Langley, I never saw one piece of credible evidence that there was an ongoing program.”

The Bush administration on numerous occasions exaggerated or outright fabricated conclusions from intelligence in its public statements. Bush really did lie, and people really did die as a result of the war those lies were meant to build a case for. Those are the facts.

 

Lies that launched the war against Iraq

 

George Bush, Dick Cheney war crimes: Torture

Rachel Maddow, guest host on countdown with Keith Olbermann, comments on the newly emerging evidence of the Bush White House’s role in promoting torture.

The ICRC report on CIA interrogation techniques concluded categorically that they were “torture”–not “tantamount to torture” as previously reported–and issued an explicit warning to the U.S. Administration that the use of these techniques was a war crime which might subject U.S. leaders to criminal prosecution. This is the real potential headline maker from the book.

– She provides a number of grueling examples of the application of the techniques including the brutal murder of Manadel al-Jamadi, the placement of prisoners in closed coffins for prolonged periods, and one instance in which a below-the-knee amputee with a prosthesis who had his prosthesis taken away and was forced to stand for hours on one foot, hanging from a rail.

– She traces the development of the torture techniques to the work of two contractors, Mitchell and Jessen, and disclosed the specific techniques they developed. She notes that the techniques rely heavily on a theory called “Learned Helplessness” developed by a Penn psychologist Martin Seligman, who assisted them in the process. All of this was done under the thin pretext of being a part of the SERE program. Seligman is a former president of the American Psychological Association. This helps explain why the APA alone among professional healthcare provider organizations failed to unequivocally condemn torture and mandate that its members not associate themselves with the Bush Administration techniques. – She describes an internal CIA investigation by IG Helgerson which concluded that the program violated the Geneva Conventions and U.S. criminal law. Vice President Cheney intervened directly, calling Helgerson directly into his office and speaking with him, after which the CIA report was stopped in its tracks.

– Steven Bradbury at DOJ was asked to resolve this by crafting opinions that gave CIA full latitude to torture, with no restraints–setting aside the opinions crafted by Dan Levin which authorized techniques only within narrow constraints. After Bradbury rendered opinions exactly as solicited on his “probation,” Bush personally expressed his pleasure with Bradbury’s performance and nominated him to head OLC. – According to James Comey, AG Gonzales repeatedly told him that he fully appreciated that the CIA program was torture and was criminal but he couldn’t oppose or block it because “Cheney wants it.”

– The role of the torture lawyers in crafting the system is far more intimate than they have acknowledged. John Yoo, Michael Chertoff and Alice Fisher reviewed specific techniques which clearly amounted to torture and blessed them as fine to use, and then lied publicly and to Congress about their involvement. Yoo is said to have given his legal blessing to torture techniques and their application by DOD operatives on the squash court as he played rounds with Jim Haynes.

– A staff attorney at DOJ names Jessica Radack was fired and then hounded by Chertoff and Fisher after she dispensed correct advice to the effect that John Walker Lindh could not be interviewed by the FBI without being Mirandized and having his attorney present. This advice was overridden by Alberto Gonzales and Jim Haynes, who then had DOJ files purged to remove any evidence that the correct advice had ever been rendered. The purging of the files was carried out by Alice Fisher, who went on to head the Criminal Division. When a district court judge demanded to see the DOJ’s internal communication on the matter, he was told that there were no records.

– Mayer believes that there was criminal obstruction, carried out by the head of the Department’s Criminal Division. – Mayer portrays Cheney as the man who introduced and pushed torture from the beginning and David Addington as his “fixer.” According to her, they never lost a battle.

 

UN Could Prosecute Bush for War Crimes, Says Ex-U.S. Terror Czar – The New American

Former U.S. terror czar Richard Clarke (shown), who resigned in 2003, dropped two bombshell statements about the Bush administration he served during a recent TV interview. First, he said, former President George W. Bush and then-Vice President Dick Cheney probably perpetrated what amounts to “war crimes” surrounding the unconstitutional attack on Iraq.

 

Bush Administration Convicted of War Crimes and Crimes against Humanity – Global Research

Former U.S. President George W. Bush recently dedicated his Presidential Library in Dallas. The ceremony included speeches by President Obama, ex-President Bush, and every other living ex-president. But none of the speeches so much as mentioned to Iraq war – the undertaking that dominated George W. Bush’s presidency, and will define his historic legacy.

Mark Ruffalo Condemns George W. Bush: He Must Be ‘Brought to Justice’ for Iraq War Crimes

Ruffalo wrote on Twitter that “we can’t even begin to talk about kindness” until Bush sees justice. Mark Ruffalo isn’t ready to show George W. Bush some kindness. The “Avengers” actor took to social media October 9 to condemn the former President of the United States, writing that Bush deserves to be “brought to justice for the crimes of the Iraq War.”

Per the above article: “The “Avengers” actor took to social media October 9 to condemn the former President of the United States, writing that Bush deserves to be “brought to justice for the crimes of the Iraq War.” Ruffalo added that Bush’s alleged crimes include “American-led torture, Iraqi deaths and displacement, and the deep scars — emotional and otherwise — inflicted on our military that served”

 

Activist urges authorities to arrest Bush over war crimes in Iraq

Former United States President George W. Bush’s speech was interrupted Wednesday after an activist shut him down, slamming him for committing war crimes in Iraq and turning his family’s life into a nightmare. Jeb Sprague, a lecturer at UCLA and anti-war activist, crashed Bush’s speech at the Distinguished Speaker Series of Southern California event in Long Beach on Monday.

Per the above article: “Activist urges authorities to arrest Bush over war crimes in Iraq”

“Former United States President George W. Bush’s speech was interrupted Wednesday after an activist shut him down, slamming him for committing war crimes in Iraq and turning his family’s life into a nightmare.

 

Jeb Sprague, a lecturer at UCLA and anti-war activist, crashed Bush’s speech at the Distinguished Speaker Series of Southern California event in Long Beach on Monday.

“Your war destroyed my cousin’s life. Your war created a nightmare for my family. He’s a shell of his former self. Tens of thousands of Americans and a million Iraqis have died,” Sprague yelled.  “Arrest this man. Arrest this war criminal”

 

Iraq Veteran Confronts Ex-President George W. Bush On War Deaths

This is how Bush should be called out every time he shows his UGLY face in public. He’s a illegitimate president who deserves NO RESPECT.

Worst president ever REPUBLICAN George W. Bush lied about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq which led to the illegal invasion and war against Iraq. That war was clearly illegal because Iraq did nothing to the United States and therefore George W. Bush had no legitimate reason to attack Iraq. The Iraq war caused the deaths of over 100,000 Iraqi citizens and over 4,000 Americans.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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