Although I can see that most logical people would say, “You do the crime you do the time”, I am not for bringing the president up on war crimes because I think it is time to move on. We need to learn from our mistakes and never elect a leader this horrible again. But the evidence is fairly clear that the simple progression of inescapable logic listed below is accurate and that he could easily be brought up on such charges.
1. If there was no WMDs then there was no immediate threat to the US
2. If there was no immediate threat to the US, then there was no justification under both international law and our own president’s statements *
3. If there was no justification under both international law and our president’s own statements, then it was illegal
4. If it was illegal then it was a war crime **
5. If it was a war crime, then those who ordered it are war criminals
* "They have WMD. If they didn’t we wouldn’t have any right to invade" March 2002 So even under our presidents own admission, this war was done illegally
** war crime n. means an act or omission that is committed during an international armed conflict, whether or not it constitutes a contravention of the law in force at the time and in the place of its commission, and that, at that time and in that place, constitutes a contravention of the customary international law or conventional international law applicable in international armed conflict.
Please also don’t get into whether or not invading Iraq was a good thing. We’ve obviously lost that war as we are about to pull out as they are falling into a what will be a long, nasty civil war that will end (as their history shows, time and time again) with yet another leader like Saddam finally winning over one side or the other. All of that is pretty cut and dry at this point. It’s the buildup and justification to classification of war criminals that I hope for someone to shed light on.
But just in case some of you out there are still in denial:
Here is a link with a quote from the White House saying that Iraq does not have WMD:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/01/20050112-7.html
Here is a link from the hearings on when the White House admitted that Iraq did not fund terrorism linked to al Qaeda or anyone else substantial:
http://www.fbi.gov/congress/congress03/mefford062703.htm
And just in case you think that they were “moved”, here is a link from Fox News that they were not moved to Syria or anywhere else:
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,107946,00.html
Here is a number of links from all kinds of sources saying that Iraq is about to start a civil war or already has:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0227/p01s03-woiq.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/23/AR2006022300216.html
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mood25feb25,0,2529739.story?coll=la-home-headlines
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/26/weekinreview/26weis.html&OQ=_rQ3D1&OP=7a9a0ce7Q2FlQ2FR)lUQ25Q3CWDQ25Q25VMlMmmQ5ElmMlMQ5ElQ2FRRT6@DR!6RQ2FlMQ5EQ2FR6W5zVks
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/middle_east/4741616.stm
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=1652025
http://online.wsj.com/public/article/SB113236130033602047-zCx1WvfGIuZvGZJVr_MWVRGcFGE_20061118.html?mod=tff_main_tff_top
Even Military.com has said that it has started:
http://www.military.com/opinion/0,15202,88803,00.html
Fox News is already saying that the Civil War is a good thing (God bless them for trying so hard):
http://mediamatters.org/items/200602240003
Look, we all wanted Iraq to have Democracy and be free. But this didn’t work out, we failed. Iraq will immediately fall into a long, nasty civil war. They’ve done this exact thing for centuries and will do it again now. I’m sorry, but we royally messed this one up.
The only real decision this country has to face now is how to punish those who lied.