Bishop Desmond Tutu Wants George Bush Prosecuted for the Iraq War
The Bishop Desmond Tutu made international headlines this week by stating in no uncertain terms that former President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair should be held legally accountable for what they did during the war in Iraq.
In an Op-Ed for “The Observer” newspaper, Tutu says that both men and several high-ranking commanders should be brought before an International Court for their war crimes. Tutu says that the men behaved like “playground bullies,” and that they falsified information to justify their invasion of the country.
“The immorality of the United States and Great Britain’s decision to invade Iraq in 2003, premised on the lie that Iraq possessed weapons of mass destruction, has destabilised and polarised the world to a greater extent than any other conflict in history,” wrote Tutu. “In a consistent world, those responsible for this suffering and loss of life should be treading the same path as some of their African and Asian peers who have been made to answer for their actions in the Hague.”
Tutu talked about the immense damage that was done during the war, financial and otherwise. He mentioned that 110,000 Iraqis died, and millions lost their homes. He also recognized 4,500 US soldiers who died, and another 32,000 wounded.
“But even greater costs have been exacted beyond the killing fields, in the hardened hearts and minds of members of the human family across the world,” he wrote. “If it is acceptable for leaders to take drastic action on the basis of a lie, without an acknowledgement or an apology when they are found out, what should we teach our children?”
Tony Blair responded to Tutu’s remarks on his website:
“I have a great respect for Archbishop Tutu’s fight against apartheid — where we were on the same side of the argument — but to repeat the old canard that we lied about the intelligence is completely wrong as every single independent analysis of the evidence has shown,” said Blair.
Blair then goes on to say that Iraq is better off since the war, with a lower infant mortality rate and stronger economy. He also calls for the two to “agree to disagree.”
Activist groups have been calling for a citizen’s arrest of Blair for his actions during the war. Tutu has been a fighter for human rights for decades and won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1984. Ironically, President Barack Obama won the prize in 2009, but has refused to press for charges against former President Bush.
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This goes to prove that in the animal farm, though all animals are equal, some are more equal than others.
BARACK OBAMA SHOULD BE PROSECUTED FOR LIBYA, ALSO.
Nonsense!
EXACTLY!!!
Poo Poo, I mean TuTu should be ashamed of himself defending Iraq and not his own d**n nation!!!
He should be in O’Drama’s a*s, too!
ANOTHER SICK AFRIKAN negroid!!!
Tutu is absolutely correct. And so is the person who stated that President Obama should have called for action being taken against George Bush, on receiving the Nobel Peace Prize. And PLEASE lets not leave out the several leaders in Israel, over the years, who are guilty of all of the apartheid and inhumane treatment of the Palestinians, Ethiopian Jews, and Christians that live in Israel. And let’s hope that the winner in the November Presidential election does not THEN support Israel in an attack on Iran, which many of us, including this writer, believes is going to happen. Be it Obama or Mitt Romney who wins. — Rev. George Brooks
I respect Tutu, but he should do what he does best- Preach whatever he wants. All these religious leaders should stop talking about politics. After all some of them are sinners. Too many religious leaders including catholic priests who been sent to prison for things we thought they wouldn’t ever commit.
I don’t like Tutu re a lot of Pan Afrikanist issues but on these 2 war criminals HE IS TOTALLY CORRECT AND OBAMA,SARKOZY AND CAMERON MUST BE TRIED FOR LIBYA AND THE IVORY COAST.
I keep seeing President Obama’s name repeated mor ethan George Bush’s name, when George Bush was the one that Desmond TuTu was speaking of. It appears that there are some haters in this group. Also, just in case you are curious about Desmond TuTu being concerned whether you like him or not…He does not care…He does not know you, so do not waste your time disliking someone that does not know you…It is such a waste of your time.
Toni, the President’s haters are always lurking to write nonsense when their ideologue has broken the conscience of the USA. They are really shameful. I agree, the Bishop does not care nor will lose any sleep on attacks leveled on him.
To me the unfartunate thing is that Tony Blair, is still alive. He and George Bush, and Candi Rice as well as d**k Chaney, should be tried for war crime. It is unfartunate that the people of the developing world do not have any say at the United Nation, since all the UN, is a proxy for the British, French, and the United States, to use to attack other poor nation who do not have the means and military might to fight back. Yes they are bullies with no class, they are creminls, they are truly the axes of evil, the name some of them call their victims.I said these words before in theis publication.Unfartunately the rest of the world are nothing but cowards, because they sit by and allow there three nations to dictate to the rest of the world and they do not have the courage to say a word. And they call themselves leaders, they are nothing but PIMPS, bowing down to their masters.
I would like to thank Desmond Tutu, for keeping the conversation going, because the world was done a dis-service, and the perpetratore of these evil are getting away with crime against humanity.
No Condi Rice or Colin Power didn’t have anything to do with what d**k Cheney and Donald Ronsfeld did, read Frontline interview on this blog. CIA George Tenet resigned because President Bush said that his CIA told him that Iraq had WMD, in his State Of the Union Speech.
@Donald, YOU need to be prosecuted for making a bone-headed statement like that. Touch President Obama and all h**l is going to break loose, not only in the United States, but across the world.
This dialogue warms my heart and renews my faith in humanity. May God exact a just recompense for the bloodshed of the innocent. There might be a remnant of true brotherly love left in the world after all. Christians we above all must remember our Lords words in John 3:16 for God so loved the world… not just America. How can we spread His word around the world if we refuse to honor it at home? May God bless you with long life Bishop Tutu.
The human mind is easily manipulated and people will believe anything if offered up just the right way!
They sold you and so many others a religious bill of goods and you have no reason to question how humans became so immersed in “God” beliefs. Never mind that we humans are still following ancient beliefs which were created by superstitious, retarded humans thousands of years ago! What kind of people do you suppose they were? How about crazy!
So the more we learn, the less we know, because we still believe in religions and deities that should have been left in the dark-ages! This causes ‘many’ to practice ancient dark-ages type abuses on each other, even while education, science, and technology propels us into the future! What good is an ultra-modern future if people are still going to believe and practice antiquated, prehistoric, medieval “God” beliefs?
What is insane about all of this, is that the people don’t have a clue, and will not allow reason to penetrate their thick psychological blockades! Therefore they ignorantly contribute to their own demise! You must want to reject the insane beliefs to be able to see how it blinds everyone to reality, but few are willing to reject something that has infected their minds so deeply!
First of all Obama never invaded Libya.Their own troops caught and killed their leader.We was overseers And they ask for our help.And some of them said we didn’t help enough.
These people are political “surrogates” to a more secretive power group. I call the group the “Anglo-elite” They are a group which uses these surrogates to represent them, as they continue pillaging and causing starvation, poverty, pain, and genocide all over the world!
These “elite” sanctioned surrogates (we are urged to vote for), are shielded by our phony laws. Laws which are actually designed to protect the wealthiest most sociopathic humans on the planet, while giving the ignorant, naive ‘commoners’ a feeling of safety and confidence in this, a country where the wealthiest and most powerful steal and kill at will.
They own everything.! They own the banks and steal our taxes to pay themselves, they own the media and steal our taxes to promote their political surrogates. They cause great damage to workers, and our environment, but never pay the price!
Make no mistake, ‘anyone’, and I mean anyone, who is in any supposed ‘High political position’, is there because they have been sanctioned by the “elite”, and are therefore part of the ‘new world order’ crime wave!
They should all be behind bars, yet we are urged to vote for them instead, and we are naive enough to believe all of the lies and secrets they ply us with! It’s a vicious circle, and we (the common people of the world) are made the biggest fools by the most devious psychopaths the world has ever known!
It’s time Bush and Blair were brought to stand for their crimes. Thanks you Bishop Tutu for bringing this back to the attention of the people of the world who should demand that justice be administered to all and that includes the leaders of the Western world and not just the Africans.
George Bush has gotten away with murder and treasonous acts against the worlds economy. And he is oblivious of his crimes. If he knew how stark naked he is, morally, he would not even care. He is lost in his conservative racist rhectoric.
@Derrick Your statement shows you are a racist, this platform is not meant for someone like you!!
You have no intellectual contribution to the post.
I agree with Bishop Desmond Tutu, and for those who lost a love one in the Iraq War should be really upset about what d**k Cheney and Donald Ronsfeld did in Iraq and President Bush went along with after CIA George Tenet told President Bush that there were NO-WMD in Iraq.
The next post by Shirley will prove it to you if space permit.
Tue, July 17, 2012 5:48:58 PMAfter 9/11 d**k Cheney and Romsfield took over the President position.
From: shirleu gallagher View Contact
To: gallagher59@att.net
——————————————————————————–
A lot of what needs to be done here will have to be done quietly, without any
discussion, using sources and methods that are available to our intelligence
agencies,” Cheney told Americans just after 9/11. He warned the public that the
government would have to operate on the “dark side.”
In “The Dark Side,” FRONTLINE tells the story of the vice president’s role as
the chief architect of the war on terror, and his battle with Director of
Central Intelligence George Tenet for control of the “dark side.” Drawing on
more than 40 interviews and thousands of documents, the film provides a
step-by-step examination of what happened inside the councils of war.
Early in the Bush administration, Cheney placed a group of allies throughout the
government who advocated a robust and pre-emptive foreign policy, especially
regarding Iraq. But a potential obstacle was Tenet, a holdover from the Clinton
administration who had survived the transition by bypassing Cheney and creating
a personal bond with the president.
After the attacks on 9/11, Cheney seized the initiative and pushed for expanding
presidential power, transforming America’s intelligence agencies and bringing
the war on terror to Iraq. Cheney’s primary ally in this effort was Secretary of
Defense Donald Rumsfeld.
“You have this wiring diagram that we all know of about national security, but
now there’s a new line on it. There’s a line from the vice president directly to
the secretary of defense, and it’s as though there’s a private line, private
communication between those two,” former National Security Council staffer
Richard Clarke tells FRONTLINE.
In the initial stages of the war on terror, Tenet’s CIA was rising to prominence
as the lead agency in the Afghanistan war. But when Tenet insisted in his
personal meetings with the president that there was no connection between Al
Qaeda and Iraq, Cheney and Rumsfeld initiated a secret program to re-examine the
evidence and marginalize the agency and Tenet. Through interviews with DoD
staffers who sifted through mountains of raw intelligence, FRONTLINE details how
questionable intelligence was “stovepiped” to the vice president and presented
to the public.
From stories of Iraq buying yellowcake uranium from Niger to claims that 9/11
hijacker Mohamed Atta had met with an Iraqi agent in Prague, “The Dark Side”
dissects the now-familiar assertions that led the nation to war. The program
also receounts the vice president’s unprecedented visits to the CIA, where he
questioned mid-level analysts on their conclusions. CIA officers who were there
at the time say the message was clear: Cheney wanted evidence that Iraq was a
threat.
At the center of the administration’s case for war was a classified October 2002
National Intelligence Estimate that found evidence of an Iraqi weapons of mass
destruction program. But Paul Pillar, one of the report’s principal authors, now
admits to FRONTLINE that the NIE was written quickly in a highly politicized
environment, one in which the decision to go to war had already been made.
Pillar also reveals that he regrets participating in writing a subsequent public
“white paper” on Iraqi WMD. “What was the purpose of it? The purpose was to
strengthen the case for going to war with the American public. Is it proper for
the intelligence community to publish papers for that purpose? I don’t think so,
and I regret having had a role in it,” Pillar says.
For the first time, FRONTLINE tells of George Tenet’s personal struggle in the
run-up to the Iraq war through the accounts of his closest advisers.
“He, I think, asked himself whether or not he wanted to continue on that road
and to be part of it. And I think there was a lot of agonizing that George went
through about what would be in the best interest of the country and national
interest, or whether or not he would stay in that position and continue along a
course that I think he had misgivings about,” says John Brennan, former deputy
executive director of the CIA.
Tenet chose to stay, but after the failure to find Iraqi WMD, the tension
between the agency and Cheney’s allies grew to the point that some in the
administration believed the CIA had launched a covert war to undermine the
president. In response, Cheney’s office waged a campaign to distance itself from
the prewar intelligence the vice president had helped to cultivate. Under
pressure, Tenet resigned. Cheney’s chief of staff, Scooter Libby, would later
admit to leaking key sections of the NIE — authorized, he says, by Cheney.
Libby also stated that the vice president told him that President Bush had
declassified the material. Insiders tell FRONTLINE that the leak was part of the
battle between the vice president and the CIA — a battle that many believe has
destroyed the CIA.
Some bloggers on this site should read a little more before that post comments.
WMD was and is the code name for Willing Mutual Deception.
Fact: Iraq President Hussin gave U.N. weapons monitors complete and unlimited access to any site they wanted to visit. Their real mission was survellience and recon. They were U.S. military personel under U.N. pertection but under U.S. orders
Obama’s marching orders are the same as those given to Bush and he obey his masters orders with the same dedication as did Bush. We need to see this country for what it is “A POLICE STATE.”
Desmond Tutu is right both bush and blair should stand trial for the war crimes they both committed .Bush gets paid big bucks on the lecture circuit nowadays and did,nt blair just write a book,makes me sick to my stomach.