[pjw] NEWS: George W Bush confesses Iraq invasion was brutal-as a joke? (Al Jazeera 5/19)

[Peace and Justice Works]

Wow, someone get the handcuffs out.

Do you ever watch police procedural movies or TV where a person (usually 
without a lawyer present) blurts out "I did it-- I confess!" and they get 
led off to jail?

Well, yesterday George W Bush told a crowd that the invasion of 
Iraq was "brutal"  and "unjustified" -- then realized he meant to say 
Ukraine--- but then added, "Iraq too." The below Al Jazeera article 
outlines some of the times the Iraq war was determined to be a violation 
of international law.

Interestingly he has made our point for us about how these global norms 
don't mean anything if the supposed leader of the "free world" can ignore 
them.

Don't know whether to laugh or cry.

dan handelman
peace and justice works iraq affinity group


   https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2022/5/19/freudian-slip-bush-decries-invasion-of-iraq-not-ukraine
`Freudian slip': Bush decries `invasion of Iraq' - not Ukraine

    Former US President George W Bush appears to admit the 2003 invasion of
    Iraq was `wholly unjustified, brutal' in a speech about the Russian war
    on Ukraine. Bush Former US President George W Bush delivers a speech to
    crew on board the aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln following the US
    invasion of Iraq [File: Larry Downing/Reuters] By Joseph Stepansky
    Published On 19 May 202219 May 2022

    Former United States President George W Bush has decried the "wholly
    unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq" in a gaffe during a speech in
    the US state of Texas.

    The former president, who launched the 2003 invasion of Iraq under the
    false pretence that the country was developing weapons of mass
    destruction (WMDs), meant to decry the Russian invasion of Ukraine
    during the speech in Dallas on Wednesday.

    Instead, while criticising Russia's political system, he said: "The
    result is an absence of checks and balances in Russia, and the decision
    of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq.

    "I mean, of Ukraine," he said quickly.

    He then said "Iraq too" to laughter from the crowd.

    Observers were quick to seize on the startling apparent admission.

    Several investigations have detailed how the Bush administration relied
    on faulty intelligence while misleading the public in the lead up to
    the war, with advocates calling for years for Bush and other officials
    to be held accountable for what has been called an illegal invasion.

    Andrew Stroehlein, the European media director of Human Rights Watch,
    called the stumble the "Freudian slip of the century".

      Freudian slip of the century...

      Former US President George. W Bush denounces the "wholly unjustified
      and brutal invasion of Iraq... I mean Ukraine."
      pic.twitter.com/KNlUwQnWQQ
      -- Andrew Stroehlein (@astroehlein) May 19, 2022

    Wrote Pouya Alimagham, a modern Middle East historian at the
    Massachusetts Institute of Technology: "Wow - the one time Bush told
    the truth about the invasion of #Iraq."

    Added writer Maris Kabas in a tweet: "If I could tell my 17-year-old
    self one thing it's that George W Bush will admit to unjustly invading
    Iraq in 17 years."

    The US invasion of Iraq, which was officially completed in 2011, has
    been directly attributed to widespread instability in the country that
    led to the rise of the ISIL (ISIS) armed group.

    The UK-based Iraq Body Count Project has recorded as many as 209,422
    violent civilian deaths in Iraq since the March 2003 US invasion.


    When the initial invasion began, the International Commission on
    Jurists in Geneva said it represented a "war of aggression" that
    constituted a crime under international law.

    In 2010, a Dutch inquiry, the first-ever independent legal assessment
    of the war, determined the invasion had "no basis in international
    law".

    A year later, the Kuala Lumpur War Crimes Commission found Bush and
    former UK Prime Minister Tony Blair guilty of crimes against humanity
    for the war. The verdict was not enforceable.

      No but seriously, George W. Bush whisperingly affirms his own
      self-description as launching a wholly unjustified and brutal
      invasion of Iraq. He knows it, and he also knows that he'll never
      face consequences even as they're called for Putin. So it's not
      funny, it's impunity. https://t.co/waInFeCsOA

      -- Will Greaves (@WillWJGreaves) May 19, 2022

    Video of Bush's comment had been viewed about 10 million times on
    Twitter early Thursday, with some observers saying the slipup indicated
    more than just a guilty conscience.

    "No but seriously, George W Bush whisperingly affirms his own
    self-description as launching a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion
    of Iraq," tweeted Will Greaves, an assistant professor of international
    relations at the University of Victoria.

    "He knows it, and he also knows that he'll never face consequences even
    as they're called for Putin," he said. "So it's not funny, it's
    impunity."

      I gave eye witness testimony at KL War Crimes Tribunal in 2012 on US
      torture in #Bagram and #Gitmo alongside survivors #abughraib #Iraq.
      Bush and his acolytes were found guilty in absentia of war crimes and
      crimes against humanity. No joke. https://t.co/AgXTErieF2
      https://t.co/Rg5SXoLyqa

      -- Moazzam Begg (@Moazzam_Begg) May 19, 2022

    Former Guantanamo Bay detention centre prisoner Moazzam Begg noted he
    gave testimony at the Kuala Lumpur tribunal alongside former prisoners
    tortured by US forces at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq.

    "Bush and his acolytes were found guilty in absentia of war crimes and
    crimes against humanity," he tweeted. "No joke." Source: Al Jazeera