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Presidential Complicity

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As you are no doubt aware, 8 United States Marines are now facing charges in last year's killing of 24 Iraqi civilians in the town of Haditha. Four of them are charged with murder, and the other four with failing to properly investigate and report the deaths. This case will no doubt be followed closely and debated intensely in the spineless, sensationalist, factually challenged mainstream media. They'll have "experts" for, "experts" against, speculation and analysis from former military personnel turned talking heads and some really cool graphics. It'll be a ratings grabbing extravaganza that continues the now well-worn media practice of both obscuring and ignoring the heinous realities of Bush's "war on terror". Perhaps the most heinous of these media-ignored realities is that George W. Bush, as Commander-in-Chief and the man personally responsible for launching an illegal war of aggression against a sovereign nation, is also personally, equally responsible for every crime that occurs as a result of the illegal invasion. He is no less guilty than anyone who pulled a trigger or threw a grenade in the Haditha murders. He is no less guilty than anyone who participated in the rape of the 14 year-old girl in Mahmudia, or the murder of her and her entire family. He is no less guilty than those who facilitated the use of white phosphorus (as in illegal chemical weapons - you know, the very same charge that Bushies like to use against Saddam as justification for the invasion) in Fallujah, or the use of depleted uranium in our weapons, which has poisoned the entire Iraqi landscape and caused hideous physical deformities in American and Iraqi babies, not to mention causing permanent physical and psychological damage to troops and civilians exposed to it. That's right, folks. Your "president" is a remorseless murderer, rapist and war criminal. Says who, you ask? Says Article 6 of the Nuremberg Charter, written by the International Law Commission, as directed by the United Nations General Assembly, in response to the Nazi atrocities of World War Two: "The following acts, or any of them, are crimes coming within the jurisdiction of the Tribunal for which there shall be individual responsibility: (a) CRIMES AGAINST PEACE: namely, planning, preparation, initiation or waging of a war of aggression, or a war in violation of international treaties, agreements or assurances, or participation in a common plan or conspiracy for the accomplishment of any of the foregoing; ...Leaders, organizers, instigators and accomplices participating in the formulation or execution of a common plan or conspiracy to commit any of the foregoing crimes are responsible for all acts performed by any persons in execution of such plan." And from Nuremberg Article 7: "The official position of defendants, whether as Heads of State or responsible officials in Government Departments, shall not be considered as freeing them from responsibility or mitigating punishment." The congressional resolution granting Bush the power to invade Iraq is a completely worthless, illegal proclamation. Without a Constitutional Amendment, Congress cannot legally cede its responsibility to decide whether or not our nation goes to war. So sorry all you straw-grasping Bushies, but the fact that Congress has not made an official declaration of war since we entered into World War Two is not legitimate justification. Repeated violations of our Constitution by various incarnations of Congress and/or past presidents do not make illegal wars of agression magically legal. This ugly reality is reinforced by the fact that there was no legitimate claim of self-defense, and no approval for the use of force from the United Nations Security Council. Don't whine to me about how the UN is irrelevant and should be disbanded. This is not a legitmate defense for Bush's multitude of war crimes. It's just another desperate, meaningless, partisan Bushco argument, designed solely to keep us bickering about anything but the relevant issues. Finally, from the Nuremberg judgement: "To initiate a war of aggression, therefore, is not only an international crime; it is the supreme international crime differing only from other war crimes in that it contains within itself the accumulated evil of the whole...Crimes against international law are committed by men, not by abstract entities, and only by punishing individuals who commit such crimes can the provisions of international law be enforced." Any and all Beltway purveyors of the ever-growing national shame that is George W. Bush's imperial Middle East land, oil and power grab must be tried and punished to the fullest extent of the law. And while we're at it, let's try as accessories any and all far right media talking heads who willingly parrot Bush's lies in support of his murderous, anti-American agenda.
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Radio professional, music lover, truth seeker, politically unaffiliated, unyielding defender of the United States Constitution. If you'd like to know more, visit my website and click on the "Why I'm Here" link...
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