I was just listening to an NPR story about 15th anniversary of the U.S. bringing down Saddam Hussein’s regime. An Iraqi Kurdish journalist was interviewed. He said he was happy to see the US troops come to end Saddam’s reign of terror. Later on, when he saw so much bloodshed, he felt sad.
Small point: The reason given throughout the many months of relentless propaganda was Hussein had weapons of mass destruction and posed an imminent threat to the U.S.
Afterward, I went back to a work I read many years ago, with the not so subtle title, The Prosecution of George W. Bush for Murder by famed attorney, Vincent Bugliosi. His book is a jeremiad, a classic prophetic slash and burn of the villain, the king, here, the president, whom he finds “monstrous,” and “despicable” and “this punk who hid out during the Vietnam War” and “How dare this wimpish punk invite the enemy to kill American soldiers” and “this morally small and characterless man” and “the arrogant son of privilege.”
Bugliosi adorns the inside covers with the photos and names of some of the murdered innocents under Bush’s reign of deceit, treachery, and dishonor. He writes about how happy Bush was during his presidency, and how much fun he was having, and how often he was working out, and how long he was hanging out in Crawford, Texas, while apocalypse now was unfolding in Iraq. Here’s an understatement: “It is obvious that Bush’s knowledge of information and events is shockingly low.” [58]
He goes on at length about how Bush was blithe and bonny, so totally incommensurate with the horrors he unleashed. Thus: “When we add to this the fact that not only was this not a righteous war, but that Bush took this nation to it under false pretenses, and over 100,000 people died directly because of it, for him to be happy and have plans to have ‘a perfect day’ goes so far beyond acceptable human conduct that no moral telescope can discern its shape, form, and nature.” [79]
Jesuit Dan Berrigan and gadfly Gore Vidal used to refer to our nation as “the United States of Amnesia.” If he lives long enough, Ken Burns may be able to do another documentary, this one about how it was a tragic mistake for the U.S. to go into Iraq.
