Wednesday, July 27, 2016

Into The Halls Of Mythology



The Chilcot Report has been made public. Yet Tony Blair And George W. -- who claimed to stand for truth, justice and the American Way -- are enjoying their retirements. Gerry Caplan writes:

The invasion of Iraq never was about Saddam or his fictional weapons of mass destruction. Saddam had nothing whatever to do with 9/11 or al-Qaeda and had no WMDs. Look, if I knew that, how could Mr. Bush and Mr. Blair not have known?

What did they want, those two BFFs? Mr. Bush, Vice-President Dick Cheney and the neocons, as far as anyone can figure, mostly wanted to show the world that America could not be disrespected by a two-bit Middle East despot like Saddam. That refusal to abide America being humiliated was at the very heart of neoconservatism. For his part, Mr. Blair was consumed with being America’s most faithful lapdog. He needed Mr. Bush to know he could always be counted on, no questions asked. “I will be with you, whatever,” Mr. Blair wrote Mr. Bush.

In  their names, crimes were committed:

In the hierarchy of the world’s international crimes, the top three are genocide, crimes against humanity and war crimes. It’s hardly in question that the Americans and British committed war crimes and crimes against humanity in Iraq. So what penalties are their leaders paying?

Why, the same penalty all Western leaders pay for their villainy. As Henry Kissinger did for his many crimes against humanity, from Chile to Indonesia to Bangladesh. He’s now a mentor on world affairs to Hillary Clinton – the non-reckless presidential candidate. Or Ronald Reagan, who backed sadistic terrorist groups across Central America and worked closely with the apartheid regime in South Africa. He’s now totally mythologized, the revered hero of the Republican Party.

Bush and Blair will never see the interior of the International Criminal Court. But they're hoping to enter the Halls of Mythology. 

Image: salon.com

8 comments:

Steve said...

Owen it can not be said often enough and somehow it escaped reporting that Dr David Kelly is still dead! Today in the Star editorials the keyboard warriors are also taken to task.

Lorne said...

Given the mythologizing and revisionism that often passes for history today, Owen, one cannot help but think of Orwell's Ministry of Truth. He cannot be resting easy.

Owen Gray said...

An important part of the story, Steve. Some people know how to skate away scot-free.

Owen Gray said...

Orwell intended his book to be a warning, Lorne -- not a how to manual. He must be mumbling what Shakespeare wrote centuries ago, "O, what fools these mortals be!"

The Mound of Sound said...


Might remains right, Owen. What nation capable of apprehending these men will bring indictments against them? The Americans gutted sovereign immunity at Nuremberg. As quickly as it was abolished it was reinstated - for themselves, by themselves.

There are a few countries that might act against lesser tyrants such as Pinochet but you don't see First World leaders in the prisoner's dock at The Hague, do you?

Owen Gray said...

The challenge is always the same, Mound: Come and get me!

thwap said...

Let's not forget the current Obama and Hillary. Obama's predator drones alone are enough to make him a serial killer.

And Hillary is mainly responsible for the bloody violence in Libya.

Yet, he'll go down in history as a "dove." ("Obambi") And Hillary was allowed to steal the Democratic Party nomination.

Owen Gray said...

It comes down to the options you've got, thwap. I was impressed with Bernie Sanders. But he won't be on the ballot. I was never impressed with or by Trump. But he is on the ballot.