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Bush goes to rehab: the role of the “resistance” in normalizing war crimes

Trump is uniting those opposed to him on both sides of the aisle into what is essentially a single party that supports American exceptionalism and its license to wage endless war around the world. Ironically, this very precept is fervently embraced by Trump himself.

by Whitney Webb

Part 2 - The enemy of my enemy . . .

George W Bush’s rehabilitation through positive corporate and social media coverage highlights a growing tendency among parts of the American left to ignore the actual record while embracing any figure who criticizes the current president.

The whitewashing of Bush’s lengthy record of war crimes as president is also notable, as his much-praised “humanizing” portraits of Iraq War veterans do nothing to commemorate the half a million Iraqis who were killed or the wanton destruction of their country by a foreign power acting in defiance of international law. While Bush may be perceived to be “honoring” veterans through his portraits, the Iraqi victims of U.S. military crimes during the Bush-era receive no such treatment and their suffering remains voiceless in mainstream American political discourse.

Given the ease with which most Americans seem to forget political history, it may seem easy to fall into the ideological trap that Bush “meant well” — one meme used with similar success to whitewash the U.S.’ motivations for, and subsequent war crimes committed during, the Vietnam war. However, the documentation of Bush’s war crimes as commander-in-chief is as extensive as the facts are chilling.

George W. Bush, as president, deliberately misled the American people to justify the invasion of Iraq — a war that killed countless civilians, fomented sectarian divisions, created a refugee crisis by displacing millions, and led to the rise of Daesh (ISIS). The U.S. military openly committed atrocities – such as the killing of nearly 700 civilians, including pregnant women, for coming “too close” to military checkpoints – and engaged in the widespread torture of suspected “terrorists,” while also instructing the new Iraqi military in these same abhorrent tactics.

Though this year’s Bush apologists seem to earnestly believe that Bush “meant well” in the lead-up to the invasion of Iraq, they overlook the fact that, when confronted with evidence from the CIA contradicting the WMD narrative, the White House responded “this isn’t about intel anymore. This is about regime change.” The subsequent and very lucrative contracts given to corporations with close ties to the Bush administration, like Halliburton, to “rebuild” Iraq remove any doubt to the effect that the invasion was an “honest mistake” born out of Bush’s “dream of democratizing the Middle East.” Nor is Bush trying to “atone” for the Iraq War as some have recently suggested. Indeed, he wrote an entire book defending his decisions as president – including the invasion of Iraq. His misdeeds do not haunt him.

Bush is also responsible for numerous other affronts to values that the American left claims to hold dear, including the Orwellian Patriot Act, the creation of the unwinnable-by-design “War on Terror,” the disastrous response to the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, the still on-going war in Afghanistan, the creation of the NSA’s warrantless mass spying program, and the devastating 2008 financial crisis. Yet, now, the American left seems to view Bush as a lovable goof who struggles with wearing rain ponchos — in willful ignorance of his record as president.

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