Between shoe throwing and the crime that killed 94,030+ people

This Sunday (Dec 14, 2008) brought us this news -- that an Iraqi journalist threw two shoes at President George W. Bush during a press conference in Baghdad.

Immediately the mainstream media focus on the details of this act of anger: Who is the shoe thrower? What did he say before throwing the shoes? What did the president say after he was being thrown at? Whether the Secret Service reacted quickly enough? Et cetera.

While these are all interesting questions, no one seems to care about the other more important questions: What is behind this anger? Wasn't there a crime that killed 94,030+ people?

I am referring to the fact that George W. Bush lied to his nation and started the unjustified Iraq War, and the fact that he is responsible for the deaths of 4,138+ US men and women plus 89,892+ Iraqi civilians (c.f. IraqBodyCount.org).

Mr. Vincent Bugliosi, the author of the book “The Prosecution of George W. Bush For Murder”, has outlined the legal case against George W. Bush. The gist of it is the following. George W. Bush could not use the reason of self defense to legally defend his act of unlawful killing of human beings, because, on Oct 1, 2002, the CIA issued the 2002 National Intelligence Estimate. It concluded that “Baghdad for now appears to be drawing a line short of conducting terrorist attack … against the US.” Thus, George W. Bush knew the US was not in an immediate danger. Yet on Oct 7, 2002, in his televised address on the Iraqi crisis, he told his nation that Hussein was a “great danger to our nation.” He framed the threat as being imminent when he said an attack could happen “on any given day.”

In other words, George W. Bush was not misled by the CIA. He deliberately ignored the estimate by the CIA and told the contrary to his people. Since he knew the US was not in an immediate danger, he could not possibly be acting in self defense. He also knew that people would be killed in a war. This means that he knowingly had these people killed. Finally, even though he did not personally pull the triggers of any firearms that killed these victims, he set into motion the chain of events that led to their deaths. Legally this is no difference from pulling the trigger of a firearm.

Putting all these together, we can conclude that since he knowingly carried out an act of killing without any lawful excuse, such as self defense, he is guilty of murder.

Of course, the verdict has to be made by a court of law. After Jan 20, 2009, every jurisdiction in the US with someone killed in this chain of events can take up a case against him.

Doing so is controversial. What is not controversial, however, is that an alleged crime that caused 94,030+ deaths deserves an investigation.

The shoe thrower is facing up to seven years in prison if convicted. Now how about George W. Bush?

-- The End --