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Desmond Tutu: George Bush Should Be Tried for War Crimes

Iraq invasion warrants prosecution, says South African Archbishop

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by Mary Noble

Senior Editor t

Image: Politix

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has called for George W. Bush and the UK's former Prime Minister Tony Blair to be prosecuted for war crimes. In an op-ed published today, Tutu says Bush should face legal penalties for the fact that Iraq was invaded "not because it possesses weapons of mass destruction...but in order to get rid of Saddam Hussein."

More than 100,000 Iraqis have died in the war, as have 4,500 American soldiers. Tutu says that "on these grounds alone...those responsible for this suffering and loss of life should be treading the same path as some of their African and Asian peers who have been made to answer for their actions in the Hague."

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Should George Bush face trial for invading Iraq?

Comments (view in Forum)

  • u
    Kellso
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    I rest my case!!!!!!! Lets keep sending all that money to buthole Tutu and those mongrels. Let them eat eachother and when they finally figureout that we were helping them (even if we shouldnt have been there in the first place) they might wise up alittle. Desmond Tutu can kiss my butt!!!!!
  • o
    Sonny
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    I was going to say, no, Bush should not be tried for War Crimes...Until I read your post...What arrogance!...Yeah, he should be tried, right along with Dick Cheney.
  • View all 13 replies >
  • Wilberhum
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    @AlexanderKM Really he start a war with Libya? You mean the war where we supported a UN action? I forget, how many thousands of our men did we loose. And was there there a valid reason or did just make up his own reasons?
  • Chomsky0
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    @AlexanderKM Obama started a war with Libya?!!?!?!?!? I'm curious, could you please cite your source for that gem of information.
  • View all 9 replies >
  • Jackie312gm
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    Desmond tutu keep your tutu out of AMERICAS affairs. Why does he not direct his criticism towards south africas murderous past racist regimes. Tutu keep your tutu hole shut about our presidents!!
  • DARSB
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    Bishop Tutu was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in recognition of his decades-long struggle against apartheid.
  • Jackie312gm
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    @Fishbone345 The regime that P.W. Botha ran in South Africa during his tenure many were simple executed. P.W. Botha was a strong supporter of Hitler during his demonic tenure in Germany.
  • Fishbone345
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    @Jackie312gm Ok. And? I'm speaking of your comment about "south africas murderous past racist regimes", the ones created by the Diamond industry. Africa is well known for having things the world wants. And as long as the world get them, they couldn't care less how, including if that means supporting evil dictators that brutally murder their own people.
  • View all 6 replies >
  • CanisCanemEdit
    !
    @Sonny - You are correct sir. He bravely bombed Iraq from a safe distance, killing and injuring approximately 15,000 brown people, blowing up a couple of hospitals, pharmacutical manufacturers and day care centers and then handed it off to Bush. However, if Bush were to somehow be indicted on war crimes....the evidence and actions of Bill Clinton would have to be brought in as evidence.

    Mr. Clinton was the first person to shout WMD's.
  • CanisCanemEdit
    !
    Clinton's public support for the war is a matter of record.

    Just before George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair invaded Iraq, Clinton published an op-ed in the London Guardian ( 3/18/03) urging Britons to "Trust Tony's Judgment":

    "As Blair has said, in war there will be civilian was well as military casualties.... But if we leave Iraq with chemical and biological weapons, after 12 years of defiance, there is a considerable risk that one day these weapons will fall into the wrong hands and put many more lives at risk than will be lost in overthrowing Saddam."

    Clinton's column included the less-than-prescient prediction that "military action probably will require only a few days."

    Soon after the invasion ( 3/30/03), Clinton appeared on CBS's 60 Minutes with former Senator Robert Dole and endorsed the war, saying,

    "Senator, unlike some of your Republican friends during Kosovo, I support our troops in Iraq and the president." (Note that while one can support the troops but not the war, supporting the president in Iraq means supporting the war.)
  • o
    Sonny
    !
    @CanisCanemEdit ...To all of that I simply say..."So What"? So Clinton supported the war.....There might be someone out there who supports Charles Manson...But Bush did the invading (illegally I might add) to a country that had absolutely Nothing to do with 911....Don't blame Clinton's "support" for Bush's "Actions"...He was the president at that time, not Bill Clinton...It was Bush's decision to break international law!
  • CanisCanemEdit
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    @Sonny - I don't believe for a moment that you are naive enough to blame the Iraq war on one sitting president.

    Perhaps you should read the National Security Archives assessment of the war.

    "The Iraq War -- Part II: Was There Even A Decision?"

    http://www.gwu.edu/~nsarchiv/NSAEBB/NSAEBB328...

    Exceptionally well written,(if you have a taste for military history and political science) and documented with links to the actual documents referenced so many times by the different views.

    The primary author, Dr. John Prados is a Senior Archive Fellow, independent historian and prize-winning author of many books on U.S. foreign and national security policy, including Hoodwinked: The Documents that Reveal How Bush Sold Us a War....so I doubt that his take on the subject is somehow easy on Bush.

    In the end, you will find, that if it hadn't been "Bushs" war...it would have been Gores war.

    It was coming. Couldn't be stopped. Set in motion by Blaire and Clinton and overwhelmingly supported by Democrats and Republicans alike.
  • View all 7 replies >
  • marine1
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    here is a thought. the United States should pull out of all these backassward countyies and let them all fend for themselves. Let them kill each other, let them commit genocide, what ever the hell they want and we will not get involved. Buuuut, the first time one of them comes after the U S we destroy that couuntry, no second chance. We will also have to stop sucking their resources dry and start using our own.
  • stepped_in_it
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    My sentiments directly. Let them "rot" on the vine. But, after we "destroy that country", we do NOT rebuild them.
    We (America) had a Revolutionary war. It took great hardship to throw GB out of OUR country. We did have help (France), but, most of the fighting was on US. Same with the Civil War. All the third world countries want US to fix their problems w/o them hardly lifting their fingers. And then we repair "our" damage...BS.
  • mimi57
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    Yep, let them all fend for themselves, I don't care what they do. However, they start playing "kill Americans" and that's the end of them.
    I have no sympathy for any third rate country when they get what they deserve. I just want our troops out of there and home.
  • marine1
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    @stepped_in_it its kinda like this, I have never gone out of my way to look for trouble "But" when trouble comes looking for me I give NO quarter, not always do i win but never has anyone walked away unscaved. My own ALWAYS come first.
  • marine1
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    @Thumper Here is how I look at it. It is like when my friend tim and i played king of the hill. We always teamed up and if you wanted to take us out, good luck. We were at that time, the super power.
  • View all 13 replies >
  • mimi57
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    No, and Toot toot, needs to mind his own business. When they quit
    flying their planes into our buildings and killing 3,000 Americans then...
    Gee, they haven't been doing that, I wonder why.?!
  • mimi57
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    Notice to Foreigners, especially from the mid-east; If you have ANY
    intent on harming one American, we will have a real president in
    November, he will make no excuses and will not apologize for this great country~ Beware and stay in the Hell holes you have created
    and have fought in for centuries!!! And stop killing the "trainers" who are training YOU to fight! Since when did the Mid-East need anyone to teach them how to fight? That's ALL they've ever known!
  • mimi57
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    @DARSB No, I don't believe because he calls himself a Christian he is one. Mr. Toot needs to worry about his own affairs and we are NOT one!
  • DARSB
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    @mimi57 Actually, there are several folks who consider Bishop Tutu a Christian. From his biography on the Nobel Prize website: "After three years as a high school teacher he began to study theology, being ordained as a priest in 1960. The years 1962-66 were devoted to further theological study in England leading up to a Master of Theology. From 1967 to 1972 he taught theology in South Africa before returning to England for three years as the assistant director of a theological institute in London. In 1975 he was appointed Dean of St. Mary's Cathedral in Johannesburg, the first black to hold that position. From 1976 to 1978 he was Bishop of Lesotho, and in 1978 became the first black General Secretary of the South African Council of Churches."
  • mimi57
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    @DARSB I'm not impressed in the least. He's not an American and he should mind his own business, doesn't S. Africa have enough of their own problems? Let him worry about them. Also, only Dems are concerned about Nobel Peace Prizes, they hand them out to the most Un worthy people there is! I'm a Conservative and don't buy into a lot of Liberal/socialistic propaganda, and have very little patience for it. Thanks~
  • View all 9 replies >
  • FollowTheMoney
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    @Wilberhum Iraq's president didn't like us. So he harbored some of the terrorist responsible for the attack on our country at the world trade center in New York. But before that, Saddam went after Kuwait. Bush acted in our defense. We didn't start a war, Iraq did. We just happened to be better at it.
  • View all 28 replies >
  • o
    Stratton
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    Desmond Tutu's 15 minutes are up. He didn't demand that the people who beat, tortured and killed his fellow black South Africans during the apartheid regime be prosecuted, but he wants to prosecute George Bush for saving the Middle East from a brutal dictator. Go figure.
  • Fishbone345
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    A brutal dictator we created in fending off Iran the first time. Interesting how different he looks when we don't need him anymore huh?
  • o
    Stratton
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    @Fishbone345 - You need to review your history my friend. The US did give support to Saddam Hussein during the Iran-Iraq war - in fact we sold arms to both sides - but we did not create Saddam Hussein or help him gain power in Iraq.
  • Fishbone345
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    @Stratton Anytime the US supports a dictator, it helps create what he becomes. Saddam turned around an in turn used the weapons we sold him on his own people. And then we demonize him. That's like giving matches to a child and insisting its his fault when he burns something down.
  • o
    Stratton
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    @Fishbone345 - No, that's like selling someone fertilizer and then being charged with negligence because they used it to build a bomb.
  • Fishbone345
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    @Stratton No it isn't. Because in your case you wouldn't know whom you sold the fertilizer to. In this case we knew exactly who we were selling the fertilizer to and why he wanted it. You bet your damn tooty you are responsible in that case. Just because he might blow up someone you hate in the process is no reason to sell it in the first place. Hence blowback. Hence why supporting dictators that are supportive of the US is wrong policy.
  • View all 11 replies >
  • o
    Thumper
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    Saddam murdered more than 1 million people in his 30 year rule. documents were found that indicated he was preparing invasions of other countries. he murdered 400,000 kurd (his own people) with mustard gas. women and children lying dead in the streets like dogs. he was another hitler in the making. UNICEF archives report more than 5,000 children died every month under Saddam. NO sir...it was not an unjust war.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch...
  • o
    Sonny
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    Of course it was an unjust war...GW told us that this guy had all kinds of WMD to get American citizens to "buy into" his war....Turned out he was lying all the time...And even his VP continued to suggest that Saddam was involved with 911...even after it had been proven that he was not...Another lie....And you call that a just war?!?
  • Thunderchicken
    !
    @Sonny
    "GW told us that this guy had all kinds of WMD to get American citizens to "buy into" his war....Turned out he was lying all the time "

    US did find Iraq WMD
    By DON KAPLAN
    Last Updated: 8:57 AM, October 25, 2010
    Posted: 12:44 AM, October 25, 2010

    There were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq after all.

    The massive cache of almost 400,000 Iraq war documents released by the WikiLeaks Web site revealed that small amounts of chemical weapons were found in Iraq and continued to surface for years after the 2003 US invasion, Wired magazine reported.

    The documents showed that US troops continued to find chemical weapons and labs for years after the invasion, including remnants of Saddam Hussein's chemical weapons arsenal -- most of which had been destroyed following the Gulf War.

    In August 2004, American troops were able to buy containers from locals of what they thought was liquid sulfur mustard, a blister agent, the documents revealed. The chemicals were triple-sealed and taken to a secure site.

    Also in 2004, troops discovered a chemical lab in a house in Fallujah during a battle with insurgents. A chemical cache was also found in the city.

    http://www.nypost.com/p/news/international/us...

    If you do a thorough search, you can find the items and amounts of each chemical that Hussein purchased.
  • View all 28 replies >
  • o
    Thumper
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    remember: Senator Rick Santorum and Congressman Peter Hoekstra revealed to the press for the first time the declassified portion of documents demonstrating that U.S. military had uncovered a minimum of 500 weaponized munitions that could in fact be used to deliver mustard and saran gas.

    As I have reported previously we've had first hand knowledge that some of the weapons were removed from Iraq via outfitted 747 Jumbo and 727 jets to Damascus. General Georges Sada testified to as much on my show (hear the audio here.) But at that, there was always a suspicion that not all of the weapons had been able to be moved. I believe that the President firmly believed that they would in fact be uncovered by the respective United Nations inspection teams. But let's face it - the last U.N. Inspections team that actually found what it was looking for was immediately kicked out.

    (Musclehead Revolution" Kevin McCullough, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware on WMCA 570/970)

    http://www.youtube.com/watch...
  • greatsphinx
    !
    YES ,YES he told the American Public that Iraq had hidden weapons of mass destruction they never found weapons of that type and Iraq is in shambles because of the past American military presence. 100,000 dead men women and children should make us all shudder.The war in Iraq should have never happened let Bush be tried.
  • u
    cwi530
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    Does Tutu think Bush jumped on his horse and led the charge into Iraq or is he just ignorant. Congress made the decision to invade Iraq.

    Hey Desmond, just focus on all the killing, raping, and ravaging that goes on everyday in Africa and if we ever want your opinion we'll ask.
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