Letter: Jeb Bush MUST NOT BE Our Next President

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Letter: Bush would be bad presidential pick


Jeb Bush must not be our next president. We have unfinished business about the criminality of the 2003 Iraq War. Bringing war criminals to justice was not considered in 2009 because President Barack Obama, the new president, faced an historic financial crash that demanded his total attention. It was claimed in 2002 that Iraq was pursuing, and was a threat to its neighbors and us, with weapons of mass destruction, or WMDs. That was epitomized by the top members of the George W. Bush presidential administration in speaking of a mushroom cloud as a real possibility.


However, at that time the United Nations was engaged in inspections looking for WMDs and its programs, with the full cooperation of Saddam Hussein. While the inspections were in progress, there had been not a single finding of a WMD threat. That program could have been continued for months to completion, and we know now that it would not have found any WMDs or WMD programs. Bush, however, decided as president in March 2003 that it was time to go to war, probably dictated by his military with approaching summer weather. He told the inspectors to get out immediately, then bragged about “shock and awe” bombing of Baghdad and started the invasion of Iraq, beginning with the killing of many innocents.


It is enough now to know that inspections were going on, and no reason to doubt they could be concluded. Going to war to remove WMDs, at a time that we were free to continue to search for them, was insane. That war was totally unjustified, making our killing, beginning in 2003, a monumental case of mass murder. We should delay no more than to 2017 to seek criminal trials of those in the Bush Administration. If we were to have a brother of Bush in the White House at that time, that would almost certainly postpone indefinitely bringing these criminals to justice.


Victor J. Reilly


Aiken


http://www.aikenstandard.com/article/20141231/AIK0203/141239948/1018/AIK02/letter-bush-would-be-bad-presidential-pick

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[Mnemosyne]

1. K&R! nt

[AtomicKitten]

2. Hillary is no better.

She rallied on behalf of invading Iraq and gave Junior the green light with her IWR vote, this without bothering to read the intelligence reports. And then there are her hawkish positions on Syria and Iran which make her arguably worse than JEB on foreign policy.

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3. Both, Hillary and Jeb

will squash any future Iraq war crimes investigations.

Has Jeb provided a position on whether waterboarding or anal feeding constitutes torture?

[AtomicKitten]

4. Nothing.

He has said nothing: http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/jeb-bush-bind-over-cia-torture-report

The only hope for prosecution or even a reckoning lies outside the Bush-Clinton weirdass symbiosis.

[RichGirl]

16. Important to remember this....

Last presidential election, around this time...did anyone expect a Barack Obama to come out of no where and win the nom and presidency???

So...don't count Elizabeth Warren out. She could easily do the same.

I like Hillary but don't like dynasties. Every election needs a fresh face not a relative.

My guess is Jeb won't happen at all. Once the right notices that having Jeb means a Latino first lady...well...between their general racism and anti-immigration crap...that's not going to fly. They will want a white man with a white wife...preferably a blond. Her first lady contribution will be teaching other ladies how to needle point.

[FiveGoodMen]

20. Obama came out of nowhere to win because the PTB knew he'd do their bidding

And he has.

Anyone who honestly wants to improve things for the average American will have a much tougher time.

[RichGirl]

21. If Bill Hicks was right....

...then whoever is elected, dem or rep, will do their bidding.

[FiveGoodMen]

22. That is a real possibility

[VanillaRhapsody]

26. WTF are you talking about?

he HAS done what he could do....jebus on a cracker some do have short attention spans....how do you come to DU and get away with this marlarkey.....I am visiting Republican family in SC and even they know he HAS improved things for average Americans. LLI's on DU sound more and more like Teabaggers every day!

"hasn't done anything for Average Americans" were you able to keep a straight face while you typed that? Because I sure laughed out loud reading it!

Were you disappointed you didn't get a Sparkle pony maybe?

[Boreal]

6. She actually may be worse

I agree. When Gaddafi was murdered (because the US tracked his cell phone and gave his location to US terrorist proxies), I will never forget that clip of her saying, "We came, we saw, he died", followed by a sociopathic cackle that sent chills down my spine.

[AtomicKitten]

9. yes, that response was disturbingly inappropriate

[reddread]

19. that there is not a President the US needs.

[Quackers]

5. Why should we have to wait until the next POTUS

Before they're brought to justice? It says PBO couldn't do it in 2009 due to the financial crisis this country was facing. It's now almost 2015 and still nothing? I honestly don't think it matters who the next President is, Bush will never face charges.

Btw: not raging at you OP, just the author of this piece.

[Boreal]

10. I was just about to address that

as well. It's an absolute lie. The fact is that the high level of the establishment does not prosecute it's own because they're all in it together. Sure, some my have thought Junior was a reckless yahoo, or disagreed with certain decisions, but the overall objective is AngloAmerican hegemony which includes the destruction of all secular Arab governments and anyone Israel considers a threat. None of them want to be prosecuted for their massive number of crimes so they all protect each other. Obama is no different. Libya was destroyed under his watch. Syria is being destroyed.

As for Jeb Bush, imo, it's a done deal. He has been SELECTED. He will be the next CEO of The Hegemon.

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7. "...Jeb must first figure out how..

he’s going to settle his own views with those of his presidential kin, particularly on explosive issues like this one.

“It’s going to take a tremendous amount of soul searching,” Republican political consultant Juleanna Glover told msnbc, to figure out how to handle his family’s legacy “in a way that neither debilitates his ability to run and win and neither creates enormous waves in his family that are intolerable.”

The torture report highlights some of the worst parts of George W. Bush’s legacy – both the brutal, poorly executed war on terror and a president in the dark on its details for years – and how the younger Bush handles it will likely set the tone for the rest of his campaign, should he decide to run.

He’ll “probably say as little as possible,” GOP strategist John Feheery told msnbc. “Jeb has to distinguish himself from his brother and the best way to do that is to not get in the habit of defending his brother’s record.”



- Republicans aren’t alone in their caution. While Democrats widely support President Obama’s ban on the torture and interrogation program his successor had built and their differences stem from whether the Justice Department should prosecute those who tortured detainees, many of the likely 2016 candidates – including Hillary – have also remained quiet.

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/jeb-bush-bind-over-cia-torture-report

As well as Hillary..

But during a conversation at the Council on Foreign Relations sponsored by HBO in June, Clinton called for the release of the Senate report, but said she did not support prosecuting CIA interrogators.

“I am hopeful it will get released,” Clinton said of the report, which was hung up in negotiations between the administration and Senate. “I was not one of those who thought it was necessarily wise to ignore everything that had happened. I thought we needed more transparency … I think the American people deserve to see it.”

But Clinton continued that she “didn’t want people to be criminally prosecuted, people who were doing what they were told to do, that there were legal opinions supporting what they were told to do.”


- In an editorial board meeting, she added that there “are very rare” circumstances when an exception to the no torturing rule would be needed, and “if they occur, there has to be some lawful authority for pursuing it.”

Obama attacked her on the issue in a late January 2008 speech in Denver, suggesting her position on torture even put her to the right of the then-presumed GOP nominee John McCain, who opposed the harsh tactics after being tortured in Vietnam.

But by then, Clinton had changed her position. When asked about a ticking time bomb scenario during a debate in September 2007, she categorically ruled out the use of torture. “It cannot be American policy, period,” she said.

That held as her policy, despite the fact that it initially put her in disagreement with her husband, who often cited the TV show “24” as an example of why torture is sometimes necessary.

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/where-hillary-clinton-torture

[Boreal]

11. Ugh

She is so fucking sleazy. She will say anything depending on which way the wind is blowing. It's worked out well for her, too.

I agree that J Bush will avoid talking about Dubya's record as much as possible and I think he's smooth enough to do so no matter how much he gets hammered about it. The biggest thing is that it is not Jeb's record and he needn't defend it. Whatever comments he gives will probably emphasize needing better communication between the executive and the CIA, more oversight, etc. Something weasely.

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8. Jeb Bush WILL NOT BE Our Next President

Hillary Clinton WILL BE Our Next President, like it or not. (The machinery is in place.)

[Boreal]

12. Don't think so

She's got a lot of baggage and has a lot of people who loathe her. Jeb may have that from Florida but it's not on a national level. I know this is shallow but it's a fact in public perception: he's got a more pleasant personality and he's younger. Shit like that matters with politicians. Plus, I'm positive Jeb has been selected by TPTB further up food chain. Hillary will be acknowledged and lauded for her contributions and self sacrifice in "public service" (haha) but she will not be president. I'm not a gambler but even I would bet on that.

Not that it matters. On policy I doubt you would find any difference between the two.

And, that is where we are in these UNITED STATES these days. Fucked.

[1step]

13. Warren isn't Obama

There will be no "charisma factor" in 2016, on either side.

[Boreal]

14. She's not running

Or so she says. If she did, do you think she could beat Jeb Bush? I think presidential selections are rigged but even if they weren't I'm not sure she could. He's going to have a ton of money behind him, for one.

[1step]

15. She's Not Running

Exactly. Senator Warren has stated this repeatedly. Yet there are many here who refuse to take her emphatic "NO" for an answer.

[Cha]

17. Ya think?

[rock]

18. Wish granted!

Don't ask me how I do it. (OK, people ask for foregone conclusions!)

[Sunlei]

23. People suffered when Jeb Bush was Gov. He is NOT presidential material, just another RW wannabe.

[rhett o rick]

24. If you don't want Jeb as president then join the progressive movement. Shun those Democrats

that bow to corporations like Goldman-Sachs. We must elect a progressive president.

[hifiguy]

25. No more Bush Crime Family members, no more Clintons either.

Fuck dynasty politics. I think Mr. Madison and Mr. Jefferson would agree.