Obama and War Crimes, 2009, 2011 and 2014

[lovemydog]

13. Interesting questions. I never wanted the President or his Administration

to pursue prosecution of war crimes. Not because I don't think think they are warranted. Primarily for three reasons.

First, the backlash against the left would have been long-lasting, to the point where we would have a much harder time fixing the economy. Since many people were (and still are) hurting from the massive redistribution of wealth to the top 2%, I feel that issue of making people's lives here better takes precedence.

Second, because many democrats, including Hillary Clinton, voted to grant George W. Bush almost sweeping authority with regard to the War in Iraq. I vehemently opposed it at the time. I wrote my senators and congressperson. Out of those three, I'm happy to say that two of them voted against the Iraq War resolution. But the hatred that would come out of prosecutions, I feel, would have a long lasting effect, to the point where republicans would prosecute nearly everyone with whom they disagree, contributing to even more divisiveness in Congress and perhaps turning into more of a banana republic than we already are at this point in time.

Finally, I felt then as I do now that prosecutions would undermine our foreign policy, both vis a vis our allies and with our enemies. It would in long-lasting ways make us look like a laughing stock around the world, something we cannot afford.

I know that many reasonable people disagree with my assessments, and I understand and in many ways sympathize more with their point of view. To the question of was the Iraq war in and of itself a violation of international law and to the question of were numerous war crimes committed by members of the Bush Administration both individually and collectively my answer to both questions is an unequivocal yes.