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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsCornel West: Obama is a 'war criminal'
Professor Cornel West continues to be an outspoken critic of Barack Obama, this time likening the president to a war criminal.
During Thursdays Tavis Smiley Show, West took on the administrations drone policy and said, The chickens are coming home to roost.
Weve been talking about this for a good while, the immorality of drones, dropping bombs on innocent people. Its been over 200 children so far. These are war crimes.
West said, Let us not be deceived Nixon, Bush, Obama, theyre war criminals, adding that They have killed innocent people in the name of the struggle for freedom, but theyre suspending the law, very much like Wall Street criminals. The law is suspended for them, but the law applies for the rest of us.
http://www.politico.com/story/2013/02/cornel-west-obama-a-war-criminal-87702.html?hp=r6
maxsolomon
(33,400 posts)Jimmy Carter? I'd wager the CIA killed someone during those 4 years.
Murder, along with lying, is part of the duties of the office as long as America is a global empire, and murder is a tool of empire.
a la izquierda
(11,797 posts)The US's buddy Somoza was a real swell guy Carter finally demanded he quit violating human rights...but Somoza's own people took care of that.
SidDithers
(44,228 posts)Sid
Capt. Obvious
(9,002 posts)Comrade Grumpy
(13,184 posts)Mr Dixon
(1,185 posts)DevonRex
(22,541 posts)Tarheel_Dem
(31,240 posts)kelliekat44
(7,759 posts)Puzzledtraveller
(5,937 posts)klyon
(1,697 posts)I said it the first week of his first term
Bush I & II were murdering innocent people when he bombed Iraq. This country stood and cheered when that poor guy in his car crossing a bridge died as the bridge was blown-up.(Bush I) Killing civilians is a war crime. Bombing innocent people from airplanes or drones is murder especially if no war is declared as is true with drones in Pakistan.
JaneyVee
(19,877 posts)Last edited Sat Feb 16, 2013, 01:28 AM - Edit history (1)
bamacrat
(3,867 posts)He was awesome when PBO was running for his first term. West was insightful and fun to listen to. Now all he does is shit all over the President. Every President since the beginning of the country could be considered a war criminal by some. Well except for William Henry Harrison and Garfield. Not sure they had much of a chance. Every President that has sent people into battle or used military force in any way could be considered a war criminal by some.
davidn3600
(6,342 posts)But he has not liked what he has saw from his presidency.
DonViejo
(60,536 posts)West began whining on Inauguration Day, 2009, when he did not receive enough tickets to attend the inauguration (an extra ticket for his mother). As a result, West and his family stayed in their hotel room and watched the ceremonies on TV.
sabrina 1
(62,325 posts)principled stand against US foreign policy. As for the 'he is just pissed because he didn't receive an invitation' bs, that is pure nonsense. He campaigned for a president who he believed would change US foreign policy as did all of us who opposed Bush's arrogant and criminal enterprises against innocent people overseas. He continues to remain consistent. It's interesting to see some, not all thankfully, democrats change THEIR views of the very same policies they opposed so strongly under Bush.
Did you, like West, oppose Bush's foreign policies and if so, do you still oppose them? I ask because I am surprised at the silence of some on the Left against the very same policies they so vocally opposed during the Bush years and this can only be explained imo, if people have come to the conclusion that they were wrong to oppose Bush. Otherwise it would be hypocritical to support policies they once opposed simply because a Democrat is now in charge. I rarely get an answer to this question so I'm not really expecting one, but hope springs eternal so I do keep asking.
Our foreign policies ARE criminal. They were criminal, and we all agreed, when Bush was doing it, how on earth could they not still be criminal unless the 'left' was not really opposed to them, but were merely opposing a political opponent.
DonViejo
(60,536 posts)just as I opposed those of LBJ, Nixon and Reagan (do you require a longer listing?). I used to admire West very much, I still do admire him but not "very much"
HiPointDem
(20,729 posts)DonViejo
(60,536 posts)if you choose to believe it, by all means, go for it.
bamacrat
(3,867 posts)But to call him a war criminal, I feel, minimizes real crimes perpetrated by real war criminals.
WCGreen
(45,558 posts)RZM
(8,556 posts)'Tippecanoe and Tyler too' etc. Lots of stuff named after him (and Anthony Wayne - another Indian fighter) around here. I see you're from Ohio so you know how common 'Wayne' is all over the whole state.
WCGreen
(45,558 posts)I do remember an old Batman comic that claimed "Mad" Anthony Wayne was a relative of Bruce Wayne...
bamacrat
(3,867 posts)but even as a General I'm sure some could claim war crimes..especially in the Mexican Wars.......
RZM
(8,556 posts)bamacrat
(3,867 posts)and the Indian Wars, which were pretty heinous. Thanks for the correction.
dionysus
(26,467 posts)MrMickeysMom
(20,453 posts)When you perpetuate and/or accentuate the drone program...
are you NOT a member of the club of war criminals?
What is this... Russia? This isn't Russia, is it?
Octafish
(55,745 posts)For empire? For oil? For wealth?
Puzzledtraveller
(5,937 posts)D and R
Under one it's okay, under the other it's not okay
Octafish
(55,745 posts)War profiteering also is bi-partisan.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)Yavin4
(35,445 posts)It's an inescapable fact.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)Or is to make more bin Ladens?
Yavin4
(35,445 posts)who train and inspire people to kill civilians like Hasan at Ft. Hood, the underwear bomber, and the Times Square bomber. Because the latter two were incompetent, their acts did not kill anyone.
Puzzledtraveller
(5,937 posts)Yavin4
(35,445 posts)when we discovered that OBL was behind the 1993 WTC bombings. Clinton launched cruise missiles against OBL.
Many people here criticized Bush for ignoring the August 2001 daily briefing about OBL determined to attack America.
Octafish
(55,745 posts)It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all my ideals, because they seem so absurd and impossible to carry out. Yet I keep them, because in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart. ― Anne Frank, The Diary of a Young Girl
And remember, what the NAZIs did to her and millions of other innocent children was legal under German law.
Cali_Democrat
(30,439 posts)How much longer do we have to keep fighting this war?
whatchamacallit
(15,558 posts)like KAOS or THRUSH... Americans are really fucking stupid.
wpelb
(338 posts)Admittedly it was probably an exception in that regard.
San Juan Island Pig War
datasuspect
(26,591 posts)goose/gander?
Initech
(100,102 posts)They're the ones that should really be prosecuted for war crimes.
EastKYLiberal
(429 posts)You should take notes from Reverend Sharpton on how to be an effective leader. Maybe then more than Smiley and Maher will pay attention to you.
Yavin4
(35,445 posts)First, the President made clear during his 2008 campaign that he would go after terrorists no matter where they reside. Where was West back then?
Second, Al Qaeda has killed more civilians including children than we have with drones. That group has no problem whatsoever targeting innocent people for slaughter. See the attacks in Bali as an example or the London bombings in 2005.
Finally, Dr. West, and many who think like him, have an overly-romantic view of the world. They don't understand that there are indeed groups of people who want to kill us because of their religious fervor. There are bad people in this world, and it's the primary duty of the POTUS to protect us from them.
p.s. If Bush had killed OBL and other major Al Qaeda leaders, I would not have had a problem with nor would a majority of Liberals in America. Our problem with Bush is that he lied to get us into an unnecessary war, and he tortured people in order to justify his rationale for war. That is the reason why he is considered a war criminal.
Cha
(297,650 posts)chickenshit pot shots. From Whining about Pres Obama using MLK's Bible at the Inauguration to calling him a "republican in blackface". His "delicate ego" makes him inconsequential, imv.
President Obama swore the protect our Country from All Enemies Foreign and Domestic.. it's not the President's doing that we have such demented enemies.
geek tragedy
(68,868 posts)Bet he would still jump at the chance for a photo with that 'war criminal.'
Demo_Chris
(6,234 posts)Bake
(21,977 posts)War is hell. No two ways about it. At least the President is trying to get us OUT of the wars Bush started.
Bake
ProSense
(116,464 posts)West said, Let us not be deceived Nixon, Bush, Obama, theyre war criminals, adding that They have killed innocent people in the name of the struggle for freedom, but theyre suspending the law, very much like Wall Street criminals. The law is suspended for them, but the law applies for the rest of us.
What exactly has the President done that's illegal and earns him the status of "war criminal"?
Immorality? He can throw out such claims, but he has no facts to back up his charge that the President is committing war crimes.
He's also pulling numbers out of his ass.
The number of strikes, locations and casualties since 2002 are in the right column.
http://www.thebureauinvestigates.com/2013/02/04/naming-the-dead-bureau-announces-new-drones-project/
If he's going to claims that civilian casualties make a President an instant war criminal, then every President is guilty.
Why are drone strikes any different than the bombing of Dresden?
http://upload.democraticunderground.com/10022347168
President Carter investigated FDR's Japanese American Internment.
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022318948
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kosovo_War#Civilian_losses
Remembering Bush, accurately
http://www.democraticunderground.com/10022343435
The label "war criminal" has lost all meaning because assholes throw it around without evidence or justification.
Cha
(297,650 posts)Thanks for posting all this research, ProSense..
More Cornel West blathering..
From the kos writer, Adept2
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/05/18/977132/-Cornel-West-You-Progressive-defenders-come-and-get-some
P.S. I don't care if combs his hair or not.. it's not about that.
DevonRex
(22,541 posts)dionysus
(26,467 posts)I hid a bunch behind the console so Wadsworth wouldn't pilfer them
DevonRex
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The Link
(757 posts)Little over the top though.
Fire Walk With Me
(38,893 posts)much less the far greater adult civilian count. Drones are used to "double tap", meaning they return to a strike scene to shoot up those digging through the rubble.
We are not at war with Pakistan and Yemen, much less the three or more additional countries in which drones are being used to kill. Drone bases are said to be under construction in Africa, and 64 bases are being built within the US. The US are still running secret prisons, renditioning prisoners around the world. Gitmo is still open. PFC Manning is coming up on 1,000 days in torture conditions, for revealing war crimes.
The military-industrial complex continues to rake it in via a permanent war budget. Tech companies enjoy a $1 trillion budget to militarize US police and to install spy tech in public places (airports, etc.) Indeed, banksters and wall street have not had to pay a damn dime for nearly having brought the country into a second great depression. Priorities somewhere are ass-backwards and must be completely changed.
woo me with science
(32,139 posts)PDJane
(10,103 posts)MrSlayer
(22,143 posts)In the broadest sense of the term he's right. I personally have no problem with the droning of terrorists but it is technically a war crime.
War itself is the crime.
BainsBane
(53,066 posts)It's easy to keep one's hands immaculate in an Ivory Tower.
Zoeisright
(8,339 posts)And shut the fuck up.
NoPasaran
(17,291 posts)kwassa
(23,340 posts)as being the self-designated spokesmen for black America. Obama stole their self-importance.
The sour grapes club, co-commiserating.
bluestate10
(10,942 posts)And West will deserve the company that he will have at Fox.
wpelb
(338 posts)Maybe Dr. West could become the next Alan Colmes.
mfcorey1
(11,001 posts)respected until his talk did not reflect his walk. If he is so concerned about Chicago, I would think that I would see him walking the streets of the gang infected areas and dialoguing with the "brothers" he likes to tout that need help. I would see him and his friend, Tavis, in the areas where there is poverty and becoming community organizers. Monday morning quaterbacking is worth a damn for people in need. Stop hiding behind the mic and get your hands dirty in the fight for the underserved. Their bitterness mirrors that of John McCain, who will never get over the fact that he lost the election. Tavis and Cornel will never reconcile that they did not get an invite to the White House. There are many of us who disagree with President on many of his policies, but we are tired of being portrayed by these two as being butt kissers for the administration. Enough is enough.