• CrabAndBroom@lemmy.ml
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      10 months ago

      Fun fact! In 2002 the US passed a law allowing themselves to invade the Hague in case any high-ranking US officials ended up on trial there.

      Which I’m sure they passed in the year between 9/11 and the invasion of Iraq just by coincidence, and they weren’t expecting any shady shit to go down at all.

      • qyron@sopuli.xyz
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        10 months ago

        How would that work? Wouldn’t that be an act of war unprovoked aggression per the UN charter?

        • thantik@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          No no, don’t you know that we don’t do “war” any more? We do “operations” now. War is totally different. Then we have to obey Geneva conventions and all sorts of other hairy stuff. Our politicians have decided as long as we don’t call it “war” then we’re fine.

        • Arbiter@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Yeah, it would be.

          It’s geopolitical dick wagging, not a law that was actually needed or does anything.

        • grte@lemmy.ca
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          10 months ago

          That’s correct. It wasn’t their first attempt, either. Instead Bush opted for the 20 years of occupation for whatever reason.

      • SCB@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        The United States today rejected yet another offer by Afghanistan’s ruling Taliban to turn over Osama bin Laden for trial in a third country if the U.S. presents evidence against bin Laden and stops air attacks.

        It’s insane to suggest the US would ever agree to that.

        I believe it would have been the correct move, but the US as a nation would straight up never agree to that. The citizenry would have lost their fucking minds.

    • Neuromancer@lemm.ee
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      10 months ago

      Officially that was the reason. The violation of the ceasefire. Iraq did not abide by the terms of the ceasefire.

      In hindsight, we shouldn’t have invaded. I supported the invasion at the time because of the violations of the ceasefire. I didn’t completely buy the wmd argument.

      Looking back, Iraq distracted us from Afghanistan.

    • malloc@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Both countries also do not recognize the authority of International Court. High ranking officials definitely should have been hauled off to jail for authorizing, developing, and employing “enhanced interrogation” (aka torture) techniques

    • Gigan@lemmy.world
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      10 months ago

      Now, why wasn’t Bush charged with any crimes? For the same reason nothing will happen to Putin in Russia.

      Trump is being charged with crimes

      • JBar2@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Trump is being charged by the US and state governments with violation of US and state laws

        That’s a far different scenario than an international court attempting to charge and arrest a US president (current or former

        • Gigan@lemmy.world
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          10 months ago

          Bush lied to congress and the American people. I don’t believe there were no crimes committed by doing that.

          • meco03211@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            But did Bush knowingly lie to a degree provable in court?

            He would have had to have known it was a lie and for that to be proven in court. With trump, his crimes were so egregious there were devout party line adherents backing out and explicitly stating just how illegal what they were doing is. Trump had been told multiple times, in multiple ways that what he was doing was illegal and he went for it anyways.

            • Bumblefumble@lemm.ee
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              10 months ago

              Another point to add. It is not illegal for anyone to lie, so unless he was testifying under oath, Bush could lie as much as he wanted without legal repercussions.

              • kbotc@lemmy.world
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                10 months ago

                Not quite. The constitution has a cutout for official duties of the office. The president must faithfully carry out the duties of the office. So knowingly lying can fail that test.

                If you want someone to blame for the US invasion of Iraq, blame Italy, their Intelligence apparatus, and Nicolò Pollari in particular. He submitted the “Iraq is buying Yellowcake” to the CIA twice, who figured out it was a forgery before setting a private meeting with the vice president who did not know the CIA had already ruled it out.

                • Archpawn@lemmy.world
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                  10 months ago

                  The Constitution lists one crime: treason. He didn’t do that. Not faithfully carrying out the duties of the office is absolutely grounds for impeachment, but it’s not a crime.

                • Bumblefumble@lemm.ee
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                  10 months ago

                  It’s not illegal to not do that. The legal framework to deal with that is impeachment and trial by Congress.

                  • kbotc@lemmy.world
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                    10 months ago

                    Not quite. Trump is currently being charged in federal court for his part in lying to overturn the election. They used “knowingly false” 32 times in the indictment for a reason. His defense is not that the president is allowed to lie, but rather that he truthfully believed he was telling the truth, so I’m not sure where you assertion is coming from: It is illegal to lie in furtherance of breaking the law, even for the POTUS.

          • Archpawn@lemmy.world
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            10 months ago

            It’s not illegal to lie to the American people. And it’s practically a requirement for office.

      • YoBuckStopsHere@lemmy.world
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        10 months ago

        Trump didn’t even try and hide his crimes. He thinks being rich means he can do whatever he wants.