 In contrast, Russian elections are rigged, political opponents are imprisoned or otherwise eliminated from participating in the electoral process. The result is an absence of checks and balances in Russia and the decision of one man to launch a wholly unjustified and brutal invasion of Iraq. You just watched former president and war criminal George W. Bush make what I think is probably the biggest Freudian slip ever, at least biggest Freudian slip of the century. It's amazing that that happened, it's almost surreal to see that. But watching this, it gets you to think how absurd it is and how perverse our society is that we allow that war criminal to just walk freely, go on about his day, speak to thousands of people, to thunderous applause. If you saw Charles Manson, he's dead now, but if you saw Charles Manson just out in public and you knew that was Charles Manson, you were certain of it and you knew this guy committed murders, what would you do? Would you just be like, hey, there's Charles Manson? No, if you're a reasonable person, you would call the police or they could apprehend him because you want to make sure that he doesn't hurt other people because he obviously causes a danger to the public or poses a danger to the public. And you'd also want him to be held accountable for the crimes that he committed. But when presidents commit mass murder, it's like, well, I mean, that's just what they have to do. Presidents have to kill, except they don't. I reject that. That's something that we tell ourselves to make ourselves feel better about our country's imperialism and war crimes. But it's not actually something that we have to accept. We just do. We choose to allow these people to commit war crimes and never be held accountable. Now, we're going to talk about why it's the case that it's so ironic for George W. Bush to talk about Vladimir Putin's war crimes. And he's correct. Vladimir Putin is a war criminal and he should be prosecuted. I mean, bad messenger, but it's still true. The problem is that George W. Bush and other administrations have made it nearly impossible to hold war criminals accountable because of the ways that they've delegitimized the International Criminal Court. Now, before we get to that, I just want to talk about some reactions here. Hassan Piker tweets out in a just world. His entire administration would have to answer for millions they murdered. But George W. Bush gets laughter for his admission instead, because America is the hegemonic imperial power and our crimes will go unaddressed until our empire inevitably crumbles. Sad truth there, representative Ilhan Omar writes, when your guilty consciousness catches up to you and you end up confessing, but no one cares to hold you to account. The laughing is disturbing and telling of who this man and his audience are. No care for the thousands of US troops and hundreds of thousands of Iraqis who died in his war. Yeah, and we should always talk about this. Whenever George W. Bush is brought up, we should always remind people what he did. Now, the death toll is it's hard to pin down. It ranges between 200,000 to over a million deaths. It depends on what you count as a death. There are direct deaths as a result of war, and then there are indirect deaths afterwards, you know, the civil war that he catalyzed in Iraq between Shias and Sunnis, the indirect deaths that are, you know, caused by war with regard to lack of medical care, famine. I mean, either way, the amount of blood on his hands makes him one of the most murderous figures in American history. And we're just we're OK with not holding him accountable, apparently. So why is it so difficult to hold war criminals accountable? I mean, we have an international criminal court, but they never go after the big dogs. So why is this the case? Well, because the United States and multiple administrations, both Democratic and Republican, have sought to delegitimize the International Criminal Court, which is why even if, you know, there are war crimes committed and you have definitive proof of that, you can't really hold a leader accountable because this court lacks teeth because of the way that our government delegitimize this court. In an article by Joel Mathis published in The Week on April 4th, he explains American leaders have spent the last two decades undermining the International Criminal Court, which prosecutes war crimes, genocide and other crimes against humanity. The US has used intimidation, sanctions and the heft of its hegemonic power to guarantee that none of its soldiers or officials will ever be brought before the court, no matter how deserving they might be. A short history, the US under President Bill Clinton was initially a signatory to the treaty that created the court. We do so affirm our strong support for international accountability and for bringing to justice perpetrators of genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity, Clinton said, on his way out of office in 2000. We do so as well because we wish to remain engaged in making the ICC an instrument of impartial and effective justice in the years to come. That didn't happen. The treaty was never submitted to Congress. And in 2002, George W. Bush, who was already contemplating an invasion of Iraq, unsigned at the treaty, saying the US would not submit to the ICC's jurisdiction or submit to its orders. But the US didn't just go absent from the treaty. Later that year, Bush signed the American Service Members Protection Act, which made it illegal for US authorities to cooperate with the court in any way and which authorized all means necessary and appropriate to rescue any American or allied official from the court's clutches. If it ever came to that, human rights, watched up the law, the Hague Invasion Act, even that wasn't enough impunity. In 2020, the Trump administration levied sanctions against the International Criminal Court prosecutors. The Biden administration later reversed the measures, but the message was sent. Don't even think about investigating or charging Americans with war crimes. The message was clearly received. Now, in case you're wondering, since President Obama wasn't brought up in this article, he also did not support the United States joining the International Criminal Court. Obviously, since we're not part of the ICC and his administration also sought to undermine the court. Now, ask yourself, why would Obama do this? Well, it's it's pretty obvious. George W. Bush created a drone program that Obama then ramped up when he got into office and Barack Obama's administration is responsible for the slaughter of countless civilians in Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia. And aside from the war crimes invading the territory of these countries was illegal under international law. In fact, a Pakistani court ruled that these drones were violating their sovereignty, but they still stayed there. They still continued to kill civilians with impunity. So Obama didn't want to join the ICC because like his predecessor, he could be prosecuted. So the reason why it's so hard internationally to hold war criminals accountable is because, you know, the United States really being the global hegemonic power, if they're not going to submit their authority to this, you know, international entity and hold their own officials accountable. Why would anyone else do the same? Even if they're a signatory to the ICC, the United States has worked to undermine them and weaken them. So they what can they do really? So I mean, if everyone in the United States like George W. Bush is outraged about what Vladimir Putin is doing in Ukraine and everyone should be because these are absolutely war crimes. Well, thank yourself because not only did you set this standard where countries can invade other countries with impunity who weren't attacked, but you also made it so that way you just can't prosecute war criminals. Yeah. So that's George W. Bush. You know, he probably thought about Iraq because maybe it's weighing heavily on his conscience. I don't know, you know, I don't know how he sleeps at night, knowing how much blood he has on his hands. But it's truly just not only hypocritical, but insane that he would condemn the war crimes of anyone else. I just I don't know what to what to say about this clip, but it's it's fascinating to see him make that make that Freudian slip and then immediately regret it. I mean, the look on his face, it said everything. So, yeah, you know, until the United States starts holding their own accountable for war crimes and our allies, for example, in Israel, Saudi Arabia, accountable for war crimes, then nobody else can be held accountable for war crimes because you are the ones creating this standard by violating human rights and not respecting human rights. Do you enjoy watching independent news shows like the Humanist Report, the Rational National and the Majority Report? But oftentimes YouTube doesn't deliver our videos to your subscription box. Well, I've got a solution for you. It's called the Optout app available right now in the iOS app store coming soon to Android. Optout is an app made by and for progressives where they take all of the most popular independent news shows and they put them in one convenient location. You'll find all your favorites on there like the Humanist Report, the Rational National, the Majority Report and the app is updated multiple times per day. 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