Clay Jones for March 22, 2023

Since he isn’t being charged with war crimes, have him charged with creating bad paintings.

War criminal Vladimir Putin has been indicted and an arrest warrant issued for his crimes against humanity by the International Criminal Court at the Hague. The first charge is kidnapping Ukrainian children away from the families who loved them and exporting them to Russia to be adopted by Russians. Many more charges are likely to follow.

Conveniently, Russia does not recognize the validity or jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court at the Hague.

Sadly, neither does the United States, and the reason goes back to what Clay Jones depicts in this brilliant cartoon: high-level U.S. military officials going all the way up to George W. Bush and Dick Cheney could be tried for war crimes and atrocities, including torture such as “waterboarding” and other methods at Guantánamo Bay or Abu Ghraib.

When we rightly criticize Russia and Putin today, they throw back in our faces the war crimes and atrocities that our Republican presidents committed, and which cost us our moral standing in the international community of nations.

Now, Clay, surely you’re not criticizing those wonderful “conservatives” who borrowed a measly $14 trillion from China, so they could invade a country that they said was a big ol’ threat to us, are ya’? Why, they was just havin’ some fun, an’ makin’ sure Haliburton didn’t starve, don’t ya’ know?

he long years of slogging against insurgents in Iraq and Afghanistan meant that the military was not preparing for possible wars in Europe and Asia. China took advantage of our distraction to build up its military and to position itself to fight a war on its terms. Despite Obama trying to do a pivot to Asia, the military paid only lip service. Well, in the military, you get promoted faster if you are a combatant. The military is finally shifting and trying to make up for two decades of useless fighting.

The Economist has a very good article on this subject.

https://www.economist.com/international/2023/03/21/how-the-iraq-war-bent-americas-army-out-of-shape

“For much of the past two decades, Washington’s focus on the Middle East has reduced military readiness, distorted force-structure priorities and, until recently, left the joint force ill-equipped and unable to prepare adequately for high-end military competition with a peer adversary,” concluded a scathing assessment of Asian security trends published by the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a think-tank, in June.

This is slowly beginning to change. The war in Ukraine has sharpened the Pentagon’s focus on high-intensity warfare. It is shifting from brigades to larger divisions, and is now training Ukraine in the sort of combined-arms warfare that was neglected for years. It is also rebalancing resources. On March 14th the Pentagon projected a cut of $5bn to CENTCOM’s budget and a reduction of more than 6,000 of the command’s troops. A Pacific Deterrence Initiative to bolster bases and air defences in Asia now exceeds $9bn, more than the defence budget of Thailand or Indonesia. American preparations for a possible war over Taiwan look more serious than ever. But these efforts were delayed by years.

Throw Blair in there as well; they couldn’t call it a coalition with him.

Remember, there are many in the US who agree (and have always agreed) that the invasion of Iraq was a war crime. It’s worth noting that the very same people/party responsible for the Iraq invasion also support Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.

Hey, IOKIARDI. And that includes starting a war JUST TO MAKE MONEY!!! Looking at you, Darth Cheney…

I recall there was considerable worry when he came for a visit to Canada.. if.. he would be arrested. Naturally we did not, wimps that we were. Our government, like yours.. looks the other way when the big boys are involved.

This is becoming a LAWLESS. World….or so it seems! What’s good for the goose is good for the gander….

I still wonder how the legal system may have been changed in regard to Trump if Obama had not put such immense pressure on the Spanish government to stop those two attorneys from bringing torture and war crimes charges against W. Bush and Cheney to the Hague back in 2009. Accountability of a US President might actually be easier today.

Where were those WMD’s when they needed them?

TODAY’S NEWS—-

Joseph Harding,sponsor of Florida’s “Don’t SAy Gay” law,is convicted of money laundering and wire fraud——embezzlingCOVID-19 relief funds meant to go to small businesses affected by the pandemic.

he faces 20 to 35 years in prison.

Friend of yours,Governor Dementis?

The United States are also not a member of the ICJ’s underlying convention, and they also do not recognize its jurisdiction. There is a reason for that, and it involves every president since JFK.

Of course, Putin was a war criminal long before invading Ukraine (what with helping his fellow war criminal Assad massacre more than half a million Syrians, most of whom were civilians).

I’m not sure he was “indicted” but the I.C.C. did “charge” Bush with crimes…

There are still lots of Republicans who believe that Saddam had nucular weapons.

They also believe Obama was born in Kenya.

And Mexico will pay for it.

Dick Cheney was able to avoid the military draft during Vietnam. When he was asked about it years later, he replied, “I had other priorities”. So did 60,000 other guys.

And let’s not forget the Vietnam War.

AUMF was passed to authorize “action” against those behind 9/11, which was NOT Iraq. Cheney authorized torture of POWs at Guantanamo to try to get a false confession, which is the purpose of torture.

There are questions about the first Bush Iraq war. Sr. was on vacation and Saddam Hussein talked to ambassador April Glaspie before he invaded Kuwait.

Jeeez, you destabilize one little region using fraudulent information and giving misinformation to your countrymen…and all of a sudden because of one little mistake you’re a bad guy.