Marvel at John Yoo Justifying the Iraq War as Only He Could

[babylonsister]

http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2013/03/marvel-at-john-yoo-justifying-the-iraq-war-as-only-he-could/274183/

Marvel at John Yoo Justifying the Iraq War as Only He Could
The former Bush lawyer suggests that if you think the war was a mistake, you must also support returning Saddam Hussein's family to power as a remedy.
Conor Friedersdorf
Mar 20 2013, 10:00 AM ET


Here is the latest argument produced by the singular legal mind of John Yoo, B.A. Harvard University, J.D. Yale, law professor at UC Berkeley, former Department of Justice lawyer, and AEI scholar:

In law, we often come upon a situation after an event -- a crime, an accident, etc. -- and we must decide what to do based on the knowledge we have now. Courts award damages based on the harm to the victim and the harm to society. Suppose you thought that the Iraq war was a mistake. If so, isn't the proper remedy to restore Saddam Hussein's family and the Baath Party to power in Iraq? If you are unwilling to consider that remedy, aren't you conceding that on balance, the benefits of the war outweigh the costs?

I don't know whether to laugh or cry.

[marmar]

1. I'd almost forgotten about that torture enthusiast.

nt

[Arctic Dave]

2. Nice defection asshole.

This isn't about Saddam, it is about you and the rest of the war criminals in the bush administration.

Just because someone is a bad person doesn't give you the right to kill the entire town he lives in.

[Scuba]

3. Republican logic. Makes no sense to people with healthy brains.

[truebrit71]

4. No, the proper remedy is to prosecute the fuckers that got us in there in the first place...

...That is the same twisted logic that says that those supporting a woman's right to choose what she does with her body are actually "pro-infantacide"...

Fuck you John Yoo...

[ljm2002]

5. He is an idiot...

...and I say that knowing that somehow he got through law school and teaches at Boalt Hall, one of the premier law schools in the country.

Because they can't find a way to get rid of him, I can't find a way to contribute another red cent to my alma mater, UC Berkeley.

He was nothing more than a legal sycophant, ready to write internal White House legal justifications for whatever Bush / Cheney wanted to do. Now he is trying to redeem the actions of the Bush / Cheney administration with tortured legal logic.

Fail.

[JDPriestly]

6. He presents a false choice.

That was not our choice in 2003 and his proposal that we return the Bath Party and the Hussein family is a false choice today.

In fact, it was the job of the Bush administration to find better choices. That's what the State Department and the United Nations are for. Bush and Cheney and their military and national security team arrogantly sidestepped diplomatic alternatives and pushed into a war that was immoral and resulted in causing more unrest and damage than it prevented.

Presenting a false choice is a favorite with people who want to confuse those with little ability to think logically.

The Bush administration chose to take our country to war when we had not been attacked. That is precisely what Hitler did to Czechoslovakia and Poland. It's a war crime no matter who does it.

[surrealAmerican]

7. I wish he was telling this ...

... to his cell mate, instead of to a reporter.

[JHB]

8. Neither laugh nor cry, just flip him the bird

As for his claim, well, he was never counted as part of the "reality-based community", was he?

[angstlessk]

9. Restore?..You think the only thing that resulted in this war was the removal of Saddam?

In law, we often come upon a situation after an event -- a crime, an accident, etc. -- and we must decide what to do based on the knowledge we have now. Courts award damages based on the harm to the victim and the harm to society. Suppose you thought that the Iraq war was a mistake. If so, isn't the proper remedy to restore Saddam Hussein's family and the Baath Party to power in Iraq? If you are unwilling to consider that remedy, aren't you conceding that on balance, the benefits of the war outweigh the costs?

How to restore the 4000 plus American dead?..how to restore the 100,000 plus Iraqi dead?..How to restore the 2 trillion dollars lost?

RESTORE? REALLY?

[quaker bill]

10. He has no understanding of the costs

We probably could have bought Saddam and his kids off and out of the country for 6 billion with no or few lives lost. Instead we spent 6 trillion and killed 100s of thousands and got +/- the same result.

[bemildred]

11. That's pitiful, and a non sequitur. nt