Juan Cole's Take On Spanish Transcript: "Reveals Impeachable Offenses By Bush Re: Iraq War"

[Hissyspit]

http://www.juancole.com/2007/09/transcript-reveals-impeachable-offenses.html

Thursday, September 27, 2007
Transcript Reveals Impeachable Offenses by Bush Re: Iraq War

El Pais published a transcript (reprinted at this link) of the conversation between George W. Bush, Jose Maria Aznar of Spain, and Condoleeza Rice held at Crawford before the Iraq War. Bush is typically bullheaded, impatient, conspiratorial, bullying, arrogant, ill-informed and way over-optimistic. The transcript shows the true colors of the man -- a sort of thuggish, ignorant Mafia don -- who destroyed the United States and destroyed Iraq.

At one point Aznar prophetically says, "The thing that worries me is your optimism."

The transcript, it seems to me, provides a whole rack of smoking guns that could be a basis for impeaching George W. Bush. The transcript shows that Bush consciously intended to go to war without a United Nations Security Council resolution. The United Nations Charter, to which the United States is a treaty signatory (so that it has the force of American law), forbids any nation to launch an aggressive war on another country. The only two legal mechanisms for war are either that it came in response to a direct attack or that the attacker gained a UNSC authorization. The transcript shows Bush actively plotting to sidestep the UNSC if he could not, gangster-like, threaten its members into compliance.

The second grounds for impeachment is that Bush rejected out of hand a deal brokered by the Egyptians whereby Saddam Hussein would leave the country with a billion dollars and some documents about his WMD program. Reuters reports:

'The Egyptians are speaking to Saddam Hussein. It seems he's indicated he would be prepared to go into exile if he's allowed to take $1 billion and all the information he wants about weapons of mass destruction," Bush was quoted as saying at the meeting one month before the U.S.-led invasion.'

The transcript in Spanish then says (my translation):

'Aznar: Is it certain that any possibility exists that Saddam Hussein will go into exile?

Bush: The possibility exists, including that he will be assassinated.

Aznar: Exile with a guarantee?

Bush: No guarantee! He is a thug, a terrorist, a war criminal.

Bush goes on to say, "Saddam won't change and he'll keep on playing games. The time has come to get rid of him. That's the way it is. We'll be in Baghdad by the end of March."

In other words, Bush could have sent Saddam off to exile in Saudi Arabia and avoided the whole war, but refused to do so because of the family vendetta between the Bushes and the Tikritis. Nearly 4,000 US soldiers have died and thousands have been wounded because Bush would not take the deal Saddam offered him. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqis are dead, and millions displaced.

Going to war unnecessarily is an impeachable offense.

The whole immense catastrophe could have been avoided.

There is more evidence of thuggery in the transcript:

Excerpts courtesy Harper's:

'Bush to American Allies: support war or starve

(Condoleezza Rice has just described the diplomatic situation to Bush and Aznar, explaining that Iraq is continuing to insist that it has no weapons of mass destruction.)

Bush: This is like Chinese water torture. We have to put an end to it.

Aznar: I agree, but it would be best to have as much support as possible. Have a little patience.

Bush: My patience has ended. I’m not thinking of waiting beyond mid-March.

Aznar: I’m not asking that you have endless patience. Simply that everything is done to (have maximum international support).

Bush: Countries like Mexico, Chile, Angola, and Cameroon should know that what’s at stake is the security of the United States . . . (Chilean President Ricardo) Lagos should know that the Free Trade Accord with Chile is awaiting Senate confirmation and a negative attitude about this could put ratification in danger. Angola is receiving Millennium Account funds (to help alleviate poverty) and that could be jeopardized also if he’s not supportive…

Aznar: Tony (Blair) wants to wait until March 14.

Bush: I prefer the 10th. This is like a good cop, bad cop routine. I don’t care if I’m the bad cop and he’s the good cop.

Bush on Iraq: the future is bright

“We’re developing a very strong package of humanitarian aid. We can win (the war) without much destruction. We’re planning for a post-Saddam Iraq and believe there is a strong base to build a better future. Iraq has a good bureaucracy and relatively string civil society.”

Bush on French President Chirac: Mister Arab

“Chirac knows perfectly well the reality. His intelligence services have explained. The Arab countries are sending Chirac a clear message: Saddam Hussein must go. The problem is that Chirac thinks he’s Mister Arab and is making life impossible.” '

Reuters has more:

[acmavm]

1. Impeachable offenses? Well color me shocked!

:sarcasm:

Do you hear that Nancy?

Never mind. We all understand that you just don't give a damn.

[BrklynLib at work]

2. K & R

[harun]

3. WOW we are lucky we are not in worse shape than we are

with talk like that from a President.

He cost the U.S. taxpayers one trillion dollars (maybe more) and the lives of our troops just because he was stubborn about one guy.

Why do U.S. presidents think they are the Emperor of Earth?

[mod mom]

4. PLS join me and emailing KO and ask him to invite Prof Cole on his show"

[e-mail]

Keith has had Juan Cole on before, and we know he's pissed so perhaps he'll take note.

oops. I forwarded the Cole blog as well.

[babylonsister]

5. Oh that Juan Cole, he's such a kidder. What does he know?

Oh, that's right. Recommend!

http://www-personal.umich.edu/~jrcole/jcpers.htm

Juan R. I. Cole is Professor of Modern Middle East and South Asian History at the University of Michigan. He has written extensively about Egypt, Iran, Iraq, and South Asia. He has given numerous media and press interviews on the War on Terrorism since September 11, 2001, as well as concerning the Iraq War and the building conflict with Iran from 2003. He has a regular column at Salon.com. He continues to study and write about contemporary Islamic movements, whether mainstream or radical, whether Sunni and Salafi or Shi`ite. Cole commands Arabic, Persian and Urdu and reads some Turkish, knows both Middle Eastern and South Asian Islam, and lived in a number of places in the Muslim world for extended periods of time. For three decades, he has sought to put the relationship of the West and the Muslim world in historical context, and his most recent book is Napoleon's Egypt: Invading the Middle East (Palgrave Macmillan, 2007). He also writes on current events, and his articles on contemporary Sunni radicalism include "Muslim Religious Extremism in Egypt" in Middle East Historiographies (University of Washington Press, 2006) and "The Taliban, Women, and the Hegelian Private Sphere," Social Research (Fall 2003). He has authored several recent journal articles on Shi`ite movements in present-day Iraq, as well as an extended essay, "The Ayatollahs and Democracy in Iraq." (Amsterdam University Press, 2006). These works were foreshadowed by an earlier book, Sacred Space and Holy War: The Politics, Culture and History of Shi`ite Islam (IB Tauris 2002), as well as in his monographs, edited books and articles of the 1980s and 1990s..

[riverdeep]

6. Aaaarrrggghhhh!!

I'm sorry, but articulate responses have been failing me lately. It will all come out. It may take a while, but everything we have been saying will prove true. However, the stuff we already know about this administration shows impeachable offenses.

Impeachment is off the table, defunding is off the table. In short, anything that will allow us to grab the wheel away from the madman steering us into a mountainside is off the table.

[quiet.american]

7. Boy, that's rich: "Bush: No guarantee! He is a thug, a terrorist, a war criminal." n/t

[OneBlueSky]

8. I'd add this to my list of impeachable offenses, but I've run out of room on the page . . .

it there anything -- ANYTHING -- that Bush can do to cause Congress to initiate impeachment proceedings? . . . sex in the Rose Garden with Cheney? . . . ANYTHING??? . . .

because the list of valid impeachable offenses is already so long as to be almost comical -- and nobody is doing anything about it! . . .

are they really THAT corrupt? . . . or THAT stupid? . . . I'd really like to know . . .

[ellenfl]

9. k&r eom

[Tom Joad]

10. Bush could shoot Iraqi children on national tv, and Pelosi would still say Impeachment is off the

her &^%*&(#%! table.

Now, war with Iran... "all options are on the table" .... she is singing for war lobby.

[Tom Joad]

11. Juan may not understand that the priority of congres now is to make war with Iran, not impede Bush.

[me b zola]

12. k&r

[EFerrari]

13. This transcript also confirms what John Perkins said

about the "coalition of the willing" -- they were blackmailed into joining.

[npincus]

14. Sorry, Pelosi says it's "not on the table"

[npincus]

15. and WHERE is this story in the MSM?

[Hissyspit]

16. Page 17 in the New York Times, apparently.

At least they bothered to cover it. :grr: